Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Althouse

Althouse

President Trump's composite characters.

Posted: 23 Feb 2022 06:51 AM PST

The other day on this blog, we were talking about composite characters. 

According to Axios, Democrats needed "a unifying Republican foil not named Donald Trump," and Senator Mazie Hirono was quoted saying: "I wish that we could just find one face that we could point to, such as with Donald Trump... maybe a composite."

I ended my remarks with: "How many Republicans would you have to merge into a composite character as useful to demonize as Donald Trump?"

So I was delighted to hear Donald Trump using composite characters in his performance on yesterday's Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (audio and transcript, here). 

I'm not suggesting DT reads this blog. That would be weird. And perhaps annoying. I'm just into the absurdity of composite characters.

Trump seems to be into it too, because he did it twice. First: 

"This is a disaster what's going on, whether it's Ukraine or the Afghanistan pullout, which I think is the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.... You can take the five worst presidents in the history of our country and put 'em together; I don't think they've done the damage that this administration has done."

Second:

"I hope [Biden] does great for the country. I think it's too late because I don't think he can do great for the country. There's been so much damage done that I think if he turned out to be George Washington and Abraham Lincoln combined, I think the net result is so bad, I just don't think he can do it."

***

Trump named the 2 best Presidents — the 2 that are always named as 1 and 2. 

But who are the 5 worst President? This varies depending on where you look, and in a lot of places, Trump himself is in the top 5. To look at The Heritage Foundation, it's Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan, and Warren G. Harding. 

I'm picturing something hydra-headed, like this:

Did Trump side with Putin when he said "This is genius.... How smart is that?... Here’s a guy who’s very savvy... You gotta say that’s pretty savvy"?

Posted: 23 Feb 2022 06:29 AM PST

On yesterday's Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show — audio and transcript, here — here's the part where Trump credits Putin with genius (which his antagonists predictably take to mean that he's siding with Putin!):

I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, "This is genius." Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, "It's independent," a large section of Ukraine. I said, "How smart is that?" And he's gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That's strongest peace force… They're gonna keep peace all right.

That's criticizing Putin, but you've got to understand that it's sarcasm when he says, "They're gonna keep peace all right."

It's not siding with the enemy to say the enemy is very smart. And it's so obvious that Trump's enemies would fault him for recognizing Putin's brilliance that I'm tempted to credit Trump with intending to trigger that faultfinding. 

I can already hear Trump in my head taking advantage of their criticism of him: Biden's people don't want to say Putin is a genius because Biden is no genius. Everybody knows that. Biden against Putin. Well, fortunately for us, Putin is an idiot, so Putin against Biden, no problem. That'll work. Brilliant.

But Trump is also a genius — that's his idea — so he's the one who ought to take on the genius. You can see that's his idea by looking at what he says next:

No, but think of it. Here's a guy [Putin] who's very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened.

But here's a guy that says, you know, "I'm gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent," he used the word "independent," "and we're gonna go out and we're gonna go in and we're gonna help keep peace." You gotta say that's pretty savvy. And you know what the response was from Biden?

Biden, whose supporters think it's wrong to consider Putin a genius....

There was no response. They didn't have one for that. No, it's very sad. Very sad....

Trump's point isn't that he likes Putin, but that Biden cannot handle the job, and that's sad.

Clay Travis observes that Putin invaded Ukraine when Obama was President, and now he's doing it again with Biden, but he did not invade when Trump was President. How does that square with Trump's antagonists' idea that Trump sides with Putin? Trump notes that Chuck Todd asked the same question on "Meet the Press" this week:

Chuck Todd asked that question. How come there was none of this happening during the Trump administration? I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he's a tough cookie, got a lot of the great charm and a lot of pride. But the way he — and he loves his country, you know? He loves his country. He's acting a little differently I think now.

I think he sees this opportunity. I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, "You can't do it. You're not gonna do it." But I could see that he wanted it. I used to ask him. We used to talk about it at length. I think nobody probably knows him better in terms of the discussions that we have or that we're having this morning. So, I knew him very well. I got to know him.

The conversation turns to China, how Trump knows Xi very well too, and Trump predicts that China will take Taiwan. They were only waiting for the Olympics to end, so "look at your stopwatch." Trump sums up with the assertion that if he were still President "Putin would have never done it" and — speaking of taking over Taiwan in the past tense — "Xi would have never done it."

Much later, the discussion comes around to the Russian pipeline:

You know, people don't realize that I stopped the Russian pipeline. It was dead. [Biden] came in and he immediately let it proceed, and it's one of the reasons — the money is so enormous!...

Putin even said, "You're killing me on the pipeline." I said, "Sorry, I have no choice. It's wrong." Okay. [Biden] approves it. But then they say, "Oh, Trump was nice to Russia!" I wasn't nice to Russia. And, by the way, I do to want get along. I think getting along with Russia is a great thing. We could have done tremendous… 

He catches himself on that "we" and restarts with "they":

They have tremendous land, they have tremendous resources, and they need our help too.

So: is "getting along with Russia... a great thing"? That is, at least, the ideal, but wanting to get along can lead you into getting tricked by the genius player on the other side. And yet, perhaps Trump is/was/could be the genius player on our side, and then who knows what he means by "We could have done tremendous..." — tremendous what?

"When you were asked, 'What's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America,' you said 'Russia.' Not al Qaeda; you said Russia. And, the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War's been over for 20 years."

Posted: 23 Feb 2022 03:55 AM PST

Said Barack Obama, in the third presidential debate in 2012, quoted by Chris Cillizza in "It's time to admit it: Mitt Romney was right about Russia" (CNN). 

So many people took the cue and laughed at Romney, who had been focusing attention on what Obama had said to then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier that year: "This is my last election. And after my election, I have more flexibility." 

Obama's joke — "the 1980s are now calling..." — overshadowed Romney's statement, which was: "Russia is not a friendly character on the world stage. And for this President to be looking for greater flexibility, where he doesn't have to answer to the American people in his relations with Russia, is very, very troubling, very alarming." 

Now, Cillizza says: "What looked like a major flub during the 2012 campaign -- and was used as a political cudgel by Obama -- now looks very, very different. It should serve as a reminder that history is not written in the moment -- and that what something looks like in that moment is not a guarantee of what it will always look like."

How about telling us what you actually said at the time? Because you, Chris Cillizza, were part of the "political cudgel" that — passive voice — "was used." You had the ability at the time to be more than semi-conscious, and as a writer at The Washington Post, you had a responsibility to do more than cheer-lead for Obama, something more than glance "in the moment" and say "what something looks like." 

It was time at the time to say who was right and wrong! And here's what you said at the time:

 

Oh, the superciliousness of "methinks"! It looks so awful now — that supercillizziousness...

Here's The Week celebrating Obama and Cillizza's wit at the time:

4. The '80s called....

After Obama noted that, earlier this year, Romney had called Russia, not Al Qaeda, our greatest geopolitical threat, the president unleashed his other zinger of the night: "The 1980's are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back — because the Cold War has been over for 20 years. But governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policy of the 1950s, and the economic policies of the 1920s." Boom, "that '1980s called' line was the best line of the 3 debates methinks," tweeted The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza.

Yeah, "boom" yourself. I'm sure the zinger amused Putin.

At the Melancholy Café...

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 05:06 PM PST

... you can brood about whatever you like.

***

The image is the painting "Melancholy," by Edvard Munch. Forgive me for using my "Scream" tag, but I don't like tag proliferation, and it's the Edvard Munch tag that I already have. If Munch becomes more important, it will be like the way I used my "Apprentice" tag for all things Donald Trump until I reached a tipping point.

"In a hypothetical 2024 match up, former President Donald Trump is at 48% and President Biden is at 44%..."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 11:00 AM PST

"... a two point change from November where Trump was ahead 45% to 43%. Both poll results are within the polls margin of error."

A new report from Emerson College Polling.

"President Biden is frequently late for big speeches and today is no exception. White House officials initially said he would speak at 2 p.m."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 10:53 AM PST

"... about the crisis in Ukraine, but later sent out an update to the schedule that moved the speech to 1 p.m. By 1:40 p.m., reporters had yet to be called to the East Room for the remarks."

An update from the NYT, published 8 minutes ago.

ADDED: Here's the live feed from the White House, where we await the President's appearance:

"There are pets on raw-food diets, gluten-free diets, grain-free diets, vegan and vegetarian diets. There are pets that munch on treats flavored like a turmeric latte or made with CBD..."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 08:23 AM PST

"... pets that never skip a probiotic or vitamin C supplement. Some owners whip up special menus at home, while others shop for the growing number of products tailored to these diets.... As human birthrates have steadily declined in the United States, many people have come to think of pet ownership as a kind of parenthood. 'It is a flex to say, "My dog eats as well as a human,"' said Sean MacDonald, 30, a Toronto chef who prepares elaborate meals of primarily raw food for his chocolate Labrador, Hazelnut, on his TikTok account.... [Meanwhile, American Kennel Club exec says] 'Dogs will eat anything you put in front of them, but it is not necessarily in their best interests.'"

From "The Diet Worked For Them. Now Their Pets Are on It. Paleo, vegan, gluten-free: Owners are putting animals on human regimens and fueling a huge pet-wellness industry. But some health experts are concerned" (NYT).

From the comments: "We fed our pugs home cooked chicken, brown rice and sweet potato for years. They were always having stomach issues, making messes in the house, gassy. The vet finally put her foot down, and we switched to kibble. No more digestive problems, or surprises on the floor. I don't eat kibble myself, however." 

So the question is what's in the human's best interest, right?

"In a case that hinged on proving the defendants’ state of mind, prosecutors argued that the men’s prejudice helped explain why they erroneously viewed Arbery, 25, as a potential criminal..."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 08:08 AM PST

"... when they cut him off in pickup trucks and threatened him with guns in a Georgia neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. The government presented evidence from 20 witnesses, many of whom testified about racially derogatory text messages, social media posts and remarks from the three men in which they disparaged Black people. 'All three defendants told you loud and clear, in their own words, how they feel about African Americans,' prosecutor Tara Lyons told the jury, made up of eight White people, three Black people and one Hispanic person. 'Yes, race, racism, racial discrimination — those can all be very difficult topics to discuss. But the facts of this case are not difficult.'... The McMichaels and Bryan were convicted on state murder charges in November 2021 after a trial in which prosecutors did not make race a central focus of their case.... Under sentencing guidelines, in the absence of a plea deal, the men are expected to serve their sentences in state prison...."

From "Killers of Ahmaud Arbery found guilty of federal hate-crimes charges" (WaPo). There was no plea deal because the Arbery family objected to it.

Language proficiency — beautiful!

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 07:56 AM PST

"Wisconsin GOP Suicide Watch/Fantasies about undoing 2020 will help re-elect Gov. Tony Evers."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 05:57 AM PST

That headline — for a piece by The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal — caught my eye.

Donald Trump's delusions about the 2020 election are the gift that keeps on giving—to Democrats.

"We don't wear tinfoil hats," says Wisconsin state Rep. Timothy Ramthun. Yet he is running for Governor while urging lawmakers to somehow "reclaim" the "fraudulent electoral ballots" that Wisconsin gave to President Biden... Mr. Ramthun's crusade is an in-kind donation to Mr. Evers's re-election.... Mr. Ramthun is circulating a 72-page presentation full of specious claims.... Anyone who thinks that states can "reclaim" electors, so as to oust Mr. Biden in some kind of glorious revolution and effect a Trump restoration, has lost view of reality....

Mainstream Republicans like former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who is also challenging Mr. Evers, should take a lesson from what Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled off last year. Instead they'll be getting hostile questions about Mr. Ramthun's pet theories....

"When it comes to distant and adversarial countries, we are taught to recognize tyranny through the use of telltale tactics of repression...."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 05:29 AM PST

"But when these weapons are wielded by Western governments, the precise opposite framework is imposed: describing them as despotic is no longer obligatory but virtually prohibited. That tyranny exists only in Western adversaries but never in the West itself is treated as a permanent axiom of international affairs, as if Western democracies are divinely shielded from the temptations of genuine repression. Indeed, to suggest that a Western democracy has descended to the same level of authoritarian repression as the West's official enemies is to assert a proposition deemed intrinsically absurd or even vaguely treasonous. The implicit guarantor of this comforting framework is democracy. Western countries, according to this mythology, can never be as repressive as their enemies because Western governments are at least elected democratically. The implicit guarantor of this comforting framework is democracy. Western countries, according to this mythology,

can never be as repressive as their enemies because Western governments are at least elected democratically.... More inconveniently still, many of the foreign leaders we are instructed to view as despots are popular or even every bit as democratically elected as our own beloved freedom-safeguarding officials. As potent as this mythological framework is, reinforced by large media corporations over so many decades, it cannot withstand the increasingly glaring use of precisely these despotic tactics in the West. Watching Justin Trudeau — the sweet, well-mannered, well-raised good-boy prince of one of the West's nicest countries featuring such a pretty visage (even on the numerous occasions when marred by blackface) — invoke and then harshly impose dubious emergency, civil-liberties-denying powers is just the latest swing of the hammer causing this Western sculpture to crumble...."

Writes Glenn Greenwald in "The Neoliberal War on Dissent in the West/Those who most flamboyantly proclaim that they are fighting fascists continue to embrace and wield the defining weapons of despotism" (Substack).

Adding tags to this post, I noticed the rhyme of "democracy" and "hypocrisy" and wondered how many songs had used that rhyme. A search at Genius.com produced a list so long it kept adding new items as I scrolled. 

Not everything there is a song, though. Some things are speeches, and the one I clicked on was a July 26, 1959 speech by Fidel Castro. I know you won't resist saying the thing you always say about the aforementioned Justin Trudeau, but I will leave that in my notes for a modern "Dictionary of Received Ideas." 

What I want is to quote what Castro had to say about the democracy hypocrisy: 

For those abroad who defame us, to those who speak of democracy and slander us, we could offer no better argument than the million and more Cubans who have gathered here today. To those who speak in the name of democracy or who hypocritically invoke the word democracy to slander us we can say that this is democracy. Democracy is the fulfillment of the will of the people. Democracy is, as Lincoln said, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A government not of the people is not a democracy; a government not for the people is not a democracy.

And what has the government of the Cuban revolution been since Jan. 1, 1959 but a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? A government of the people, not for a privileged group of people; a government of the people, not of an oligarchy; a government for the people, not for a group of politicians or military people we have as always had in Cuba....

We are ruling with the people and for the people and for this reason the people support us and will continue to support us. Those who wish to find out what a real democracy is should come to Cuba. Those who wish to find out what a ruling people are like should come to Cuba. Those who wish to find out what a ruling people are like should come to Cuba. Those who want to find out what the real word democracy means should come to Cuba....

"The West might not always like what President Putin has to say, but even his critics would admit that he usually says it well. Yet yesterday..."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 02:42 AM PST

"... as he told the nation that Russia was recognising the independence of two Kremlin-backed breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine, his rhetorical skills seemed to desert him. In a rambling speech that lasted almost an hour, the Russian leader veered off into an often bizarre history lesson. 'Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia,' Putin said, adding that Vladimir Lenin was the 'author and architect' of Ukraine. He spoke about Ukraine's policy of removing Soviet-era statues and renaming towns named after Communist officials, saying: 'You want de-communisation? ... don't stop halfway. We're willing to show Ukraine what real de-communisation means for it.'... Sergey Naryshkin, head of the SVR foreign intelligence service, stammered through an exchange with the president, at one point slipping up and saying that they should be annexed by Russia. 'We're not talking about that, we are not discussing that,' Putin said, with a smile and a shake of the head."

The London Times reports.

When it comes to garbled speech about Ukraine, the U.S.A. is making even less sense: "Kamala Harris slammed for 'word salad' response to Ukraine-Russia questions" (NY Post). 

"I mean, listen, guys, we're talking about the potential for war in Europe," Harris said at one point Sunday in response to a question about how the Biden administration saw the situation's "endgame" playing out. "I mean, let's really take a moment to understand the significance of what we're talking about," the veep went on. "It's been over 70 years. And through those 70 years … there has been peace and security. We are talking about the real possibility of war in Europe."

One can imagine Putin smiling and shaking his head.

"'Free IVF' as China tries to reverse declining birthrate."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 06:18 AM PST

Headline at the London Times. 

Demographers say the decline [in birthrate] was primarily caused by the decrease in the number of Chinese women of childbearing age and say that changes to the one-child policy had come too late.

In addition to allowing couples to have three children last year, China has been adopting policies aimed at reducing the financial burden of raising children, including banning for-profit after-school tuition, extending maternity leave and offering cash subsidies....

It is estimated that more than 40 million people in China have fertility problems, and the number is expected to rise as women are delaying their marriage and birth plans. According to a recent study by China's leading fertility experts, the country's infertility rate has risen to 18 per cent, up from 15 per cent in 2010....

"Republicans have been clamoring for Biden to close gaps in the wall that have become busy crossing points for migrants and smugglers."

Posted: 22 Feb 2022 06:19 AM PST

"In some locations those spaces are a few feet across, but they're far wider in others, and it's unclear what the Biden administration will consider closing a gap vs. building new barriers.... Looming over Biden's repair plan is the possibility Trump could run for office again, whipping up crowds with chants of 'Finish the Wall!' and promises to bring back the bulldozers. Trump built 450 miles of new barriers during his term but had plans for at least 250 more.... In the scramble to build as quickly as possible before Biden took office, construction crews in several areas of southern Arizona skipped over locations that required additional engineering or custom wall panels.... One span of the barrier east of Sasabe, Ariz., has two dozen gaps in the wall and other segments with misshapen, temporary panels welded to the structure like patches. Myles Traphagen, a conservation biologist who has mapped and documented the impact of border wall construction using motion-activated wildlife cameras,

wants the Biden administration to leave the gaps open to provide a minimal degree of safe passage for large animals. When a Mexican gray wolf with a radio collar headed south last fall, it hit the barrier and walked parallel to it for miles before eventually turning back. The young male wolf, nicknamed Mr. Goodbar, later suffered a gunshot wound that resulted in a leg amputation. CBP says its remediation will add more wildlife openings in the barrier, but Traphagen says they're too small for species like wolves, jaguar, bighorn sheep, ocelot or Sonoran pronghorn to cross. 'Nothing larger than a rabbit is going to use them,' he said. 'It's only a veneer of environmental compliance." "The majority of the remediation work they're planning is occurring to support existing border wall infrastructure, not for ecological restoration,' Traphagen said."

From "Where Trump's border wall left deep scars and open gaps, Biden plans repair job" (WaPo).

At the Sunrise Café...

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 05:30 PM PST

IMG_9237 2 

... keep your spirits up.

"Searching for a strategy to avoid a 2022 midterm disaster, advisers to President Biden have discussed elevating a unifying Republican foil not named Donald Trump...."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 03:59 PM PST

"Biden confidants worry that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is too unknown, that Biden won't demonize Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell because of their longstanding and collegial relationship and that elevating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could backfire.... [S]ome Biden advisers are reluctant to contest every midterm race on DeSantis' signature issue — COVID-19 — because the Biden administration's approaches on vaccine and mask mandates may be a political liability with some swing voters.... [T]here's close to a consensus that Democrats can't hold Congress by focusing on Trump.... Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told Axios: 'I wish that we could just find one face that we could point to, such as with Donald Trump... maybe a composite.'"

Axios analyzes.

Here's the TV Tropes article on "composite characters." 

Certain media, including Real Life, tend to have the time and space to utilize Loads and Loads of Characters, a large number of individuals with significant and/or necessary contributions to the storyline. But in an adaptation it can be difficult to offer adequate time and space.... A solution is to invoke artistic license and compress two or more such figures into a single character with traits drawn from all of them.... Instead of having three different smart guys on the team divided up into distinct fields, you make one of them an Omnidisciplinary Scientist and discard the others....

I don't know how well that will transfer into political discourse, but here's something about "Dilbert":

Dilbert revived LOUD HOWARD, a character who'd proved quite popular with readers of the strip but who the author thought was too flat to make much use of. To make him more interesting, the show merged him with Nervous Ted and had him shout constantly about trivial worries. 

How many Republicans would you have to merge into a composite character as useful to demonize as Donald Trump?

"And though there were pockets of sympathy for the protesters’ frustration with pandemic rules, the bulk of Canadians resented their tactics and wanted them to go home..."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 08:19 AM PST

"... surveys show. In Ottawa, residents were angry that the authorities took so long to act. 'This thing was a truly fringe movement that got lucky, in my view, in terms of failures of policing,' [said Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a Canadian public policy group]. 'I think this has been an extraordinary moment and flash in the pan.' There were elements of right wing extremism tied to the protests around the country, where Confederate, QAnon and Trump flags had cropped up. Conspiracy theorists could be found milling about Parliament, too: people who believed big Pharma created the coronavirus in order to make money on vaccines or that QR codes allow the government to police our thoughts. But the protests drew in thousands of people on some weekends, many of them just frustrated Canadians who didn't want to be forced to get a vaccine or were just fed up with the pandemic and its restrictions.... In interviews, trucker after trucker said this was his or her first protest...."

From "After Trucker Protest, Canada Grapples With a Question: Was It a Blip, or Something Bigger?/The demonstrators were passionate, organized and supported financially, but such spontaneous movements often have a tough time converting their energy into real change" (NYT).

"Remember, the Emirate had not promised you the provision of food. The Emirate has kept its promises. It is God who has promised his creatures the provision of food."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 08:06 AM PST

Said Mullah Muhammad Hassan, the head of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, quoted in "If Joe Biden Doesn't Change Course, This Will Be His Worst Failure" (NYT). 

95% of the people "don't have enough to eat" and "nearly 9 million are at risk of starvation." That's because there's a drought, the Taliban aren't really trying to manage the economy, and:

The Afghan economy was built around our support. Roughly 45 percent of the G.D.P. and 75 percent of government spending was foreign aid. When we abruptly cut off that cash, we sent it into a tailspin. Then we went further. We froze more than $9 billion that belonged to the Afghan government — the vast majority of its foreign reserves.

"I thought a lot about the implications of photographing women, many of whom are still teenagers, figure skating in revealing costumes...."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 07:31 AM PST

"Nicole Schott, 25, of Germany, wore a costume with a massive cutout on one side of her waist. As she turned into a backbend while spinning on one skate, I snapped a few frames of how far she was bending. The shadows on her neck and along her stomach, to me, showed the amount of torque the athletes' bodies endure and the strength it takes to accomplish these tricks."

From "Our Photographers' Favorite Olympic Images/Times photographers sought to capture every aspect of the Olympic Games in Beijing. These pictures were special to them" (NYT).

Is there something creepy about fixating on the details of the bodies of very young women? The photograph frames the torso and excludes the face, the arms, and the legs — that is, most of what you usually look at when watching a figure skater.

Do you feel differently about that quote when you know that the photographer who wrote that is female? Does it matter that the skater herself chose — or her people chose for her — to wear "a massive cutout on one side of her waist"? Does a cutout say I want you to look right here, dictating fixating?

ADDED: Do you immunize yourself by thinking about it a lot — or by saying you thought about it a lot? Or does the thinking add to the creepiness? And what did you think? This particular photographer, a woman, says "I thought a lot about the implications of photographing women" within what I assume she expected us to imagine was a properly feminist framework.

"The residents are quick to point out that Hank is gentle and sweet. When he breaks into a home, he is far more interested in the food..."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 03:26 AM PST

"... than any people who may be inside, Ms. Bryant said. 'He just sits there and eats,' she said. 'He doesn't attack them. He doesn't growl. He doesn't make rude faces.'"

From "Hank the Tank, a 500-Pound Bear, Ransacks a California Community/Paintballs, bean bags, sirens and Tasers cannot keep the 'exceptionally large bear' from seeking leftover pizza and other food. Officials say he has broken into at least 28 homes since July'" (NYT).

"But as millions of jobs that require steel-toed boots and well-built overalls have moved overseas, younger workers are largely averse to traditional trades, leaving these types of jobs unfilled."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 03:20 AM PST

"Carhartt, meanwhile, has adapted to these new dynamics. Its stores often pop up in urban and suburban areas. Just as Patagonia sells rock-climbing jackets to bankers, Carhartt now sells logging pants to baristas. And while these new customers endure jokes and memes mocking their clean-cut personas, the politics of wearing (or not wearing) Carhartt seem to be more muddled. Heated dialogue recently erupted after the company decided to enforce President Biden's vaccine mandate despite a Supreme Court ruling that it was unconstitutional. The move spurred conservative talk of a boycott, while arousing liberal defenders. Somehow, though, Carhartt has succeeded in appealing to its blue-collar emblems, like Sarah Palin, while appealing to new fans, like Barack Obama.... It may be true that the brand's newfound popularity in coastal cities, like New York, where I live now, is a form of cultural appropriation, one that surely sands down the struggles of blue-collar life. But the proliferation of these clothes among new types of workers may also reflect the country's growing sense of precarity, and also solidarity, around labor. I still feel a twinge of impostor syndrome in Carhartt garments, a sentiment echoed by others I spoke to. But I now see the clothes as representative of where I grew up, my friends and my hard, if often nonphysical, work."

From "When the Heart Belongs to Carhartt/A beloved store in a small hometown closes, but the residents still need their work wear" by Jasper Craven (NYT).

"President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed 'in principle' to meet, U.S. and French officials said..."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 03:03 AM PST

"... even as troops continue to gather near the Ukraine border, suggesting the window for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis is closing. While Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday there are not yet 'concrete plans' for a Russia-U.S. summit, he added that dialogue among ministers would continue and 'it is possible if the heads of states consider it expedient. A decision can be made at any moment.' The summit was proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron during separate calls with Biden and Putin on Sunday. Officials in Paris and Washington said the talks would go ahead only if Moscow doesn't attack...."

The Washington Post reports.

Macy Gray performed a sweet, subtle version of the National Anthem at the NBA All-Star Game, so the story should not be...

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 02:57 AM PST

 

... that LeBron James was laughing and might have been laughing at her.

Put the focus where it belongs, or put it somewhere uplifting — such as on Gray's beautiful, feathered overcoat.

"Norway, with a population of just five million, is executing its quadrennial triumph over the rest of the world...."

Posted: 21 Feb 2022 02:39 AM PST

"For Norway, everything changed after the 1988 Calgary Games, where it won just five medals, none of them gold. That was an unacceptable outcome.... Norway, which had quickly transformed from a middling economy built around fishing and farming into a petroleum-rich nation, started plowing money into Olympiatoppen, the organization that oversees elite Olympic sports. It also doubled down on its commitments under its Children's Right in Sports document, which guarantees and encourages every child in the country access to high-quality opportunities in athletics, with a focus on participation and socialization rather than hard-core competition. Norway's well-funded local sports clubs, which exist in nearly every neighborhood and village, do not hold championships until the children reach age 13.... 'There just seems to be a lot more emphasis on including everybody,' said Atle McGrath, a 21-year-old Norwegian Alpine skier whose father, Felix, competed in Alpine for the United States at the 1988 Olympics... Jim Stray-Gundersen, a former surgeon and physiologist who is the sports science adviser to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, lived in Norway, where his father grew up, for five years while working as a scientist with Norway's Olympic athletes. He said a priority of the country is to build a culture of health and regular exercise, and its competitive prowess flows from that. 'It's how you produce psychological satisfaction, healthy life habits, and stellar athletes over time, and it's very much in contrast to how we do it and don't do it in the U.S.,' he said."

From "It's Norway's Games Again. What's Its Secret?/Norway won its record 15th gold medal on Friday, the kind of success that has drawn experts from other countries trying figure out how the tiny nation keeps doing it" (NYT).

Here's the final medal count. Norway finished with 16 gold medals, twice that of the U.S.A. Germany won the second most gold medals — 12 — but Germany has a population of 83 million. 

Notice that what produced a lot of medals also seems to be great for everyone's health and well-being.

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