Althouse

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• Who thinks it's a good idea to taunt Putin over his short stature? I'm starting a list of these height supremacists.
• "Peat’s power is how efficiently it stores carbon. Bogs, muddy swamps and other peatlands make up just 3 percent of Earth’s surface..."
• "The family brand was built in Texas, where Yankee patrician George H.W. Bush moved from the East Coast to West Texas as a young man, made his money in the oil patch and..."
• "While you’re still in bed and lying on your back, start by doing a full-body stretch, like a cat or dog does when they first wake up, by extending your legs and arms wide and in opposite directions."
• "President Putin has ordered Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces to be on high alert as he condemned NATO’s 'aggressive statements' regarding his invasion of Ukraine...."
• "Former Attorney General William Barr writes in a new book that former President Donald Trump has 'shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed'..."
• "What has surprised me most about the history I have lived through is how often we get dragged on demented, destructive rides by leaders who put their personal psychodramas over the public’s well-being...."
• "Prog — it was not invented when we started. We always try to be progressive in what we do. So we made our first album, and then we tried to move on, to progress."
• "We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all. As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged and if I was the president."
• "Putin’s aggression in Ukraine has already quieted conversations in America about voting rights, filibuster reform, and Build Back Better – at least for now."
• Here's a place...
• "Under new chief Chris Licht, CNN will dial down the prime-time partisanship and double down on the network's news-gathering muscle..."
• "The minute they hand you that vaccine passport, every right that you have is transformed into a privilege contingent upon your obedience to arbitrary government dictates. It will make you a slave."
• 100 years ago today, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the 19th Amendment.

Who thinks it's a good idea to taunt Putin over his short stature? I'm starting a list of these height supremacists. Posted: 27 Feb 2022 08:27 AM PST 1. Mitt Romney: "We're seeing a small, feral-eyed man who was trying to shape the world in the image where, once again, Russia would be an empire, and that's not going to happen." 2. Maureen Dowd: "As for Putin's Napoleonic megalomania, perhaps the Russia expert Nina Khrushcheva summed him up best in a Vanity Fair podcast: 'He's a small man of five-six saying he's five-seven.'" 3. [TO BE CONTINUED]

"Peat’s power is how efficiently it stores carbon. Bogs, muddy swamps and other peatlands make up just 3 percent of Earth’s surface..." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 08:06 AM PST "... but store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests. Lokolama's swamps, it turned out, are part of the biggest network of tropical peatlands in the world, covering over 55,000 square miles of Central Africa and storing more than 30 billion tons of carbon. This vast peatland is relatively undisturbed, for now. But should that carbon vault be opened, it could have catastrophic consequences for the planet. In those peatlands are stored the carbon equivalent of 20 years of U.S. fossil fuel emissions. Roads could be built giving loggers better access to the forest. Politicians could decide to convert peatland into farms. In these scenarios, the peat would dry out and release carbon into the atmosphere and, the researchers warned, become not only endangered but dangerous.... Outsiders have long exploited Congo's wealth of natural resources — rubber, diamonds, gold and, most recently, cobalt. While these new outsiders said peat had value only if it remained in the ground, to the people in this region, known as the Cuvette Centrale, the sudden interest suggested someone would be making money...." From "What Do the Protectors of Congo's Peatlands Get in Return?" (NYT).

"The family brand was built in Texas, where Yankee patrician George H.W. Bush moved from the East Coast to West Texas as a young man, made his money in the oil patch and..." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 07:58 AM PST "... then was elected to Congress from Houston in the late 1960s. But for the past decade or so, the Bush brand has been in decline. A defeat for George P. Bush in the attorney general's race would put an exclamation point on that erosion." From "George P. Bush charts a Trumpian path as he tries to extend the family dynasty in Texas/The family brand has taken a hit in conservative Texas. As he seeks the nomination for attorney general, Bush says he runs 'as my own man'" (WaPo).

"While you’re still in bed and lying on your back, start by doing a full-body stretch, like a cat or dog does when they first wake up, by extending your legs and arms wide and in opposite directions." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 07:53 AM PST "Then, try pointing and flexing your toes, or stretching just your arms and torso, mimicking the cliché 'just woke up' stretch. To bring fluid back into your joints, try gently bending and unbending your knees and elbows, rolling your wrists and ankles or gently nodding your head from side to side." From "Why Does My Body Feel Tight When I Wake Up?/And what can I do to feel better?" (NYT). I'm amused by the idea that the right way to stretch in bed is to do an imitation of the cliché in-bed stretch. Maybe getting to sleep at might could be improved by doing that rubbing-your-eyes-with-your-fists things.

"President Putin has ordered Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces to be on high alert as he condemned NATO’s 'aggressive statements' regarding his invasion of Ukraine...." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 07:37 AM PST "The significant escalation of tensions came as Germany, Britain and other NATO countries said they were sending military aid to Ukraine and imposed hard-hitting financial sanctions against Russia, including the president himself. 'Western countries are taking not only unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, I mean here illegitimate sanctions that everyone knows about. But the top officials of leading NATO countries are also allowing aggressive statements against our country,' he said, in a statement reported by the Russian news agency, Tass. 'Therefore, I order the minister of defence and the chief of the general staff to transfer the deterrent forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty.' According to Russia's nuclear doctrine, which was updated in 2020, it can carry out first-strike attacks if it has 'reliable information' about the launch of ballistic missiles targeting its territory.... Speaking on Wednesday night, before the first dawn assaults by Russian airborne troops, tanks and cruise missiles, he warned that 'whoever tries to hinder us' would see consequences 'you have never seen in your history.'" From "Putin puts nuclear deterrent forces on high alert" (London Times).

"Former Attorney General William Barr writes in a new book that former President Donald Trump has 'shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed'..." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 07:13 AM PST "... and that it is time for Republicans to focus on rising new leaders in the party. The release of the former attorney general's 600-page book, 'One Damn Thing After Another,' is coming as Mr. Trump, who remains the GOP's dominant figure, contemplates another presidential run. Mr. Barr writes that he was convinced that Mr. Trump could have won re-election in 2020 if he had 'just exercised a modicum of self-restraint, moderating even a little of his pettiness.' 'The election was not "stolen,"' Mr. Barr writes. 'Trump lost it.' Mr. Barr urges conservatives to look to 'an impressive array of younger candidates' who share Mr. Trump's agenda but not his 'erratic personal behavior.' He didn't mention any of those candidates by name." From "Ex-Attorney General William Barr Urges GOP to Move On From Trump/Book recounts confrontational meeting in Oval Office and says Republicans need to focus on new leaders" (Wall Street Journal). A 600-page book called "One Damn Thing After Another"? It sounds like a caption for a New Yorker cartoon. But it's really perfect, isn't it? This isn't a book to be read — what political book is? — but a thing to wave around as the author/"author" appears on TV. Steel yourself for Barr appearances on shows advising Republics to pick someone less old and less divisive than Trump. Or just don't watch the shows. That's my approach.

"What has surprised me most about the history I have lived through is how often we get dragged on demented, destructive rides by leaders who put their personal psychodramas over the public’s well-being...." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 06:13 AM PST "To prove that there were W.M.D.s in Iraq, Putin said, 'the U.S. secretary of state held up a vial with white powder, publicly, for the whole world to see, assuring the international community that it was a chemical warfare agent created in Iraq. It later turned out that all of that was a fake and a sham, and that Iraq did not have any chemical weapons.'  Hard to argue with that. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney let their own egos, gremlins and grandiose dreams occlude reality. W. wanted to outshine his father, who had decided against going into Baghdad when he fought Saddam. And Cheney wanted to kick around an Arab country after 9/11 to prove that America was a hyperpower. So they used trumped-up evidence, and Cheney taunted Colin Powell into making that fateful, bogus speech at the U.N., chockablock with Cheney chicanery. Though Donald Trump was Putin's lap dog, upending traditional Republican antipathy toward Russia, Putin no doubt has contempt for the weak and malleable Trump. Putin could have been alluding to Trump in his speech Thursday when he accused the U.S. of 'con-artist behavior,' adding that America had become 'an empire of lies.' Certainly, Trump was the emperor of lies." Writes Maureen Dowd, in "Rash Putin Razes Ukraine" (NYT).

"Prog — it was not invented when we started. We always try to be progressive in what we do. So we made our first album, and then we tried to move on, to progress." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 05:32 AM PST Said Gary Brooker, quoted in "Gary Brooker, Singer for Procol Harum, Dies at 76/The pianist and singer composed the band's music for five decades, including the hit 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'" (NYT)("'A Whiter Shade of Pale' drew on Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Air on a G String' for its chord progression. Matthew Fisher's organ opened with a stately melody, and Mr. Brooker sang a countermelody, somberly offering the surreal paradoxes of Mr. Reid's lyrics"). If music be the food of love/Then laughter is its queen/And likewise if behind is in front/Then dirt in truth is clean/My mouth by then like cardboard/Seemed to slip straight through my head/So we crash-dived straightway quickly/And attacked the ocean bed....

"We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all. As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged and if I was the president." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 06:09 AM PST "Under Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under Biden, Russia invaded Ukraine. I stand as the only president of the 21st century on whose watch Russia did not invade another country.... I have no doubt that President Putin made his decision to ruthlessly attack Ukraine only after watching the pathetic withdrawal from Afghanistan, where the military was taken out first, our soldiers were killed and American hostages, plus $85bn worth of the finest equipment anywhere in the world were left behind... The problem is not that Putin is smart – which of course, he's smart – but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb. They've so far allowed him to get away with this travesty and an assault on humanity.... So sad. Putin is playing Biden like a drum and it's not a pretty thing as somebody that loves our country to watch.... No president was ever as tough on Russia as I was. But with respect to what's going on now, it would have been so easy for me to stop this travesty from happening." Said Donald Trump, quoted in "Donald Trump defends calling Putin 'smart', hints at 2024 presidential bid/Ex-president tells CPAC he could have stopped 'appalling' Russian invasion of Ukraine before giving strongest indication he will run again" (The Guardian).

"Putin’s aggression in Ukraine has already quieted conversations in America about voting rights, filibuster reform, and Build Back Better – at least for now." Posted: 27 Feb 2022 03:53 AM PST "Large-scale war, if it ever comes to that, deadens reform. The first world war brought the progressive era to a halt. The second ended FDR's New Deal. Vietnam stopped Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Wars and the threat of wars also legitimate huge military expenditures and giant military bureaucracies. America is already spending $776bn a year on the military, a sum greater than the next 10 giant military powers (including Russia and China) together. Wars also create fat profits for big corporations in war industries. The possibility of war also distracts the public from failures of domestic politics, as the Spanish-American war did for President William McKinley and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq did for George W Bush. (Hopefully, Biden's advisers aren't thinking this way.)" From "Eight sobering realities about Putin's invasion of Ukraine" by Robert Reich (The Guardian).

Here's a place... Posted: 26 Feb 2022 05:14 PM PST  ... where you can talk about whatever you want.

"Under new chief Chris Licht, CNN will dial down the prime-time partisanship and double down on the network's news-gathering muscle..." Posted: 26 Feb 2022 12:46 PM PST  Axios reports.  Ratings are secondary to credibility, in the view of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who's taking over CNN.... Zaslav, at the urging of mentor John Malone, is likely to push CNN back to hard news, and away from red-hot liberal opining.... Licht was CBS' EVP of Special Programming, and, we're told he "succeeded with three very different programs" — "Late Night with Stephen Colbert," "CBS This Morning" and MSNBC's "Morning Joe." None of that seems like hard news and the avoidance of  red-hot liberal opining, but I hope they do manage to rebuild CNN as hard news.

"The minute they hand you that vaccine passport, every right that you have is transformed into a privilege contingent upon your obedience to arbitrary government dictates. It will make you a slave." Posted: 26 Feb 2022 10:03 AM PST Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, quoted in "A Kennedy's Crusade Against Covid Vaccines Anguishes Family and Friends/Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has risen to become a major figure in the vaccine resistance movement. Those close to him say it's 'heartbreaking'" (NYT).  Five of his eight surviving siblings — two of his brothers have died — have publicly rebuked him over the past two years for his campaign against vaccines.... To the public distress of his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, Mr. Kennedy invoked Anne Frank, the young German-Dutch diarist who died in a Nazi prison camp, as he compared government measures for containing the pandemic with the Holocaust at that rally in Washington. He later apologized for that. "Bobby's lies and fear-mongering yesterday were both sickening and repulsive," Kerry Kennedy wrote on Twitter about the brother she so admired after he invoked Frank. "I strongly condemn him for his hateful rhetoric." Christopher G. Kennedy, a brother, said he was startled by the invocation of Nazis. "I love my brother but could not disagree with him more," he said in a statement.... Mr. Kennedy's friends have urged him to move on to other issues. "Sometimes you want to shake him and say, 'Jesus Christ, Bobby, pay attention to something else,'" said Mike Papantonio, a lawyer and talk show host who has tried cases with Mr. Kennedy. "But at the end of the day he's committed to it. The jaws are locked."

100 years ago today, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the 19th Amendment. Posted: 26 Feb 2022 09:53 AM PST The case was Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130, with Justice Brandeis writing for the Court: On October 12, 1920, Cecilia Street Waters and Mary D. Randolph, citizens of Maryland, applied for and were granted registration as qualified voters in Baltimore City. To have their names stricken from the list Oscar Leser and others brought this suit in the court of common pleas. The only ground of disqualification alleged was that the applicants for registration were women, whereas the Constitution of Maryland limits the suffrage to men. Ratification of the proposed amendment to the federal Constitution, now known as the Nineteenth, 41 Stat. 362, had been proclaimed on August 26, 1920, 41 Stat. 1823, pursuant to Revised Statutes, § 205 (Comp. St. § 303).... Whether the Nineteenth Amendment has become part of the federal Constitution is the question presented for decision.... The first contention... is that so great an addition to the electorate, if made without the state's consent, destroys its autonomy as a political body.... Maryland had not voted to ratify. The "great addition... to the electorate" was all the women.  But the amendment was passed according to the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, and there was no special exception for amendments that greatly add to the electorate, as already shown by the acceptance of the 15th Amendment outlawing race discrimination in voting. The suggestion that the Fifteenth was incorporated in the Constitution, not in accordance with law, but practically as a war measure which has been validated by acquiescence, cannot be entertained.  ADDED: It is still amazing to think that freed male slaves got the right to vote in 1870 and it took another half century before women got the same right. Equally amazing, some Americans still say that women should not have the right to vote. Perhaps some of that talk is in jest, but I never hear anyone say — even in jest — that the right to vote should not extend to black people.

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