Let’s face it: Most of Trump’s Cabinet picks will be confirmed.  Including Linda McMahon for Secretary Of Education, despite having lied about having a degree in Education.  Or perhaps she got the nomination because she lied.

Enjoying Rethug senators having to deal with this shit-show.  Matt Gaetz.  Pete Hegseth.  RFK Jr.   Tulsi Gabbard.

Still, I think that this analysis from the Washington Post is most likely:

While several of those selections have stunned GOP leaders, including Trump’s pick of former GOP congressman Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general and former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, multiple Republican political advisers told The Washington Post that opposing one of Trump’s picks before they have been officially nominated is viewed as politically risky. GOP lawmakers may also try to block only one or several of the most controversial nominees rather than make a stand against all of them.

Yep. Flood the zone with disastrous nominees, get most of them confirmed.  Could well lead to Rethug Senate losses in 2026.

Who Is This Antonio Delgado?  I like him:

Like Goldwater after 1964, the Democratic Party can seize defeat to establish a new order — but the era of tinkering around the edges is over.

How did we get here?

The contemporary Democratic Party emerged from the “greed is good” era of the 1980s in part by co-opting pieces of the Reagan agenda. President Bill Clinton built a coalition — part working class, part Wall Street — that led Democrats back to the White House without redefining the political system. The limitations of this “third way” came to a head during the long recession following the financial crisis, when the party was tasked with charting a new direction. The truth is, it never did.

Faced with a global economic crisis, leaders of both parties worked to perpetuate a neoliberal order that people no longer trusted. Rather than create an agenda intimately tied to the people’s pain, the Democratic establishment helped rescue the institutions that had just pushed the economy to the brink of collapse, further cementing the public’s view that our political and economic system was rigged for the rich and powerful.

Tragically, our party has failed to rescue itself ever since. Mr. Trump’s success in 2016 and this month underscored the flaw inherent in the Democratic approach of promising to move forward while looking backward.

Our philosophy must make clear that the real threat to democracy is widening economic inequality and the colossal power of big money in politics. As Franklin Roosevelt said in 1936, “We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.”

This won’t happen from the top down as a group of Third Way types vie to be the next head of the DNC.  The good news? It’s already happening at the grassroots level, which is especially notable and successful in Delaware.  What I want to see next?:  A serious challenge to Chris Coons in 2026.  We can do this.

Bibi Charged With Genocide. Well, he continues to commit genocide every single day:

The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.

The warrants put Netanyahu and Gallant at risk of arrest if they travel abroad. There have been unconfirmed reports that Deif may have been killed by Israel.

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, had requested the arrest warrants in May, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for causing mass starvation in Gaza that constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the court, which is based in The Hague, and denies war crimes in Gaza. The ICC said on Thursday that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.

Looks like he’ll just have to take direct flights from Israel to Mar-A-Lago from now on as he faces arrest elsewhere.

Chicago Slow-Walks Court-Ordered Police Reform.  Here’s why:

Chicago police haven’t crafted a system for officers to work with residents to address threats to public safety.

They haven’t completed a mandatory study of where officers are assigned throughout the city and whether changes would help thwart crime.

And they have failed to move forward with a plan to alert police brass about which officers have been accused of misconduct more than once and might need counseling, retraining or discipline.

In fact, all told, police have fully complied with just 9% of the agreement’s requirements. And while excessive force complaints from citizens have dropped, complaints about all forms of misconduct have risen.

No major city exemplifies the stubborn problems of police misconduct more than Chicago, where a series of civil cases and wrongful convictions have led to expensive court settlements that regularly cost the city more than $80 million a year. Distrust in the community now makes attacking the city’s crime rate even harder.

Cops once again placing themselves above the law and refusing to comply with the courts.  If Matt Meyer accomplishes nothing else, holding police accountable would almost be enough.  Because the police won’t reform on their own.

Marcus Henry Names Pam Scott (??!!) As Co-Chair Of Transition Team.  AYFKM?  That on its own is enough to warrant a bundling party at the Tarabicos law offices.  Here’s but one article, this one by Cassandra Marshall from 2013, on the ethical malfeasance of Pam Scott, whose husband was, wait for it, NCC Executive Paul Clark.  The comments are enlightening as well.

This appointment by Marcus suggests that the Delaware Way continues to flourish in County government.  Very disappointing.

What do you want to talk about?

The Ultimate Reality Show Cabinet.  Yesterday’s entries:  Dr. Oz and Linda McMahon. Before somebody else predicts this, I figured I might as well: Trump is likely negotiating with Fox to give them exclusive rights to that reality show concept. (Oops, too late.  Bastard!)  Which is why he’s trying to fill his cabinet with people almost exclusively suited to the concept.  First Executive Producer/President of the United States in history.  Plus, seriously–Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education??

Google’s ‘Culture Of Concealment’:

The memo became the first salvo in a 15-year campaign by Google to make deletion the default in its internal communications. Even as the internet giant stored the world’s information, it created an office culture that tried to minimize its own. Among its tools: using legal privilege as an all-purpose shield and imposing restraints on its own technology, all while continually warning that loose lips could sink even the most successful corporation.

How Google developed this distrustful culture was pieced together from hundreds of documents and exhibits, as well as witness testimony, in three antitrust trials against the Silicon Valley company over the last year. The plaintiffs — Epic Games in one case, the Department of Justice in the other two — were trying to establish monopoly behavior, which required them to look through emails, memos and instant messages from hundreds of Google engineers and executives.

The exhibits and testimony showed that Google took numerous steps to keep a lid on internal communications. It encouraged employees to put “attorney-client privileged” on documents and to always add a Google lawyer to the list of recipients, even if no legal questions were involved and the lawyer never responded.

Nancy Mace: Sub-Human.  You knew someone was gonna do it, just didn’t know who:

Two weeks after the first openly transgender person was elected to Congress, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace has introduced a bill banning transgender women from using women’s bathrooms in the Capitol and in House offices.

“Biological men do not belong in private women’s spaces. Period. Full stop. End of story,” the congresswoman wrote in a social media post announcing the resolution. The bill hopes to prevent members and staff “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”

“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say here,” Mace also posted.

In case you’d forgotten about Nancy Mace:

“The member was abusive,” one former senior staffer told The Daily Beast, specifically pointing to the frequency with which Mace would communicate with her staff, either over text, Signal, or Monday.com—an unauthorized software system Mace uses in her office.

This former staffer said Mace uses the software to “micromanage the office all day and into the night and early morning.”

“It was constant,” this person said.

Another senior staffer recalled how Mace called them close to midnight on Christmas Eve and demanded to know why she wasn’t getting on TV more during the holiday week.

“If she needed us, we had to answer within eight minutes,” this staffer said, clarifying that the eight minute timeframe was actually a “rule.”

“Nancy is delusional as a boss,” the former staffer continued. “She says nothing publicly without her consultants or senior staffers telling her to, but takes credit for everything. She’s a walking teleprompter.”

Don’t forget this stunt she pulled, apparently unaware of the irony:

Nancy Mace, a Republican member of Congress who was a key vote in ousting Kevin McCarthy as House of Representatives speaker, has donned a white T-shirt with a red letter “A” on it to symbolize her being “demonized” for her decision.

“I’m wearing the scarlet letter after the week I just had, being a woman up here, and being demonized for my vote and for my voice,” Mace told reporters on Tuesday, adding: “I will do the right thing every single time, no matter the consequences.”

If I had fake boobs like hers, I might wear a similarly-snug T-shirt as well.  Or not.

The person who doesn’t belong in the women’s bathroom also doesn’t belong in Congress.  That person is Nancy Mace.

DNC Doubles Down On Centrist Mediocrity.  Martin O’Malley?  Rahm Emanuel?  Just what the Party needs–a return to the Clinton era. Oh, speaking of the Party of working people:

The union representing workers at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has accused the party’s leadership of a “callous” betrayal of party values after the sudden announcement of layoffs of permanent employees without severance.

“Despite record-breaking fundraising, the DNC failed to provide any financial support to those who have tirelessly served the Democratic Party and its mission,” said the union in a press release.

They compared the lack of severance to laid-off employees with the Harris-Walz campaign, which provided three weeks of severance to laid-off employees. “These cuts go far beyond typical campaign turnover and impact employees who were previously told their positions would be retained after the election,” the union claimed.

They compared the lack of severance to laid-off employees with the Harris-Walz campaign, which provided three weeks of severance to laid-off employees. “These cuts go far beyond typical campaign turnover and impact employees who were previously told their positions would be retained after the election,” the union claimed.

“I’m heartbroken. These are single parents. These are new parents. These are recent graduates. You can ask any laid-off employees, friend or family, and they will vouch for the toll this job takes on you. You already give up so much when you decide to work for this organization and now they’re taking our financial security as well.” said a former DNC staffer and union member who was one of the workers laid off.

Unionize While You Still Have The Chance.  Good news, impending bad news:

More than 50,000 students who work at U.S. universities have unionized over the past two years, the National Labor Relations Board announced Monday. The new bargaining units include graduate student teachers and researchers as well as undergraduate housing and dining employees.

All told, there are 51 new unions formed on campuses since 2022, representing roughly 50,300 workers, according to the NLRB. For context, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the entire labor movement added 139,000 members last year, much of it likely due to hiring by employers that were already unionized.

The collegiate organizing efforts have gotten a boost from favorable policies at the NLRB, which oversees private-sector union elections. But those policies may not last following former President Donald Trump’s victory this month.

What do you want to talk about?

The Fault, Dear Brutus, Is Them:

Mr. Trump’s election demonstrates how American tolerance for the unacceptable is nearly infinite. There are hundreds of absolutely mind-boggling things I could point to from the past decade — the suggestion of bleach injections to potentially treat the coronavirus and the wild QAnon conspiracy theories infecting millions of Americans, including politicians, and insulting veterans and making fun of the disabled. But three elections in a row, Mr. Trump has been a viable presidential candidate and our democracy has few guardrails to protect the country from the clear and present dangers he and his political appointees will continue to confer upon us.

Mr. Trump’s voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc. Many of them believe the most ludicrous things: babies being aborted after birth and children going to school as one gender and returning home surgically altered as another gender even though these things simply do not happen. Time and again, we hear the wild lies these voters believe and we act as if they are sharing the same reality as ours, as if they are making informed decisions about legitimate issues. We act as if they get to dictate the terms of political engagement on a foundation of fevered mendacity.

We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice. All of us should refuse to pretend that any of this is normal and that these voters are just woefully misunderstood and that if only the Democrats addressed their economic anxiety, they might vote differently. While they are numerous, that does not make them right.

Read the whole thing.  Highly-recommended.

Southern Segregation Academies Getting Bleeploads Of Taxpayers’ $$’s.  You know, because of ‘vouchers’:

Private schools across the South that were established for white children during desegregation are now benefiting from tens of millions in taxpayer dollars flowing from rapidly expanding voucher-style programs, a ProPublica analysis found.

In North Carolina alone, we identified 39 of these likely “segregation academies” that are still operating and that have received voucher money. Of these, 20 schools reported student bodies that were at least 85% white in a 2021-22 federal survey of private schools, the most recent data available.

Those 20 academies, all founded in the 1960s and 1970s, brought in more than $20 million from the state in the past three years alone. None reflected the demographics of their communities. Few even came close.

Called Opportunity Scholarships, North Carolina’s voucher program launched in 2014. At first, it was only for low-income families and had barely more than 1,200 participants. Then last fall, state lawmakers expanded eligibility to students of all income levels and those already attending private school, a move that sparked furious debate over the future of public education.

“We are ensuring that every child has the chance to thrive,” Republican Rep. Tricia Cotham argued. But Democratic Rep. Julie von Haefen pointed to vouchers’ “legacy of white supremacy” and called the expansion “a gross injustice to the children of North Carolina.”

Only slightly off-topic:  It’s long past time for Delaware’s governor, legislators and key policymakers to focus almost all of their efforts on addressing the needs of Delaware’s public schools and the students who attend them.  Enough of these fucking Tower Hill legacies imposing their vision on what education should look like in Delaware.  Consign them to the elite fringes where they belong.  And reside.

A $60 Billion Climate Solution.  It’s complicated, but doable.  They’re doing it in Nigeria:

  Only 22 percent of…e-waste is collected and recycled, the UN estimates. The rest is dumped, burned, or forgotten—particularly in rich countries, where most people have no convenient way to get rid of their old Samsung Galaxy phones, Xbox controllers, and myriad other gadgets. Indeed, every year, humanity is wasting more than $60 billion worth of so-called critical metals—the ones we need not only for electronics, but also for the hardware of renewable energy, from electric vehicle (EV) batteries to wind turbines.

In all of human history, we have extracted some 700 million tons of copper from the Earth. To meet our clean energy goals, we’ll have to mine as much again in 20-odd years. By 2050, the International Energy Agency estimates, global demand for cobalt for EVs alone will soar to five times what it was in 2022. Demand for nickel will be 10 times higher. Lithium, 15 times. “The prospect of a rapid increase in demand for critical minerals—well above anything seen previously in most cases—raises huge questions about the availability and reliability of supply,” the agency warns.

How one man in Nigeria is making a difference:

TJ is Tijjani Abubakar, an entrepreneur who has built a thriving business turning unwanted electronics into cash. His third-floor office, in a dingy concrete building across a roaring four-lane road from the Ikeja market, is a charnel house of dead mobile phones. At one end of the long, crowded room, two skinny young men with screwdrivers pull phone after phone from a sack and crack them like walnuts. Their practiced fingers pull out the green printed circuit boards and toss them with a clatter onto a growing heap at their feet.

Abubakar handles all manner of e-waste, but the phones are his specialty. There is just shy of one mobile account for every one of Nigeria’s 220 million people. “What do I see here?” he asks, indicating his roomful of workers. “I don’t know whether any of these people have a computer. But I know all of them have a phone.” And all of those phones will one day wear out, malfunction, or get tossed by someone eager for a newer model. In 2022, an estimated 5.3 billion mobile phones were discarded worldwide. If you put them end to end, they’d reach almost to the moon and back.

Abubakar handles all manner of e-waste, but the phones are his specialty. There is just shy of one mobile account for every one of Nigeria’s 220 million people. “What do I see here?” he asks, indicating his roomful of workers. “I don’t know whether any of these people have a computer. But I know all of them have a phone.” And all of those phones will one day wear out, malfunction, or get tossed by someone eager for a newer model. In 2022, an estimated 5.3 billion mobile phones were discarded worldwide. If you put them end to end, they’d reach almost to the moon and back.

OK, just read the whole thing.  It’s lengthy, but fascinating.

Goodbye, Springfield.  There goes the economy:

For companies in Springfield and in nearby communities that depend on Haitian labor, Trump’s comments could prove damaging. The Haitians who filled thousands of jobs at area packaging and auto plants have helped rejuvenate once-blighted neighborhoods and contributed to the local economy in myriad ways.

While many food products lining the shelves of Springfield’s Caribbean stores are imported, many items – bread from Florida and pinto beans from Nebraska – are American. Chicken, beef and eggs served at Haitian restaurants are regularly sourced from local farms.

Recently, a Haitian community organization bought a former fire station it hopes to turn into a facility for English language classes, drivers’ education and a meeting spot.

“I pay thousands of dollars in income and property taxes every year,” said Payen, “and – because I work with Haitians to file their taxes – I see their W-2s and so on. If these people leave, that money is gone from the city and the local economy.”

What do you want to talk about?

First trip around the usual news resources didn’t reveal much.  Gives me a chance to explore the more ‘esoteric’ media side streets.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Cow Colostrum.  More than I wanted to know, actually:

Colostrum is a form of milk that mammals produce in the days after they give birth. What does this mean for the body? According to one popular brand, their bovine colostrum supplement can “strengthen your skin, lung and gut barriers, rebuild your microbiome, and activate cellular health and performance to revive whole body health”.

Whole body health! That’s the dream. But can an aesthetically packaged powder actually achieve all of that?

Colostrum does have many health benefits, experts say. As with most supplements though, companies tend to overpromise what supplements can achieve, and a lack of regulation means that you can never be entirely sure about what you’re consuming.

According to Stanton and Linehan, current studies suggest that because of its unique bioactive components, bovine colostrum supplements offer multiple benefits for adults, “particularly those looking to enhance immunity, protect gut health or improve recovery and skin health”.

This comes with a couple of major caveats. First, there’s still a lot we don’t know, including how much of it one must consume to reap the benefits.

“There is not enough evidence for scientists to reach a consensus on the safety, effectiveness and optimum dose of bovine colostrum supplements,” says Laing.

Second, supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. This means there is no standardized practice for how any given product is manufactured.

Going out on a limb: RFK Jr. likes colostrum, doesn’t want it scientifically evaluated.

Is This Why Kids Can’t Read?  Didn’t even know about this.  We learned via phonics when we were in school:

Until a couple of years ago, Lucy Calkins was, to many American teachers and parents, a minor deity. Thousands of U.S. schools used her curriculum, called Units of Study, to teach children to read and write. Two decades ago, her guiding principles—that children learn best when they love reading, and that teachers should try to inspire that love—became a centerpiece of the curriculum in New York City’s public schools.

In Sold a Story, the reporter Emily Hanford argued that teachers had fallen for a single, unscientific idea—and that its persistence was holding back American literacy. The idea was that “beginning readers don’t have to sound out words.” That meant teachers were no longer encouraging early learners to use phonics to decode a new word—to say cuh–ah–tuh for “cat,” and so on. Instead, children were expected to figure out the word from the first letter, context clues, or nearby illustrations. But this “cueing” system was not working for large numbers of children, leaving them floundering and frustrated. The result was a reading crisis in America.

The backlash against Calkins strikes some onlookers, even those who are not paid-up Lucy partisans, as unfair. “She wouldn’t have been my choice for the picture on the ‘wanted’ poster,” James Cunningham, a professor emeritus of literacy studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told me. Indeed, over the course of several days spent with Calkins, and many more hours talking with people on all sides of this debate, I came to see her downfall as part of a larger story about the competing currents in American education and the universal desire for an easy, off-the-shelf solution to the country’s reading problems.

Interesting piece, no easy answers.

Trump Cabinet Haven For Sex Offenders.  We already know about Matt Gaetz.  Check Out Pete Hegseth:

More details are emerging about a 2017 sexual assault allegation made against Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s secretary of defense pick.

News of the allegation came to light Friday, when The Washington Post reported that members of Trump’s transition team had been made aware of the incident in a memo and were worried about its implications.

According to the Post, the alleged assault took place in a California hotel after a California Federation of Republican Women conference, and a complaint was made by the victim’s friend.

On Saturday, the publication received a statement from Hegseth’s lawyer Timothy Parlatore, confirming that the Fox News host had paid his accuser out of fear that he would lose his TV gig.

Speaking of NDA’s:

Parlatore maintains that a nondisclosure agreement was drawn up and signed more than two years after the ordeal, and a cease and desist was later sent after the woman threatened to sue.

This is the guy arguing for a ‘Christian Crusade’.  A perfect fit.

How Self-Styled ‘Art Hoe’ Rachel Baiman Dealt With the Election.  I’m kinda doing the same thing.  I included this especially because she’s reading a book that I read this year.  Didn’t think anybody else had read it:

While considering the problems with my own short story one morning, I fell down the rabbit hole of George Saunders, and decided to listen to his book “A Swim in the Pond in the Rain”, which is an analysis of seven Russian short stories, read by the Saunders and guests. I have to admit that I have been severely underslept this week with 7 AM van calls and midnight hotel arrivals, so a few of these beautiful and scenic Russian stories had me snoozing on the bench seat. But I loved hearing Saunders’ analysis of each author’s work, and it gave me ample fuel with which to tackle my own story.

Raise Parking Rates, Lose Business.  It was foreseeable, Newark didn’t foresee it:

Sasha Aber has owned Home Grown Cafe in Newark since it opened in 2000, but said the business has run into new challenges less than two years after a parking rate increase.

Aber told Newark City Council this week she has seen several customers cut back from 3 visits a week down to 1 as a result of the 2023 parking rate doubling hourly lot rates to $2.00, and putting on-street parking at $2.25/hour.

It was Newark’s first parking rate increase since 1999.

Newark traditionally halves those rates when most University of Delaware students are in session from December 16-January 15 and June 16-August 15, going to $1.25/hour on-street and $1.00/hour in municipal lots.

This year, however, the city is considering sticking with the primary rates, but offering free parking on Saturdays and Sundays between December 16 and January 20.

She said in what can be a competitive dining environment, a $4 parking bill for lunch or dinner can be enough to change choices.

“They can go to Newark Shopping Center, they can go to The Grove, they can go to Suburban Plaza, they can go a mile in any direction, and while they won’t be getting what I offer, they can get something similar or different, and it’s cheaper, and they think they’re getting a better deal.”

What do you want to talk about?

House NDA Disclosed.  Courtesy of WHYY:

As a general rule, members of the House staff are not permitted to discuss pending legislation, legislative projects or the professional/personal habits of legislators or other staff members with journalists, lobbyists, or members of the public, unless expressly directed to do so by their supervisor or appropriate House Leadership. Inquiries directed to you for which you have not been given instruction should be referred to your supervisor.

Disclosure of confidential information, without prior appropriate approval, may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination. By signing below, you are acknowledging that you have read this form and agree to the limitations on access to and use of confidential information and legislator e-mail.

Also, since the House has exempted itself from any requirement to release e-mails, such release as well is forbidden.

A Ring, A Mercedes, And A Watch Collection.  All used to belong to Rudy Giuiliani.  No more:

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia poll workers defamed by Rudolph W. Giuliani after the 2020 election, received his watch collection, a ring and his vintage Mercedes-Benz on Friday.

The deliveries, which Mr. Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, reported to the court on Friday, were a long time coming for the women, who are mother and daughter. It was also a small down payment on what the former New York City mayor owes them.

Last month, Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered Mr. Giuliani to hand over his car, his Madison Avenue apartment and his valuable collection of jewelry and sports memorabilia within seven days to a receivership controlled by Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss. That would enable them to start selling those items, the proceeds of which would serve as partial payment of the $148 million judgment against Mr. Giuliani.

Mr. Giuliani missed that deadline and subsequent others.

I’m gonna enjoy the slow but steady dripdripdrip of what remains of Giuliani’s manhood being stripped away from him.

The Plan Behind Trump’s Picks.  Yes, he has one.  This is a must-read:

The newspapers address the surprise and the shock by investigating each proposed appointment individually. And we need this. With detail comes leverage and power. But clarity must also come, and quickly. Each appointment is part of a larger picture. Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government.

In historical context we can see this. There is a history of the modern democratic state. There is also a history of engineered regime change and deliberate state destruction. In both histories, five key zones are health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. These people, with power over these areas of life, can make America impossible to sustain.

Imagine that you are a foreign leader who wishes to destroy the United States. How could you do so? The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. From this perspective, Trump’s proposed appointments — Kennedy, Jr.; Gaetz; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard — are perfect instruments. They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done. These proposed appointments look like a decapitation strike: destroying the American government from the top, leaving the body politic to rot, and the rest of us to suffer.

A decapitation strike.  To kill democracy.  I agree with Professor Snyder:  This is what we face.

RIP: Joyce Keeler.  I was saddened to read of her passing.  She was a wonderful colleague in the House.  Her irreverence almost certainly would have landed her in trouble with the humorless Petes and Vals of this world.  It’s one reason I liked her so much.

‘Braiding Sweetgrass’:  A gift on behalf of the ‘gifting economy’.  My youngest daughter gifted me this book.  I have become deeply impressed with the book’s author:

When the ecologist and writer Robin Wall Kimmerer is in a city for work and starts to feel disconnected from the natural world, she likes to do a breathing exercise. She inhales and thinks about how she is breathing in the breath of plants. And then she exhales, and she thinks about how her breath, in turn, gives plants life. “That is a super fundamental way to recognise our reciprocity in the living world; that we are not separate,” she tells me, speaking on a video call from her farm near Syracuse, in upstate New York.

Once you begin to recognise yourself as symbiotically connected to plants, it might shift your views on politics, too. One of the great “delusions” of market capitalism, Kimmerer continues, is its notion of self-interest. Because how should you define the self? “If my self is the economic me, supposed to maximise my return on investment, that’s a very different notion than if my self is permeable, if it includes the trees whose oxygen I am breathing, and those birds, and the soil,” she says.

Kimmerer’s second book, Braiding Sweetgrass, was published in 2013 by the small nonprofit publisher Milkweed Editions and became a word-of-mouth sensation, entering the bestseller lists in 2020 – where it remains – and selling more than 2m copies. It is beautiful and unusual, the rare book that might cause you to forever see the world a little differently. In lyrical essays that span science, memoir, Indigenous wisdom and storytelling, Kimmerer, who is Native American, invites people to reconsider their relationship with plants and animals. She tells me she wanted to “help people fall in love with the world again”.

Her new book, The Serviceberry, is a slim, elegant distillation of some of her political ideas. It uses the serviceberry – a wild, red-purple berry, also known as a juneberry or sugarplum – to explore the idea of the gift economy, one structured around interconnectedness and reciprocity, as an alternative to the market economy. The serviceberry shares its wealth, its berries, freely with the natural world, and these birds, insects and humans in turn ensure its survival. In this world, all flourishing is mutual.

The Gift Economy:  All flourishing is mutual.  Somehow, that soothes me.  In these times, why not close on a soothing note?

What do you want to talk about?

WHYY Adds Yet More Context To The House NDA Story:

Delaware House leaders are trying to distance themselves from the revelation that some staffers were pressured to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) over the past year.

Three lawmakers and a former staffer say it was newly chosen Majority Leader Kerris Evelyn Harris or former Speaker Valerie Longhurst who came up with the idea to require confidentiality agreements. The Democrats say the aides were not allowed to keep a copy of the agreements.

It’s unclear how many staffers signed NDAs. The three lawmakers said they were told an outside law firm, not House attorneys, drafted them. If so, it’s unclear how the legal work was funded.

Despite people being aware of the NDA requirements for staffers for several months, a spokesperson for the House leadership team said this issue was just recently brought to their attention and they are investigating it. The former House staffer said he’s sure whose idea it was.

“I can tell you that this is 100% solely the brainchild of the former speaker,” he said. “This is all [Longhurst].”  (Uh, no, Kerri Evelyn Harris’ fingerprints are all over this.  I’ll have a DL Exclusive later today to make that perfectly clear.)

The three lawmakers said Harris told them during the caucus meeting that all staff would be signing NDAs going forward. But a House spokesperson said no one under newly chosen Speaker Mimi Minor Brown will be required to sign one. Calls to Harris and Minor Brown received no response.  (Well, somebody’s lying here.)

OK, kids, assuming that Longhurst and Harris hatched this plan, it is impossible to believe that Minor Mimi was unaware.  Our PAL Val was the Speaker.  Harris was the Majority Whip.  Yet the then-Majority Leader didn’t know about this?  I call bullshit. Even if she was also busy triple-dipping at Del-Tech and the University of Delaware. Regardless, the House Democratic Caucus might want to meet again to reconsider its leadership team in light of what has already come out.  With more to come later today.

Donald Trump’s Reality Show:

As was the case during his first term, Trump does not so much assemble a Cabinet as cast a reality show. He wants the members of his team to have a certain look, a certain backstory, a certain persona. He chose South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem as his nominee for homeland security secretary despite — or perhaps because of — her story about shooting her family’s puppy for misbehavior. He knows that Gaetz is widely loathed on Capitol Hill, including by fellow Republicans, and has the sneering arrogance of a professional wrestling villain. Hegseth has the square-jawed looks of a G.I. Joe action figure.

Trump’s announcement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary is in a category of its own — a cruel joke on all of us. If his conspiracy-theory distrust of vaccines ever becomes policy, children will die.

These are unserious choices that will make our nation less secure. The one exception, so far, is Trump’s pick of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to be secretary of state; he, at least, has the requisite knowledge and experience. But I doubt he will be able to use those tools, since Trump bases his foreign policy on which foreign leaders are sufficiently obsequious in flattering him and which are not.

Meet Suck-Up #1:  While other Rethug senators’ heads exploded at the idea of having to vote to confirm Matt Gaetz to be AG, one senator said the following:

“He’s smart — clever guy,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said of Mr. Gaetz, adding: “I usually support presidential picks to be in their cabinet. I’ve done that for both sides. That’s my disposition.”

The disposition of a lap-dog.

Others were not nearly so enthusiastic:

“He’s got his work really cut out for him,” Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, said, chuckling as she spoke.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, raised his eyebrows when reporters informed him of Mr. Trump’s choice.

“I’m still trying to absorb all this,” he said. Mr. Cornyn later told reporters: “I don’t really know him, other than his public persona.”

“I was shocked by the announcement — that shows why the advice and consent process is so important,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, who has sometimes clashed with Mr. Trump. “I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing.”

“I don’t think he’s a serious candidate,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who also has broken with Mr. Trump frequently, said of Mr. Gaetz.

Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, refused to speak specifically about Mr. Gaetz’s candidacy, repeating that he was looking forward to all of Mr. Trump’s nominees receiving confirmation hearings and getting the president-elect’s cabinet in place.

Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa and a former chair of the Judiciary Committee, stood expressionless as reporters asked him if he had any concerns about Gaetz, refusing to answer.

BTW, Gaetz resigned from the House yesterday, just days before…

…the House Ethics Committee was set to vote this week on releasing a report about Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), who resigned from Congress on Wednesday after being picked as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The Ethics Committee is still expected to meet and could release the report as soon as Friday, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.

Gaetz has been under investigation by House Ethics, a bipartisan committee made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, for allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use and accepted improper gifts. If a lawmaker is under investigation by the committee and resigns, is expelled or leaves Congress, the Ethics Committee immediately ceases any ongoing investigation.

Maybe Trump will get the Rethugs to support his recess appointment scheme:

A recess appointment, however, allow presidents to install their nominee to the position while the Senate is in recess, without a confirmation hearing or vote, according to the Recess Appointments Clause in the U.S. Constitution. It says: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”

So this means if a president manages to make a recess appointment, that individual’s term would only last for about two years. At that point, the person could be appointed again through the same recess appointment or through the regular Senate confirmation process.

TPM reviewed Hegseth’s youthful writings, including one year of columns for the Tory. They represent some of his earliest forays into political commentary, as Hegseth highlighted aspects of campus life that evidently turned him into a conservative firebrand. In pieces for the Tory, Hegseth and the team he oversaw railed against efforts to promote diversity on campus and what they described as the immoral “homosexual lifestyle.” Hegseth also cheered the Iraq War, wondered whether Princeton was too laudatory of Martin Luther King Jr., and advocated for children receiving “strong discipline” from their parents “in the form of spankings, moving next to soap-in-the-mouth.”

The company, the largest distributor of home oxygen equipment in the United States, admitted billing Medicare for ventilators it knew customers weren’t using (2024) and overcharging Medicare and thousands of elderly patients (2023). It settled allegations of violating a law against kickbacks (2018) and charging Medicare for patients who had died (2017). The company resolved lawsuits alleging a “nationwide scheme to pay physicians kickbacks to refer their patients to Lincare” (2006) and that it falsified claims that its customers needed oxygen (2001). (Lincare admitted wrongdoing in only the two most recent settlements.)

Such a litany of Medicare-related misconduct might be expected to provoke drastic action from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federal health insurance program that covers 1 in 6 Americans. Given that most of Lincare’s estimated $2.4 billion in annual revenues are paid by Medicare, HHS wields tremendous power over the company.

Sure enough, as part of the 2023 settlement, HHS placed Lincare on the agency’s equivalent of probation, a so-called corporate integrity agreement.

That sounds dire. Except that before that corporate integrity agreement was signed in 2023, Lincare was under the same form of probation, with the same death penalty provision, from 2018 to 2023, and violated its terms. From 2006 to 2011, Lincare was similarly on probation and also violated the terms, according to the government. And before that — well, you get the picture. Lincare has been on probation four times since 2001. And despite a pattern not only of fraud, but of breaking its probation agreements, Lincare has never been required to do more than pay settlements that amount to pennies relative to its profits.

This is not an aberration. While HHS routinely imposes the death penalty on small operations, it has never barred a national Medicare supplier like Lincare from continuing to do business with the government. Some companies, it seems, are too big to ban.