The heroic stand is admirable, but I wish Zelensky would get out

If there's still a chance and Kyiv isn't totally encircled, I root for Zelensky to get out of the country, while he can. The heroic stand is stirring, but if they're committed to it, Russia capturing Kyiv and the country is inevitable. They're a superpower with massive reserves and expertise, who have been prepping for this for many years. It's like Mike Tyson knocking out an 8 year old.

Zelensky would have enormous value as the legitimate democratically elected leader in exile abroad. As time goes by, Russia's position will weaken and forces will coalesce behind Zelensky as the rightful leader to be restored. That's why, given the chance, the Russians will probably kill him and he should get out and not give them that chance.

The best choice for Biden's Supreme Court appointment is...

...the youngest candidate. Clarence Thomas has been on the SCOTUS for over 30 years now and he's still only 73.

Obama tried to compromise be selecting Merrick Garland, who was already in his 60s. We need to do what the Rethugs do and pick someone near 40 who has lots of longevity in their family. All of the candidates Biden is considering will make reasonable decisions on the issues, but the final selection should be someone who can do it for as many decades as possible.

Encounter with an anti-vax waiter serving me food

My mom is 91 and in a nursing home. She left her apartment a year ago when she got COVID and recovered from that quickly, but her dementia was at the point where she couldn't live by herself any more. We're both fully vaxxed/boosted and I've taken her out to eat once or twice a week because she likes getting out and looks forward to it.

Last Wednesday night, a couple days before Christmas, I took her to IHOP because she doesn't eat much and it's the kind of thing she likes. Our waiter was about 60 years old and looked beaten down by life - pot belly, hair dyed black in a way that looked very fake, teardrop tattoos next to one eye, so maybe he'd been in prison.

He was actually nice and patient with my mom. With her dementia, it takes her a long time to order and it can be 10 minutes of looking at things on the menu, changing her mind and then forgetting and asking about the same item again. She started to chat a bit with the waiter while trying to order and mentioned that she'd had COVID. He then said, "yeah, but you're ok now, right?" and said, "I have my own beliefs about COVID." My mom didn't understand what he meant and I just stared at my phone while he carried on about how you can't trust doctors because they've all been sued for malpractice and everyone he knows who said they got COVID weren't very sick and got better.

After he waited on us, a couple women walked in who were wearing masks (no one else in there was but us) and they asked to be seated away from where everyone else was because they were worried about COVID. The waiter acted really aggravated and then walked up to a coworker or customer (I didn't bother turning my head to see) and said, "I'd like to take Nancy Pelosi and Fauci and throw 'em down and run that bus right over 'em."

I'm from Boston, but my mom lives outside Kansas City (Overland Park) and I've relocated here for now to help with her (only child). It's a bit of a culture shock how virtually everyone wears masks around Boston/Brookline/Cambridge compared to maybe 15% of people here. When I go to a coffeehouse to work on my laptop, I'm often the only one there with a mask and a couple times unmasked people were visibly coughing/congested (I moved or left).

I should have done something about the waiter, but because he'd been nice to my mom and seemed far too limited to learn from any feedback, I let it go. I also didn't want this sketchy guy to decide that I was the enemy and mess with the food. With the Omicron strain regularly breaking through to vaccinated people, I know I shouldn't be taking my mom out to eat any more, but it's one of few things she enjoys. I'm going to switch to more upscale places and the hot bar/eating area at Whole Foods, which seem to have more progressive (and likely vaxed) clientele.

I felt more pity than anger toward the waiter, though I have lots of hatred for the people who create the media that influences his limited mind. I thought of emailing a complaint to IHOP's national office, but hesitated because I might go back and didn't want to be remembered. I'm thinking now that I will send an email, but possibly not be descriptive in describing who the problem employee was.

Would it be better for Democrats if Dump had not been taken off of Twitter?

I've wondered, as Biden's poll numbers have dropped over a barrage of right wing media attacks based in nothing, if it might almost have been beneficial for people to have seen the daily stream of chaotic toxic nonsense spewing from Trump for the last 10 months.

He has zero self control and it contributed to his being unre-electable. I was overjoyed to have him silenced, but in retrospect, his omnipresent insanity was a boost to Joe Biden. Allowing Trump to appear on the sidelines may have helped his cause rather than hindered it. When Afghanistan was happening, it may have even helped Biden to have Trump spewing comments that were so hateful and absurd, that Biden looked measured and reasonable by comparison.

Maybe we might actually be better off with Trump having the opportunity to actively damage himself every day and remind people of the complete piece of shit he is and the moral bankruptcy of the Republicans. They might have had more trouble dodging the Jan. 6 committee if Trump was still ranting his unhinged comments about it.

Google News

I've used Google News as the home page on my laptop for many years. But, I've frequently noticed how the aggregated stories often contain headlines from Fox that are not the most important fact about a current story, but basically a smear against Democrats.

For example, I'm looking at Google News now and the top group of stories are about the G20 summit. The top, most bolded headline of the group is from Fox and it says, "Biden appears to use prepared list of reporters after G20 summit in Rome". 2 of the remaining 4 headlines that appear in this topic are also from Fox. They say, "Biden arrives at COP26 climate summit with a US energy crisis he created" and "Biden apologizes for being late to G20 press conference: 'We were playing with elevators'"

The average person who scans these headlines to get a sense of current events is being continuously bombarded with purposely crafted negative propaganda. I'm not sure if Fox games Google to get their headlines so prominently placed, or if Google is complicit, but it's frustrating to see Biden's poll numbers fall, nearly entirely over bullshit. The problem is that Fox doesn't just influence their zombie followers, who choose to watch Fox, they get their headlines prominently placed on major supposedly nonpartisan news aggregation sites and subliminally influence people.

Biden just pulled into the lead in Wisconsin at 4:45 am!!

Milwaukee absentee ballots just reported

If we take the Senate/Presidency, shouldn't DC/Puerto Rico statehood should be top of the agenda?

The Republicans shamelessly stall judicial nominations when there's a Democratic president to stack the courts in their favor. Some people propose expanding the Supreme Court to compensate, but if the Republicans regain control of the Senate/Presidency, they will just retaliate and expand the court further.

I think that a more effective option might be to grant DC/Puerto Rico statehood if Democrats control the government. It wouldn't change the problem with the courts, but it would add 4 Democratic Senate seats that would help prevent future judicial manipulation and it's a legitimate issue. They're US citizens without representation.

Those 4 Senate seats would make it much harder for the Republicans to gain a majority and it would be difficult for them to retaliate. There aren't US territories full of uneducated white people that they could fabricate into new red states.

Wouldn't this be a good thing to try to get done in the 1st two years if we take back the Senate and the Presidency?

The major way Trump benefits from the RBG replacement fight

The leading story is now a contentious, high stakes, high publicity issue that has nothing to do with COVID.

Anything that distracts any swing state Republican leaning people who are frustrated with his incompetence and mendacity is probably a plus for him.

Hopefully, the naked Supreme Court power grab will be an additional PR negative for him and there will be 4 R Senators who care enough about their own political futures and place in history to stop it.

RIP Ruth Bader Ginsberg

A truly top tier role model. An exemplary woman, an exemplary human with a truly meaningful and important lifetime of work.

There are nothing but the ultimate positives to say about her, but damn I wish she could have lasted 3 more months. Mitch McConnell won't even blink at the hypocrisy of holding hearings on a replacement. One year was too close to an election for Merrick Garland, but 5 weeks before or even after a lost election will be just fine.

Bill Maher on the blue wall of silence...