Linky Friday: The Full Range of Human Emotion Edition

A week that felt like a whole bunch of activity but not a lot of actual substance getting done in the world of politics and culture. Let’s talk about it:

[LF1] Oh, by the way, President Biden approved air strikes in Syria

Biden takes first military action with strike on Iran-backed militias via BBC

The Pentagon said the strike on Thursday was launched “at President Biden’s direction”.

It targeted facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iran-backed militia groups, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, it said.

Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada have previously carried out or supported rocket attacks targeting US assets in the country.

In its statement, the Pentagon said the operation “sends an unambiguous message”, it said in a statement..

“President Biden will act to protect American and Coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” it said.

The US did not confirm any casualties, but an Iraqi militia official told the Associated Press news agency at least one fighter was killed and a number of others wounded.

The official said the strikes hit an area along the border between the Syrian city of Boukamal and the Iraqi town of Qaim.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said the US attack had killed at least 22 fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi umbrella group of mostly Shia paramilitaries that includes Kataib Hezbollah.

“The strikes destroyed three lorries carrying munitions,” the observatory’s Rami Abdul Rahman earlier told AFP. “There were many casualties.”

Kataib Hezbollah has denied any role in the recent rocket attacks targeting US personnel, but US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters he was “confident in the target that we went after”.

[LF2] Brutal Reading…

My baby daughter died of brain cancer. Here’s what we can do to save other kids by Andrew Kaczynski

My wife and I learned that pediatric oncologists and researchers have worked tirelessly over decades to improve the odds for the 58 people diagnosed with ATRT in the United States every year. The rare cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of only 32 percent, but is nearly always a death sentence for babies, was considered untreatable until a few brilliant oncologists discovered an extremely harsh regimen of chemotherapy and radiation that could save some children.

These ATRT treatments require families to spend months in the hospital, and they still often fail to eliminate the cancer. The few kids who do survive often have major long-term side effects, including seizures, cognitive problems and difficulty walking.

The current treatment is hell, but when it’s your daughter’s only chance, you take it. Francesca required six surgeries — five on her brain and one to put in a stomach tube for feeding. My wife and I watched her suffer the intense chemotherapy’s side effects — uncontrollable vomiting, intense pain and awful digestive system sores.

One night, Francesca had emergency brain surgery because she developed meningitis as a complication of an earlier surgery. Another night, she had seizures following a brain surgery.

The chemotherapy drugs wipe out the immune system, making children highly susceptible to infections from typically innocuous bacteria and fungus in the environment. That’s what happened to Francesca during her third round of chemotherapy. She caught a fungal infection that her little body couldn’t fight off.

She went into septic shock and spent her last month of life sedated on a ventilator. We couldn’t hold her as she slowly succumbed to the infection. We sat next to her, holding her hand those horrible weeks.

She passed away on Christmas Eve.

Our family’s horrific saga is the reality of pediatric cancer. Many families we’ve met have suffered the same fate or are suffering it now.

[LF3] Andrew Cuomo has a left flank problem, along with being corrupt and killing old people

Gov. Cuomo and the Science of Political Decay By John Kass

And yet, like Pavlov’s salivating dog and the meat powder, a whiff of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo prompts a predictable, conditioned response: a barking chorus of “whatabout whatabout” Ted Cruz or other Republicans.

There are plenty of Republicans to choose from, but as Cuomo began to publicly dissolve, it was Cruz, the conservative senator of Texas, who served up an awkward feast of himself. Cruz flew to sunny Cancun while his constituents were suffering and dying without power during a killer cold snap. He made it worse with a weasel trick, shifting the blame to his family for his jetting off to Mexico. His sin was about optics. And he deserves to pay for it.

But it wasn’t Cruz who ordered senior citizens infected with COVID-19 back into nursing homes. Cuomo did that. It wasn’t Cruz who allegedly manipulated the numbers of nursing home deaths, now under federal investigation, while writing a book about his admirable handling of the health pandemic. Cuomo did that.

Cuomo’s decisions regarding COVID-19 patients allegedly harmed thousands of seniors. Letitia James, Democrat and New York attorney general, issued a report on the undercounting of deaths. The New York Post reported on an admission of a cover-up, and investigations began amid Democrat vs. Democrat bullying and shrieking.

But is this just a New York fight or does it suggest a larger truth about where American politics is heading?

The progressives aren’t merely influencing Democratic politics. In the deep blue states, they’ve taken control as the old party apparatus crumbles. The violent summer protests were about flexing muscle. Liberal Democratic mayors cowered and were overwhelmed in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon and Seattle.

Progressive muscle now is about taking out Cuomo, which is critical to protect the ambitions of their real champion, Vice President Kamala Harris. Prior to Cuomo’s meltdown, oddsmakers already were evaluating a Cuomo vs. Harris matchup in the 2024 presidential primary.

“Cuomo is in trouble,” David Marcus, the New York correspondent for the conservative Federalist site and other publications, including the New York Post, explained on my podcast, “The Chicago Way.”

“We’ve known for months and months now something fishy was going on with the numbers from the nursing homes,” Marcus said. “Progressive Attorney General Letitia James released a report saying Cuomo basically lied and undercounted nursing home deaths.

“[Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] of New York called for an investigation. Democrats called for impeachment, taking away Cuomo’s powers. It’s a mess. The media is trying to protect him, but that’s hard to do.”

After the mass looting and violence of those “mostly peaceful” protests over the summer in the big Democratic cities, we’ve all proved susceptible to being dazzled by fire and anger and spin, so much so that sometimes we don’t see the thing in front of us.

What Cuomo allegedly did to the seniors sentenced to death in New York nursing homes is his doing, his fault and his sin. His alone. Make no mistake about this. He deserves what’s coming.

[LF4] Comparing 1/6 to 9/11

Threat Inflation Comes Home: The government giving American citizens the counterterrorism treatment is a bigger threat to democracy than rioters by David Polansky

The most far-reaching and consequential developments during that period — the still-ongoing military occupations, the construction of the Department of Homeland Security — came from America’s overreaching institutional response to September 11th, not from the actions of terrorists themselves.

The U.S. government imprisoned, tortured, and killed people without trial, including, in some cases, American citizens. The government curtailed civil liberties, expanding its ability to monitor phone calls and internet activity. Since terrorism in the United States has been limited, we cannot say these measures failed. But it’s also not clear how much terrorism they actually prevented. And either way, the costs, both financial and to individual freedom, are very high, most likely not worth the benefits.

This is where we stand today. Some number of violent insurrectionist Trump supporters exist in the United States. They control no major institutions in the domains of government, media, academia, or popular culture. Even right-wing media institutions that try to excuse Trump’s role in motivating the Capitol attack, or blame their favorite left-wing villains rather than the actual perpetrators, are not controlled by insurrectionists themselves.

So to the question “What is to be done?,” perhaps the most sensible answer is the emotionally unsatisfying and therefore unpopular one: nothing beyond arresting and prosecuting individuals who can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed serious federal crimes. You may quibble or think this unserious. But looking back at the aftermath of 9/11, how much better off would we be now if we had pursued a more limited response then?

[LF5] Those darn rules, in the way again…

The $15 minimum wage is effectively dead — for now By Li Zhou

The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, told senators on Thursday that the policy did not have a significant enough effect on the federal budget to be included as part of the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill. That decision — while one that Democrats could ignore — means there likely won’t be any more action on the minimum wage in the near term.

Democrats expressed disappointment at the decision.

As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a longtime champion of the $15 minimum wage, has previously said, Republican opposition to wage increases makes it unlikely lawmakers would be able to get the proposal through via regular order — which would need 60 votes. Budget reconciliation — the process that Democrats are utilizing to approve Covid-19 relief legislation — would only require 51.

“Let’s be clear. We are never going to get 10 Republicans to increase the minimum wage,” Sanders previously said. “The only way to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour now is to pass it with 51 votes through budget reconciliation.”

The parliamentarian’s decision narrows the path for changes to the minimum wage in this Congress: Although Republicans have put forth their own $10 minimum wage bill, the likelihood of a compromise is exceedingly slim.

[LF6] Arizona is trying, but Virginia just ain’t giving up that “worst state GOP” title…

Virginia GOP to select gubernatorial nominee at convention in Liberty University parking lotsBy Ned Oliver

The pro-convention side argued the party needs to maintain tighter control over who participates in its nomination contest. They also favored convention rules that allow for successive rounds of voting and require the winning nominees to muster at least a 50 percent majority to win — a threshold they say is critical in a crowded field to avoid nominating an unpopular candidate who wins only a narrow a plurality of the vote.

Convention supporters also contended the party doesn’t have the infrastructure necessary to set up polling locations around the state.

They appeared to agree that the decision to meet in parking lots at Liberty is less than ideal, but said they were left no choice after primary supporters refused to agree to an unassembled convention, in which drive-through voting would be held in each of the state’s 11 congressional districts.

Technological plans for the event are still being worked out, but party leaders said they expected to rely on radio broadcasts to deliver speeches. It was unclear how voting would take place.

Some members questioned how convention delegates who don’t own cars would participate. (One member noted most people who live on Tangier Island, a tiny GOP stronghold in the Chesapeake Bay, only own boats and wondered if docks would be available.)

There were also questions about whether spreading convention delegates out through multiple parking garages and surface lots across a college campus would meet the party’s definition of an assembled convention.

On Tuesday evening, no answers were forthcoming. “I have no comment on parking lots and parking garages that I can coherently share tonight,” said the party’s general counsel, Chris Marston.

[LF7] Househunters International: Putin Edition

The Man Who Built the Billion Dollar Palace by By Christian Esch

But people in Russia haven’t forgotten Cirillo’s work. That’s in part thanks to opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his YouTube film “A Palace for Putin.” The subject of the film is a luxurious mansion on the Black Sea coast that was built, Navalny claims, by members of Putin’s circle of friends specifically for the Russian president. The film has been viewed a spectacular 113 million times, and a quarter of all Russians have seen it, according to surveys. The architect of the palace? Lanfranco Cirillo.

“Architecturally speaking, it’s not my biggest or best work. It’s just beautiful neo-classical – that’s what they asked for.”

“Rich” is the word Cirillo himself uses to describe the project. “Architecturally speaking, it’s not the biggest or best project I made. It’s nice neoclassicism – that’s what was asked for. As an architect, I build what the customer wants.” It sounds almost as though he wants to distance himself, to vindicate himself for the bombastic style. “But aesthetically speaking, it is very correct considering historical proportions. It is not kitsch,” he says. “It’s not overdone, but naturally it is rich, as it was supposed to be. And we used fantastic materials. I was proud of my job. It’s very good ‘Made in Italy.’”

Rich is also the term many Russians would use to describe the decor. There’s a pool disco, a shisha bar with a pole for pole dancing, a home theater – all of which appear in Navalny’s film, meticulously reconstructed on the computer according to the furnishing plans he obtained. At the bottom right of the plans is the name of Cirillo’s architectural firm at the time: Stroygazkomplekt.

Speaking on Zoom from Dubai, he says that he has of course seen Navalny’s film. He also confirms that the plans for the furnishing of the palace appear to be authentic. He says the 3-D reconstruction is also broadly correct, although not in every detail. He claims that although he did plan a shisha bar, the pole dancing pole in the film was made up.

Otherwise, Cirillo thinks pretty much everything else in the film is misleading. He claims the Black Sea property is neither spectacular nor was it built for Putin or any other individual for that matter. Cirillo claims he can’t understand all the fuss. He says Russia has bigger problems than a construction project that is already 12 years old.

One can try to tell the story of the palace in Gelendzhik in Cirillo’s words instead of Navalny’s, but the narrative remains incomplete, with a lot of ambiguities. In his friendly, light-hearted manner, Cirillo leaves some questions unanswered.

This week at Ordinary Times:

Mini-Throughput: A Year of COVID by Michael Siegel
It has been almost exactly one year since I first wrote about the Coronavirus. It has been one hell of a 366 days of COVID

Citizenship at Leisure In The Ball Pit Republic by Andrew Donaldson
Instead of the “Man in the Arena” section in “Citizenship in a Republic” denizens of the ball pit republic should ponder the rest

Wednesday Writs: In Which Em Goes A’Linking by Em Carpenter
Wednesday Writs, Ordinary Times weekly legal feature by Em Carpenter, is back with links to legal stories to read, share, and discuss.

Beaks & Ballots: The Penguin, Politics, and Populism by Alex Parker
Gotham was never the same after The Penguin gained an interest in politics. Neither was politics, for that matter.

It’s Time to Play the Music, Light the Lights, Flag The Muppet Show Content by Jaybird
You have probably heard that a handful of The Muppet Show episodes have been given a disclaimer at the beginning of the show.

The Memorabilia Which Shape Me by John David Duke, Jr.
This was certainly a memorable occasion for me, but it belongs in a closet full of memorabilia, events just like that, all crowding forward

Is Handwriting On The Decline? by L London
Ordinarily, handwriting is not on my top ten list of “Fun Stuff to Talk About.” but, something about this was different.

Sunday Morning! Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust (pt.1) by Rufus
Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust: In which the love that dare not speak its name finally speaks- at great length.

Game of Thrones: Bad Romance by Kristin Devine
Game of Thrones has lots of coitus and very little of what leads into it, except when it’s rapey, in which case we see it in exacting detail