Jonathan Pie on what is happening in the UK

I have not been following events there lately but according to Pie, 14 years of conservative rule has resulted in the drastic reduction of nearly all public services and the degradation of life for ordinary people in favor of giving tax cuts to millionaires and big business.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak seems determined to stay the course even though the government lost two by-elections to Labour on February 15th, where the seats had been held by Conservatives, and is heading into a general election within the year with low approval ratings.

But then another by-election on February 29th saw George Galloway, formerly of the Labour Party but now head of the Workers Party, win a seat that had been held by Labour, with a vote share of 40%.. The race for that election was messy, to put it mildly, with the Labour Party withdrawing support for its own candidate, resulting in him coming in 4th, getting just around 8% of the vote. An independent candidate came second to Galloway with 21%, and the Conservative candidate came third with 12%. Given the peculiar nature of this race, it is hard to say what the result implies for the coming general election.

Film review: The Lost King (2023)

I do not share the admiration that some people have for British royalty, instead seeing them as a long line of greedy and murderous individuals who connived their way to the throne and sucked wealth from the people. But I am a sucker for mysteries and the story of Richard III has many unresolved puzzles and so I watched this film that is based on the true story of one woman’s quest to find out the truth about the man who died in 1485 at the young age of 32. He has long been portrayed as exceedingly malevolent, scheming, vicious, and murderous, whose personality was twisted by the rejection he felt due to his physical deformity of being a hunchback and who usurped the throne after the death of his brother the king and imprisoned his two nephews in the Tower of London and later had them murdered because he saw them as potential rivals to the throne.

But later scholarship suggests that he may not have been nearly as evil as has been traditionally portrayed and also that his physical deformity may have been not as severe and that the evidence is scant that he murdered his nephews. These revisionists argue that the ‘official’ story was put out by his successors in order to discredit him and build support for their own rule.
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John Oliver on the lack of ethics in the US Supreme Court

After examining the blatant violations of ethical norms by justices Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, Oliver comes up with an idea to coax Thomas to leave the court by appealing to the one thing that seems to drive him: the desire to live like a very wealthy person who likes to drive around in a massive motor home. In public, Thomas talks about how he is battling the elites on behalf of ordinary people while in reality he loves to be the beneficiary of lavish vacations and gift from billionaires while ruling in ways that harm ordinary people. A really sleazy hypocrite.

Oliver offers him a contract where Thomas will be paid $1 million per year for the rest of his life and also get possession of a top-of-the-line motor home costing $2.5 million (that includes a bedroom with a king-size bed, 1 ½ bathrooms, and a full-size refrigerator) if he leaves the court. The offer is time limited in that Thomas has just 30 days from the date of the show (February 18th) to sign the contract. Oliver says that the money will come from him personally and that he has checked with lawyers and that, amazingly, making such an offer is legal.

I do not think that there is any chance that Thomas will accept the offer. Even though he loves to live the high life and would have no scruples about accepting it, like any person without a strong sense of ethics, he may suspect that others are like him and that the offer is not genuine and that if he makes moves towards accepting it, Oliver will unmask him, even though I think Oliver’s offer is genuine.

How US conservatives learned to stop worrying and love Russia

What I find astonishing is how opinions in the US towards Russia among self-styled conservatives has shifted dramatically over the recent past. During the Cold War, and even for some years after, it used to be that right-wingers were vehemently anti-Russia in their attitudes, since it was the largest component of the Soviet Union and thus emblematic of godless Communism. It was seen as directly opposite to the capitalist Christian values that they espoused, and demonization of Russia was rampant. It was the left and liberals who tried to tamp down this feeling, seeing it as dangerously inflammatory in a nuclear age when a military conflict between the two nations had to be avoided.

But how times have changed. Nowadays the right-wing is not only not hostile to Russia, they seem to be positively supportive and enamored of its president Vladimir Putin. We even had serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) make the astonishing statement that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO country that did not meet its NATO obligations, though it was clear that he did not understand the nature of those obligations, speaking as if it consisted of dues to be paid (like the membership in his golf clubs) rather than what it really is, a commitment by each nation to spend a specific proportion of their GDP on their own defense forces.
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When conservatives let their guard down

The annual meeting of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) was held last week. It used to be the gathering where conservatives would have discussions about how to advance their policy goals in public life. These used to concern economics, foreign policy, and major social issues. But in the age when it seems like every conservative seeks to please serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT), wonky panel discussions on weighty matters have given way to feeding red meat to the attendees on whatever things that SSAT chooses to rant about. Add to this, the multiple sexual assault allegations made against the CPAC chair Matt Schlapp that led to a $9 million lawsuit against him has cast a cloud over the organization.

Carlton Huffman, a Republican staffer on Herschel Walker’s US senate campaign, initially accused Schlapp of sexually assaulting him last year. Huffman had been assigned to drive Schlapp to campaign events in the Atlanta area and alleged Schlapp fondled him without his consent during a car ride in October 2022.

According to new reporting, based on court documents obtained by The Washington Post, Schlapp was also accused of sexual misconduct twice before – first in 2017 and then in early 2022. The updated court filing alleges the incidents were reported to staffers of the American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, but “no action was taken against Schlapp,” according to The Post.

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The death of Alexei Navalny shows how unchecked power leads to reckless actions

It is a cliche that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and we have seen that play out repeatedly in the political sphere where leaders who arrogate to themselves increasing amounts of power at the expense of counterbalancing democratic institutions become more and more reckless and abusive.

We see this in the case of Russian leader Vladimir Putin who over the years has increasingly undermined Russian democracy and consolidated power in his own hands. Whatever historical reasons he might have given for thinking that Ukraine was actually part of Russia, his invasion of that country was reckless and has not gone well, resulting in a large number of deaths and injuries and destruction, with no end in sight. Although reliable numbers are hard to obtain, it is quite possible that there are a substantial number of Russians who support the invasion, since the move symbolizes the creation of a greater Russia and nationalists tend to favor actions that seem to enhance the power and reach of their country.

The repeated sudden deaths of people who oppose Putin have also become so common that official denials of lack of complicity are highly disingenuous. But the death in captivity on February 16th of dissident Alexei Navalny could well be a bridge too far. Here was a young and healthy man, a vocal critic of Putin, who dies suddenly with no official word on the cause of death or even an autopsy, as far as I know. While the authorities initially refused to hand over the body to his mother, they finally conceded and a funeral was held. I do not know why the family did not arrange for an independent autopsy before the burial.

The recklessness of Putin can be seen by comparing the Navalny case with that of Nelson Mandela. Mandela was a prisoner of the apartheid regime on South Africa for decades. I read that the South African government was fearful that if Mandela died in captivity, that would create a major uproar locally and internationally and so they made every effort to make sure that he was not in danger even as they refused to release him. But Navalny seemed to have received no similar consideration. Whether his death will galvanize opposition to Putin’s stranglehold on power remains to be seen.

Mary Poppins gets a PG rating

If you had to pick a film that you think would be totally wholesome fun for the whole family, Mary Poppins would seem like a good bet. So I was surprised to learn that it is now being given a PG rating (which stands for Parental Guidance) by British censors, a step up from its previous U (Universal) rating.

Why?

Because it has ‘discriminatory language’, specifically the word ‘hottentots’.

In it, a derogatory term originally used by white Europeans about nomadic peoples in southern Africa is used to refer to soot-faced chimney-sweeps.
…

In the film, Admiral Boom, a neighbour and Naval veteran who thinks he is still in charge of a ship, uses the word twice.

The British Board of Film Classification said it classified the film in 1964 and then again for a re-release in 2013.

“Most recently, the film was resubmitted to us in February 2024 for another theatrical re-release, and we reclassified it PG for discriminatory language,” a spokesperson said.

“Mary Poppins (1964) includes two uses of the discriminatory term ‘hottentots’.

“While Mary Poppins has a historical context, the use of discriminatory language is not condemned, and ultimately exceeds our guidelines for acceptable language at U. We therefore classified the film PG for discriminatory language.”

The Oxford English Dictionary says the term, which referred to the Khoikhoi and San people, is “generally considered both archaic and offensive”.

Hottentots is a word that I had heard of before and had a vague idea that it referred to a group of people but could not have told you who they were, somewhat like the group ‘Huguenots’. I learned who the Huguenots were only after reading The Three Musketeers. I did not know that Hottentots was an offensive term.

Some people might think that this is yet another example of hypersensitivity but I think that it is because the people being thus described are not as well known. But just as we now avoid labels that are seen as slurs when used for groups of people whom we know, we should be just as willing to avoid using slurs for the less well-known.

Haley exposes Trump’s weakness

Nikki Haley lost to serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) in the South Carolina primary by a margin of 60-40%. Some observers had expected that although she had vowed before the election to stay in the race whatever the outcome, that was jus bravado to keep her supporters motivated to still come out and vote for her. But after her loss, Haley gave a speech where she vowed to continue, promising to make big ad buys in Michigan that voted on February 27 (where she lost again by a margin of 68-27%) and in the many Super Tuesday states that vote on March 5th. Oddly enough, the more she loses, the more she seems to be enjoying being in the race and needling SSAT, which must be greatly infuriating him.

The media are portraying South Carolina as a big win for SSAT but I don’t see it that way. Sure winning by 20% points is pretty convincing in a normal race but not when you consider that as the former president, SSAT is like an incumbent with all the advantages that it brings. Furthermore, pretty much every member of the state Republican establishment, including its elected representatives, endorsed SSAT. Senator Tim Scott was particularly obsequious in his support for SSAT despite Haley having initially appointed him to that position. The only factor going for Haley was that she had once been the governor of that state, which would undoubtedly have helped her by giving her a lot of name recognition and familiarity with voters.
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Yay, we are back!

As you are no doubt aware, the entire Freethoughtsblog network has been down for a week. PZ Myers at Pharyngula has been working tirelessly to identify the problem and rectify it and finally succeeded.

He explains that the problem was an entirely spurious allegation that was made to our blog hosting service by someone who goes by the name “Deathlord Al-Zawahiri”, and how it was resolved.

This surprises me. You would have thought that getting a complaint from someone who styles themselves with such an absurd name would be cause for serious skepticism. But the people who run these places do not seem to exercise much common sense.

Anyway, thanks to PZ for his tireless work. We don’t pay him nearly enough. In fact, we do not pay him anything at all. He does this purely out of personal commitment.