Even a cult leader’s death does not kill the cult

Two years ago I wrote about a particularly bizarre cult surrounding John F. Kennedy Jr. that believes that he faked his own death and would be returning as serial sex abuser Donald Trump’s (SSAT) running mate for 2024. A large crowd of believers of this cult congregated at Dealey Plaza (where JFK was assassinated) in November 2021 on the 58th anniversary of his death thinking that both father and son would appear there. Spoiler alert: They did not appear.

The leader of this particular QAnon subcult was someone named Michael Protzman who also went by the label Negative48.
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The other GOP primary

The Republican primary race is heating up even though the first actual contest in Iowa is still six months away. The first debate among the candidates is scheduled for August but which members of the already crowded field will meet the criteria set by the. Republican National Committee is still unknown.

Another big unknown is whether serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) will take part in the debates. Typically, a candidate who is far ahead in the polls (like SSAT is) will try to avoid taking part in debates, and those who are far behind are eager to do so. The low-ranking candidates seek to raise their national profile by appearing on a national stage on an equal footing with their competitors while the high ranking ones want to deny them that opportunity.
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Musk has the mind of a six-year old

Twitter has been in the news a lot and not in a good way, as Elon Musk erratically makes changes to its operations, seemingly without necessarily thinking things through, most significantly firing more than half of its workforce as a cost-cutting move that has had a deleterious impact on the user experience. The resulting chaos has resulted in widespread grumbling among users as well the entry of competitors like Meta’s Threads system seeking to take advantage of its woes. Threads racked up over 100 million users within a week of its unveiling and Twitter has reportedly blocked links to that service.

As is often the case when reporters write about these things, they contact the people and companies they are writing about to get a response before going to press. Sometimes the respondent simply says ‘no comment’ or issues some kind of bland statement. But not Twitter. They do not have a media relations department anymore but when a reporter contacted them to ask about a $500 million lawsuit that was filed against them by laid-off employees who had not been given the contracted severance payment, the company responded with a poop emoji.

This is not the first time that Twitter has responded this way to media requests. It has apparently become company policy to respond this way. Musk is claiming credit for this practice, saying that he has decided that all press requests will get this automatic reply.

One has to wonder about the mind of an adult who has not outgrown the notion that scatological references are clever and/or funny.

A bizarre reason for allowing groping

A judge in Italy has issued what can only be described as bizarre reasoning in acquitting a school caretaker of groping a 17-year old student. There was no doubt about what the groper had done. The attacker did not deny it.

The case involves a 17-year-old student at a Rome high school.

She described walking up a staircase to class with a friend, when she felt her trousers fall down, a hand touching her buttocks and grabbing her underwear.
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Well, this was weird

I had been reading about an ad put out by the DeSantis campaign that has political observers scratching their heads in mystification. I took a look at it and it was decidedly strange. It starts with what looks like an attack on serial sex abuser Trump for saying things in the past that are supportive of LGBTQ+ rights and then veers off into some high volume, frenetic, macho imagery, and drum-like sound, interspersed with images of bodybuilders striking poses and gladiators in helmets, all the while making the point that there is no one who hates transgender people more than him and taking pride in criticisms of him for his harsh actions against them.

It is bonkers. It is so over-the-top that it could easily be mistaken for an anti-DeSantis parody ad.

I am not the target demographic for this ad so the fact that it did not appeal to me does not mean much. But I am puzzled as to which groups might find it appealing, other than virulent transphobes. This was not put out by the official DeSantis campaign but by a group supporting him and there is no sign that the campaign has tried to disassociate themselves from the ad. It is a clear sign that DeSantis thinks that his path to the nomination is to run on an even angrier, harder-line right-wing stance on hot button social issues than all the other Republicans in the field.

A sobering analysis of what it might take to overcome vaccine skepticism

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. epitomizes the modern American success story. He has no notable achievements of his own but because of inherited family wealth and the well-known Kennedy name (he is the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy), he has the kind of influence that is so helpful in staying relevant. In fact, the ‘success’ of the entire Kennedy clan can be traced back to the ambitions of his wealthy grandfather Joseph Kennedy who paved the way to elite education and political success for his descendants.

Kennedy has now entered the contest for the Democratic nomination for president. He is a notorious anti-vaccine crusader and this will simply give him a platform to further propagate his views, while the family name will give him more publicity. Indeed his anti-vaccine misinformation got him banned from Facebook and Instagram and he used the loophole of his candidacy to get back on those platforms. He is also a hypocrite. While making all manner of outlandish and offensive claims about the dangers of vaccines, when he hosted a party at his home, he urged all guests to be vaccinated or be tested for Covid-19. He has also profited greatly from his anti-vaccine stance.
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Targeting legacy admissions

The US Supreme Court has struck down the use of race as a factor in considering applications for all colleges and universities in the US. This was not entirely unexpected given the court”s ideological leanings, but it was disappointing nonetheless.

But when it comes to elite educational institutions, there is one very large group of people who have been getting preferential treatment in admissions but the legitimacy of which has not been subject to legal review and that is the preference given to so-called “legacy admissions” (applicants whose families have attended that school) and children of wealthy donors, all of whom are able to gain admission with lower academic performances. Preferences are also given to students who have athletic or other extra-curricular success. And the overwhelming majority of such people are white, making this, in effect, affirmative action for white people.

But those preferences are now coming under greater scrutiny.
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Justice Alito and the Wall Street Journal

While much of liberal ire with some of the decisions of the US Supreme.Court has focused on justice Clarence Thomas’s opinions, I have long felt that justice Samuel Alito is the most reactionary member of the court, the one most likely to offer tortured reasoning to justify what seems like pre-ordained conclusions based on his extremely conservative ideology.

Both Thomas and Alito have been the targets of investigative reports by ProPublica about the gifts and lavish vacations that they have been given, including travel on private jets, by wealthy individuals who, directly or indirectly, have had cases before the court. They did not disclose these trips and the private jet travel in their financial disclosure forms.

In the case of Alito, though, he went one step further than Thomas. As is customary with good journalistic outfits, prior to publishing their story, ProPublica informed Alito that they were preparing a story and sent him a list of questions to make sure they were being fair and accurate. What was unusual was that Alito used that to publish a ‘prebuttal’ in the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal the day before the ProPublica piece even appeared.
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