tfg is now on schedule to become the most arraigned politician in American History1. Some time later today he’ll be booked on criminal charges for the second time (out of 5 cases we are currently aware of). He’s also likely to challenge the all-time record for total indictment counts against a politician2. It couldn’t happen to a sleazier bag of wind.
This is another day to celebrate the rule of law and its application to all of our citizens. No one is above the law in America. We should be out in the streets singing about our happiness.
- He’s indicted and I feel so good.
- Arraign drops keep falling on his head.
- Busted away again, in Maralagoville.
- Arraigny days and Tuesdays
- He shall not be released.
- Singin’ at the arraignment.
That doesn’t mean everything is all puppies and unicorns. How bruised we must be, to have so many of us unable to accept that the system is working. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so much hair on fire all at once. The conflagration over Aileen Cannon has lowered visibility all over the US. Wig makers are salivating at their prospects for windfall profits. And this is all because we are too impatient to wait 3 days to find out if this is anything to actually worry about.
Defeatism, and premature surrender are enemies of progress. Pessimism is unhealthy. Doomscrolling and gloomcasting are counterproductive. They serve no useful purpose. So why do so doggone many people amplify every worst case scenario at the top of their lungs.
Merrick Garland and Jack Smith are doing their jobs. I think they are doing more to defend democracy than just about anyone this century. Yet, they are castigated for not being fast enough, not being all-knowing enough, not being transparent enough, and pretty much any other “not” you can imagine.
The three R’s of the rightwing (republicans, Russians, and robber-barons) want us to give up. They want us demoralized and desperate. Corporate media want us glued to their offerings. They are trying to make a profit — truth be damned. That leaves it to us to fight back against any rush to negativity.
When you encounter someone lost in fantasies of doom and gloom, try to talk them down off the ledge. You don’t need to challenge their assertions directly. Sometimes just pointing out that they are doing exactly what the republicans want them to do is enough to snap them out of it. Asking them to tone it down a bit, as they are harshing your buzz can work too. If you have the energy you can gently go through all the logical fallacies their opinion is usually based upon.
1 As far as I can tell, Louisiana's Edwin Washington Edwards, with two indictments, is at the top of the indicted politician heap. He was found not guilty the first time and convicted on the second one. There are probably several other politicians with at least two indictments, but the internet, surprisingly, doesn’t have a page dedicated to political indictment frequency (or google couldn’t find it for me).
2 William Magear “Boss” Tweed was indicted in 1873 on 220 counts associated with 55 different charges, all related to the embezzlement of public funds. He was found guilty on 204 of the 220 counts. After an attempt to flee the country, he ended up dying in jail.
An alliterary distraction: McCarthy and McConnell’s mob of malefactors, miscreants, and malodorous, mendacious, money-grubbing, malevolent misanthropic minions make meeting in the middle into a misconceived misadventure.
We have the power. We have the ability. We can and we will do this.
Slava Ukraini!
Remember the Children
Screw you, Samuel Alito
Author’s Note: What follows is mostly a redux of the Good News Roundup from 2 weeks ago. That offering was removed by DK content moderation because they felt my introduction violated the Rules of the Road. It was only available for an hour or so and I hate the idea of wasting all that work. I’ve added some more current news items and memes, but left the rest of my May 30th Roundup alone.
The writer’s strike, no, strike that, the intransigent greed of the studio owners, is playing merry hell with my Colbert/Meyers/Oliver addiction. This week, in their place, I’m offering up this little ditty from Garfunkel & Oates — Dating a Republican, a song about how to bipartisanize comedy.
Some news for you to peruse on Arraignment Day, Episode Deux.
My Favorite Part of the Unsealed Indictment
His petard is doing some serious hoisting these days.
Full text of the indictment
22. As a candidate for President of the United States, TRUMP made the following public statements, among others, about classified information:
a. On August 18, 2016, TRUMP stated, “In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”
b. On September 6, 2016, TRUMP stated, “We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. . . . We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified.”
c. On September 7, 2016, TRUMP stated, “[O]ne of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.”
d. On September 19, 2016, TRUMP stated, “We also need the best protection of classified information.”
e. On November 3, 2016, TRUMP stated, “Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country.”
A Ukrainian Tidbit to Brighten Your Day
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has more to it than the state of the counteroffensive.
The New Voice of Ukraine: Hacker drains Russian special services wallets, transfers funds to Ukraine
A hacker gained access to hundreds of cryptocurrency wallets belonging to the Russian special services, and may have transferred stolen bitcoins to Ukrainian aid organizations, cryptocurrency experts now believe.
The mysterious user seems to have been able to put blockchain and Bitcoin technologies to work against the Russian terrorist state.
The hacker gained access to hundreds of crypto wallets that likely belong to Russian security agencies, cryptocurrency industry news site CoinDesk clarified, citing Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency monitoring company that works closely with the U.S. government.
In Other News
Professional pathetic liar, Tuckems, and his former lying station are busy poking each other with legal sticks. Now that’s entertainment.
Axios: Mike Allen: Scoop: Fox sends Tucker Carlson cease-and-desist letter
Fox News has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tucker Carlson as he ramps up a competing series on Twitter that drew a combined 169 million views for its first two episodes, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The contract battle between Fox and its former top host — who was taken off the air in April, after the network's historic Dominion settlement — has mighty repercussions for the conservative media ecosystem.
- With "Tucker on Twitter," Carlson and his growing production team are working to elevate Elon Musk's social media site as a news platform.
Details: The cease-and-desist letter has "NOT FOR PUBLICATION" in bold at the top.
When You’ve Lost Your Own Lawyers
The consensus among tfg’s former lawyers is that he’s screwed. Barr, Cobb, and now Parlatore have come out and vigorously avoided defending His Orangeness. You’d think republicans would be listening and be looking for an early off ramp.
Raw Story: Matthew Chapman: 'Do they really have that?' Former Trump documents case attorney astonished at Mar-a-Lago evidence
Special counsel Jack Smith has an enormous amount of damning evidence in the indictment against former President Donald Trump and his top aide at Mar-a-Lago, Walt Nauta, with respect to moving around boxes of highly classified information to conceal them from not just federal authorities but from Trump's own then-attorney Evan Corcoran.
At least, that's the assessment of Tim Parlatore, another former attorney for the president, who appeared on CNN's "OutFront" alongside former White House counsel Ty Cobb, to discuss the details of the indictment with anchor Erin Burnett. Parlatore previously had defended the former president as Smith's investigation entered its final stages and charges appeared likely, but in recent days acknowledged the indictment detailed far more severe behavior than he knew was going on.
"Can I first just ask you, because you're as close to this as anyone other than Evan Corcoran," said Burnett. "When you read this part that says that Walt Nauta was moving documents and moving boxes so that Evan Corcoran, the lawyer, attorney number one, would not know it and would therefore say you have everything. Did your jaw sort of drop for a second?"
Maybe Some of Them Are Listening, But They Sure Aren’t Talking About It
How many currently sitting federal republican politicians are willing to stand up publicly against the former guy? By my count, it’s Romney and, let’s doublecheck, yup, no one. I guess they’re all auditioning for a remake of The Wizard of Oz, but with an army of cowardly lions.
Huffington Post: Ed Mazza: Former GOP Lawmaker Reveals What Republicans Are Saying Behind Trump's Back
Many prominent Republicans are publicly supporting Donald Trump or at least remaining silent as he is indicted on 37 federal charges ― but some of them are taking a very different position behind the scenes.
“They want Donald Trump to go away,” former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Penn.) told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Monday when asked what his former colleagues are telling him when the cameras are off.
“They know these indictments are going to be devastating for the Republican Party in a general election should Donald Trump become the nominee,” he said, “This is all bad news.”
He said there’s an exception: the “really hardcore MAGA wing folks” who “believe their own BS.”
Lincoln Project Calls Out the Enablers
The tfg apologists have a lot to answer for. The Lincoln Project points this out.
Looks Like They Found Some Rot Inside the FBI
Is anyone surprised it’s a far right nutjob?
Truthout: Sharon Zhang: Democrats Say GOP Witness Lied to Congress About Connection to Far Right Group
A key Republican witness in a recent House subcommittee hearing may have lied to Congress about his ties to far right propaganda group Project Veritas in a recent testimony dubiously accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of being biased against the right, potentially constituting a breach of federal law, Democrats are saying.
Republicans had presented suspended FBI agent Garret O’Boyle as a whistleblower in their House Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee hearing last month, inviting O’Boyle to testify alongside three other FBI agents who have also been suspended — the latter group having been suspended by the agency for their alleged participation in or remarks about the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
O’Boyle had told the committee that he hasn’t been in touch with any form of media and that he never provided anyone outside of the agency with sensitive information before his suspension.
However, Democrats have obtained testimony from the FBI’s executive assistant director for human resources that directly contradicts those claims, with documents to back up the testimony. The Democrats say that the testimony shows that O’Boyle was indeed leaking sensitive FBI information — and that, as previously unreported, he was leaking it to Project Veritas, an organization dedicated to disguising right-wing propaganda as journalism and which has ties to far right militia groups.
A Little Bit of Stupid Goes a Long Way
This isn’t Boebert sounding out the words. This is their leader.
Wonkette: Robyn Pennacchia: I Don't Think Kevin McCarthy Knows How Bathroom Doors Work
Whatever your bathroom situation is at home, be glad you don't have to share one with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is apparently just as unclear about how bathroom doors work as he is about ... well, everything.
Asked by CNN's Dana Bash if it was a "good look for the former president to have boxes in a bathroom," McCarthy defended Trump with a real gotcha.
"I don't know. Is it a good picture to have boxes in a garage that opens up all the time? A bathroom door locks."✂️
Now, bathroom doors do, in fact, lock ... but not from the outside. Someone has to be inside the bathroom in order for it to lock, and then when they leave, it's not locked anymore. This is how every bathroom door I have ever encountered in my life works, with the notable exception of the Papa Gino's bathroom that my sister somehow got stuck inside of one time. As hilarious as that was (well, for me, not so much for her), they had to call the fire department! Because that is just not how bathroom doors are supposed to work.
This Week in the Ongoing Saga of DeFascist v. Mouse, et al
As we all know, the House of Mouse’s legal team told Ron DeFascist to go pound sand. This made Ronduh very sad and angry. So he decided to break several laws in an effort to single out the House of Mouse for some extra-legal government sponsored revenge.
The Guardian: Richard Luscombe: Will Ron DeSantis’s culture war with Disney threaten his White House run?
✂️ From the moment Disney’s bosses dared to speak out in March 2022 against DeSantis’s notorious parental rights in education bill, the so-called “don’t say gay” law that outlaws discussion in Florida’s classrooms of sexual orientation and gender identity, the governor climbed aboard a rollercoaster he doesn’t seem to want to get off.✂️
As well as outsmarting DeSantis by moving to strip the new board of many of its responsibilities before its first meeting, Disney has filed a lawsuit of its own, accusing DeSantis of “a targeted campaign of government retaliation”.
It’s an argument gaining traction even among DeSantis’s Republican colleagues, several of whom have questioned his motives for attacking a private company that attracts tens of millions of visitors to Florida and generates more than $75bn in tourism revenue each year.
“I don’t think Ron DeSantis is a conservative, based on his actions towards Disney,” said Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, last month.
AP: Mike Schnieder: Disney opposes DeSantis request to disqualify judge in free speech lawsuit
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Disney is opposing a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis to disqualify a judge overseeing the company’s First Amendment lawsuit against the Florida governor and others in which Disney says it was punished for speaking out against Florida legislation that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
Disney said in court papers filed Thursday that the request by attorneys for DeSantis, who declared his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination earlier this week, didn’t come close to meeting the standards set out in Florida law for requiring a judge to be disqualified.✂️
“Judges are not prohibited from referring accurately to widely-reported news events during oral arguments, nor must they disqualify themselves if cases related to those events happen to come before them months later,” Disney said in its filing.
He’s not just mean to Disney. There’s an annotated running list of the ways Ronduh has offended his fellow republicans. None of this comes close to rising to the level of the evil crap he’s pushed legislatively. It just underscores what a gormless, selfish, callous creep he is.
New York Magazine: Intelligencer: Margaret Hartmann: All of Ron DeSantis’s Crimes Against Good Etiquette
Donald Trump is a man so notoriously self-centered that during his presidency we had a public debate about whether it was ethical to diagnose him with narcissistic personality disorder from afar. Yet somehow, he’s handily winning the 2024 charm contest over Ron DeSantis. As the Florida governor gears up for a likely presidential run, people have been coming out of the woodwork to make a shocking allegation: The guy who made a name for himself by bullying mask-wearing children, teachers, LGBTQ+ people, and Mickey Mouse isn’t a very nice person. “I think he’s an asshole,” said former congressman David Trott. “I don’t think he cares about people.”
Obviously, plenty of assholes who don’t actually care about people have made their way to the White House. But DeSantis’s lack of social grace seems to be irking some figures he needs on his side to defeat Trump in a GOP primary. Here’s a running list of the alleged personal slights and etiquette violations that may be hampering DeSantis’s political ambitions.
- He ate pudding with his hands
- He’s a disgusting eater in general.
- He didn’t say “hi” to a colleague.
- He ignored the same colleague for two whole years.
- He didn’t learn the names of his staffers.
- He can’t take a joke.
- He ignored a staffer during a long car ride.
- He snubbed a fellow Florida Republican.
- He failed to send “get-well” wishes.
- He failed to sign a sympathy letter.
- He had a recent cancer survivor fired.
- He punished staffers for his mistake.
- He sent a pollster to ask for an endorsement.
- He doesn’t call donors back.
- He generally doesn’t like speaking to other people.
- He skimped on the schmoozing during his book tour.
- He looked bored during a meeting with business leaders.
- He never says “thank you.”
- He was really late one time.
- He’s neglecting Senator Marco Rubio.
- He has a weird laugh.
Spotlight on Stupid
The republican party continues to suffer from an epidemic outbreak of toxic stupidity. The current epicenter appears to be the immediate vicinity of Lauren “Sideshow” Boebert. When Louie Gohmert passed the torch of transcendental dumbassitude to Lauren, he picked someone dumb enough to keep her missing happy meal fries in her hammer sack. Wonkette shared some cases on point.
Wonkette: Gary Legum: Biden Vowed To Fight Anti-Semitism And Lauren Boebert Is Taking It Real Personal
How is the radical Marxist Biden administration oppressing conservatives this weektodaythis hour this minute?
According to the pudding-brained grandma-to-be and newly-single-and-ready-to-mingle Lauren Boebert, it is by that ancient, well-worn tactic of [checks notes] fighting antisemitism?✂️
Perhaps Lauren Boebert could tell us why Joe Biden said he wants to fight antisemites and the first thought that popped into whatever pile of cocaine and wet cardboard passes for her brain was to cry that he's targeting Republicans. Something to think about the next time anyone on the right squeals "ILHAN OMAR" like a pig finding a truffle.
Wonkette: Evan Hurst: And That's The Story Of How I Became The Mother Of Kaydon Boebert
I left a prescription at a pharmacy once. Um, I went to get, um, birth control. And, um, I was there at the counter, went to pay for it, and um, the price was very, very high. I said wow, is this a three-, six-month prescription? No ma’am, this is one month. And I said it’s cheaper to have a kid. And I left it there, and now I have my third son, Kaydon Boebert, um and so I'm actually, it actually turned out to be a really great thing! — Lauren Boebert (via Twitter)
✂️ For the year that child was born, and for a family with an income level over about $100K per year, the average cost of raising a child from birth to 18 is about $369,000. According to the internet, at least as of 2020, Boebert's kids went to private school. So that's more.
We are just saying that if the pharmacist quoted Boebert over $369,000 for her birth control scrip, she could have checked with a different pharmacy before saying "OH FIDDLESTICKS!" and giving up on her quest.✂️
So does Jezebel editor Laura Bassett, who tweeted to remind us that Boebert is "a 36-year-old grandmother who’s currently divorcing her sex pest husband, voted against the right to contraception without government interference and is trying to defund Planned Parenthood, which gives low- and no-cost birth control to the uninsured."
What About the Other Stupid Contender
The chief of the Gazpacho Police can’t count, doesn’t know history, and may have had her brain (or the place where a brain would be if she had one) fried while inspecting one of those Jewish Space Lasers. The internet was not kind to her.
Huffington Post: Ed Mazza: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Memorial Day Message Has A Massive Mistake
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tried to send out a Memorial Day message on Twitter ― but it was undermined by a very visible mistake.
Greene’s message contained a version of the U.S. flag with just 18 stars.✂️
No official U.S. flag had 18 stars.
It had 15 stars and 15 stripes at the end of the 18th and start of the 19th centuries. The addition of five states between 1797 and 1817 led to a flag with 20 stars and 13 stripes in 1818, which was quickly replaced by a succession of new flags as more states were admitted.
An Update on tfg’s Legal Team’s Situation
As his influence wanes and Orange Putzzilla of our nightmares shrinks down to a gecko sized annoyance, we can still come together to celebrate his tribulations. It looks like things are not going well with the legal team trying to protect the uncontested worst president in our history from further embarrassment and ignominy.
MSNBC: Katie S. Phang: Trump’s legal team is an epic disaster
✂️ Parlatore isn’t the only attorney on Trump’s Keystone Cops legal team to throw up the white flag. Evan Corcoran, who was Trump’s lead attorney regarding the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation, resigned from that role after being subpoenaed by the Justice Department to testify before a federal grand jury. Granted, Corcoran remains on the global legal team as counsel for Trump, but it isn’t a commonplace occurrence for an attorney to end up being compelled by way of court order to testify before a grand jury regarding conduct committed by a client. Lest Corcoran feel lonely, though, Parlatore has also provided testimony before Jack Smith’s federal grand jury for his role in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. However, Parlatore chose to appear voluntarily before the grand jury without the need for a subpoena to give testimony about how additional document searches were conducted at other Trump properties.✂️
Let’s also not forget other former Trump lawyers like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and John Eastman, all of whom are facing ethics complaints affecting their ability to practice law in various jurisdictions, as well as several investigations for their roles as Trump’s counsel. In some instances and depending upon the findings by various referees and judges in these different jurisdictions that are investigating former Trump lawyers, these attorneys could lose their licenses to practice law.✂️
If he’s being given legal advice not to talk, he is clearly not listening or he doesn’t respect the counsel being dispensed. Historically, Trump has done and said whatever he wants, presumably regardless of the legal advice being provided by his dozens of attorneys. And oftentimes that has occurred to his legal peril. When facing multiple cases and multiple investigations, some of which could result in years of incarceration in prison, a client like Trump should not be speaking publicly about the facts of a case or the circumstances underlying the basis of an investigation. But Trump? He’ll go on national TV and do it anyway.
It's interesting that throughout all of the dirty laundry airing of the inner turmoil regarding his legal team, Trump has remained unusually quiet. Trump himself has not come forward to voice his support for any one attorney. So the public continues, with a combination of fascination and disgust, to watch the train wreck that is Trump Legal World unfold like a political iteration of The Hunger Games. Which attorney will be left standing at the end?
An Antidote to the Canonization of Kissinger.
Buried way down near the end of latest installment of Pierce’s Esquire hosted political blog, Charles had some choice words for one of the worst people ever to reach their hundredth birthday. I regularly read Pierce because he is one of the pundits I find to be generally informative. Kissinger should not be celebrated because of his longevity — he should be reviled because of his perfidy. [Trigger Warning: the Kissinger site linked in the excerpt may be too much for some readers. He was responsible for some really nasty shit and the National Security Archive folks didn’t sugar coat it at all]
Esquire: Charles P. Pierce: Texas House Says Attorney General Ken Paxton Should Be Impeached and Removed
This weekend, Memorial Day weekend, we celebrate the centennial of the birth of Henry Kissinger, the least excusable human-like object of the 20th century, and a man who's helped fill more graves around the world than typhoid. Be prepared for nauseating paeans to this international war criminal, blood on his hands from many lands, right up to his elbows. There will be no celebrations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, or Timor-Leste, to name only four places that felt the gentle touch of Kissinger's realpolitik. If you find yourself tempted to Elvis your TV because of the coverage, the good people at the National Security Archive have produced some documentary Ipecac to help you purge your brain. I particularly recommend the section on Kissinger's responsibility for the bloody years of the Pinochet government. Fckabuncha this guy. He should die alone in a Chilean prison and his corpse should be left to rot in a cell in East Timor.
Andy vs Ronduh
Never let it be said I don’t encourage piling on when appropriate. Ronduh is just that kind of pile.
The New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Twitter Investigation Reveals Keyboard Was Clogged with Chocolate Pudding
SAN FRANCISCO (The Borowitz Report)—The attempt to live-stream Ron DeSantis’s announcement of his White House bid on Twitter encountered difficulties because a computer keyboard involved in the transmission became clogged with chocolate pudding, a preliminary company investigation has determined.
Tracy Klugian, who heads up the digital-forensics team for the social-media platform, said that the broadcast had been glitchy not because of excessive traffic, as originally claimed, but because of “technical problems that appear to be chocolate-pudding related.”
“We’re not sure how, but chocolate pudding seems to have seeped into one of the keyboards,” he said. “It’s really gross.”
The New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: DeSantis Hopes to Seem Like Normal Person by Appearing Next to Elon Musk
TALLAHASSEE (The Borowitz Report)—Ron DeSantis is hoping to seem like a normal person by appearing next to Elon Musk, the Governor’s campaign has confirmed.
“Throughout the past few months, with his attacks on Disney, migrants, and books, Ron has, unfortunately, given the impression that he is bizarre,” one aide said. “And the white boots didn’t help, either.”
The aide said that, once voters compare DeSantis to the Twitter chief, “there’s at least a chance that Ron will seem somewhat normal.”
The New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Floridians Demand to Know Where Disney Is Going so They Can Come With
FLORIDA (The Borowitz Report)—Shortly after the corporate giant cancelled plans for a new campus in Lake Nona, Florida, residents of the state demanded to know where Disney was going so that they could come with.
Across the state, Floridians indicated a desperate desire to join Disney in its departure, suggesting that an unprecedented exodus may soon be under way.
“When I think of Florida, I think of gun violence, draconian abortion laws, and book banning,” Carol Foyler, who lives in Boca Raton, said. “When I think of Disney, I think of teacups, princesses, and singing animals. I want to be where Disney is.”
A Bit of Weird News
This is more quirky than good, but it did catch my attention.
GoodNewsNetwork: Andy Corbley: These Green Books Are Poisonous—and May Be on a Shelf Near You
There are poisonous books—the Communist Manifesto, or Mein Kampf for example—and then there are books that are literally poisonous.
Covered in vibrant green bookcloth, hundreds of 19th-century volumes are actually laced with a toxic pigment, and one researcher who’s used to creating databases of volumes for research, has instead created one as a public health service; aptly named the Poison Book Project.
Emerald green, also known as Paris green, Vienna green, and Schweinfurt green, is the product of combining copper acetate with arsenic trioxide—yes, that arsenic.
Another Covid Treatment Breakthrough
My eyes quickly glazed when I tried to read the actual paper. I did make through the editor’s summary.
Science: A really long list of co-authors: A multi-specific, multi-affinity antibody platform neutralizes sarbecoviruses and confers protection against SARS-CoV-2 in vivo
Editor’s Summary: Monoclonal antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 have become an essential component in the treatment toolbox. However, as new variants have emerged, these antibodies can lose their potency, sometimes drastically. To avoid this, Burn Aschner et al. generated SARS-CoV-2–specific multimerized antibodies, called Multabodies, that leverage improved avidity and multiple specificities to better target SARS-CoV-2. The Multabodies potently neutralized SARS-CoV-2 variants and other sarbecoviruses in vitro and conferred protection against SARS-CoV-2 in vivo when administered at low concentration. Together, these data highlight the potential clinical benefit of the Multabody platform as a therapeutic for SARS-CoV-2. –Courtney Malo
Musical Interlude
We can make this world a better place.
Music from Ukraine
Maryna Valeriiivna Krut, known professionally as KRUTЬ is from Khmelnytsky oblast, Ukraine. She is a singer, poet, composer and bandura player. She is part of Musicians Defend Ukraine, a group of musicians who stage concerts to support the Ukrainian war effort. This is her song, Воля (Freedom)
Mother, don't cry.
You gave birth to me for the freedom.
And at the cost of our own blood
Sunflowers will sprout on the fields.
Mother, I'm starting the journey
Because we've got nothing left to lose.
We never knew how to stay silent
Because there are no other people's children [1]
Instead of air raid siren sounds in the cities
Sing me beautiful songs.
We will wake up one day
From springtime and good news.
My mother,
I'm just a small human being,
But I have a family of millions of people
That will win one springtime day.
Video from Ukraine
Patron and Tom are back with a new video — Patron’s Rule. (English closed-captions available)
On the Lighter Side (with an Edge)
It turns out that the real reason Ronduh is against all things pronoun is because he doesn’t want his actual appropriate pronouns publicized — They are painful/rash.
Being a bobblehead is awkward
Palate Cleansers
How to Heckle by Red Bike Guy
Quote(s) of the Day
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. — Isaac Asimov
It has become almost a cliché to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics. — Richard Dawkins
Authoritarianism and secrecy breed incompetence; the two feed on each other. It's a vicious cycle. Governments with authoritarian tendencies point to what is in fact their own incompetence as the rationale for giving them yet more power. — Josh Marshall
Useful men, who do useful things, don't mind being treated as useless. But the useless always judge themselves as being important and hide all their incompetence behind authority. — Paulo Coelho
Incompetence is a double-edged banana. — John Perry Barlow
Man cannot live by incompetence alone. — Charlotte Whitton (former mayor of Ottawa)
The Hunting Pressley Report
Musings from the desk of Pressley T. NotEver
Pressley surrounded by her diverse security detail
Dateline: (Hanging out with the neighborhood dogs at Chez NNNE, while watching NNNE chat about politics with the human neighbors. In today’s edition, Pressley speaks out on press(ley)ing issues faced by Doggie Nation and brings you Part II of her interview with her dear friend CurlyGirl. Take it away Pressley!
Let’s get right into Part II of my interview with CurlyGirl. In case you missed it, Part I is available here (you’ll have to scroll down past the memes). This is where we left off last time.
Pressley: Before you go, any final thoughts?
CurlyGirl: Yes. Can I have a turn to be the reporter dog and you take a turn being the dog I am interviewing? I have two questions I have been wondering for quite a long time about you
Pressley: Bark away, my friend!
Contemplating the state of the world.
CurlyGirl: Yay! Ok, here goes with the first question. I have read that your full name is Pressley T NotEver. I do not have a middle letter by itself. If I did have one, I would like it to be T, maybe … or maybe the letter X! That would be pretty neat, too! Here’s my question, though: is your middle T the beginning of a name like Tulip or something? Or is it a complete middle name - just “T” like Mr T?
Pressley: It stands for Tiberius. I don't actually know where it comes from either. Every time I ask, NNNE laughs at me and tells me I'm a Trekkie. I mean, I like long walks and all but I don't see the connection to "Tiberius."
CurlyGirl: What a neat name! It sounds a little bit like Tigress! I think Tiberius/Tigress suits you, Pressley, because you are small but feisty! (I hope you don’t mind me saying you are small. I like small dog friends and you are certainly not as small as some of my friends, but I am quite tall, so most of my friends are smaller than me and I just notice it, that’s all). How did you come by your middle name? Also, how come you write it as just the letter T? I have a really long name with many words, but I am not sure it would make sense as first letters. Hmmm.
ALVDCGC. That’s my name in just capital letters. I don’t even know if any human could even say it! I cannot! Your name is better - I can say PressleyT. I bet NNNE can also say PressleyT. It probably sounds like PRESSLEET. Mama says definitely she cannot say ALVDCGC, which is why she shortens my name to CG. My name isn’t really CurlyGirl officially, but that’s what Mama calls me most of the time and CG for short, which is also two letters of my long real name. It’s called a call name, but not my real name. 🧐 Do you know something, Pressley? Names are pretty confusing! So, now I wonder, what is a name? Gosh, names are weird! I like your name, Pressley. 🐯
Oops! I nearly forgot to ask my second question! Here’s my second question: What do you mean when you say "Good Night, Chet" at the end of your reports? Who is Chet? Is Chet a dog friend? Or maybe a different animal friend? Why do you say Good Night to them in the GNR? Sometimes it is morning time when NNNE publishes the GNR, not night time but it’s OK if you want to say Good Night, I just would like to know how you came to do that. Is there a story behind Chet? <- haha I know this looks like a lot of questions instead of just one, but did you know that a reporter can ask a question with many parts? This is that kind of question - a many parts question! I am a REPORTER DOG! (Yay!) 😄
Pressley: NNNE told me it was an homage to the sign off line from an ancient News Program. He hopes the Hunting Pressley Report will some day be mentioned with David and Chet’s program. He's also extremely bummed none of our readers appears to have noticed.
CurlyGirl: Pressley, I have a different kind of question for you. It’s a music question! OK?
Pressley: Of course!
CurlyGirl: Well, I have noticed that your human, NNNE, doesn’t ever post any classical music. That’s OK! I know that humans like different kinds of music and Mama told me that NNNE likes a group called the Grapesfull…no wait it is GREATfull …Deed? ……
……….
I’m not entirely sure what the band is called but I know it is a super cool group and lots of Gnusies in Gnuville like that band! Anyway, that’s really cool but at our house we play a lot of classical music and I was wondering does NNNE play classical music sometimes? Do you like any classical pieces as much as the Dead Grapes group?
Pressley: Yes, while he is a long time fan of the Grateful Dead, NNNE also listens to classical music. Our favorite is Barksatmaninoff’s The Balls. All those different balls are just so cool. We also like Husky-Barksalot’s Flight of the Tasty Treat. Then there’s Comehere Sit-Stays’ Carnival of the Animals and Clawed Debussy's Sweet Barkmask. People expect I would be a fan of Poochini’s operas, but to tell the truth, all those Hi-C’s just make me howl.
CurlyGirl: Thanks for letting me try out being a reporter dog, Pressley. I had fun! How did you come to be a real reporter dog?
Pressley: Well, after NNNE rescued me from my own personal hellscape, I understandably stayed pretty close to his side and payed close attention to what he was doing. Watching him make a chewtoy out of that orange fool, got me interested in helping to amplify Doggie Nation's media presence. I told him bears weren't the only members of Canifromia with a penchant for journalism and that I wanted to become a pup reporter. He wasn't sure I was ready yet, so naturally, that led to me enrolling in the Columclaw School of Canine Journalism. I opted to take correspawdence courses instead of asking NNNE to move us to New Paw City. It was quite an extensive education. I learned about:
- Digging up the facts - research techniques
- Sniffing out the truth - interview techniques
- Chasing your tale - the importance of perseverance
- Barking back - how to maintain journalistic integrity. The key here is no matter how much it itches, biting yourself in the ass with lies is a bad idea.
- and some technical courses about the dog-machine interface, mainly how to effectively use Woof Processing software.
After that NNNE gave me a job as a pup reporter with the GNR family and the rest is history. My goal is to someday win a Pawlitzer Prize.
By the way, I’ve been doing some research on woof processors recently. Have you upgraded to Micropaw's Woof 365 yet? I'm thinking of moving to Adoggie's InPuppy because NNNE tells me they are a slightly more socially responsible pawware company.
I think that’s all the time we have for today. I’d like to thank our guest, CurlyGirl, for taking time out of her busy schedule watching nifty do stuff, to sit and chew the fat off the bone here at the Hunting Pressley Report.
Goodnight, Chet.
Closing Notes
From the Winterland Ballroom, New Year’s Eve 1978, this is a definitive version of Ramble on Rose. The Dead played this song consistently throughout the years, but never recorded a studio version.
Just like crazy Otto, just like Wolfman Jack,
Sittin' plush with a royal flush, aces back to back.
Just like Mary Shelly, just like Frankenstein,
Clank your chains and count your change and try to walk the line.
Did you say your name was Ramblin' Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose.
