Circle (of) Jerk(s)

 Most readers of this feature have long suspected Jeffrey Toobin of being a bit of a wanker. Apparently he took it to heart, so to speak: 

Has a lot of pull

A top US legal analyst has been suspended by New Yorker magazine after he exposed himself on a Zoom call.

Jeffrey Toobin, 60, also a prominent CNN commentator, has been in demand as the US election campaign intensifies.

The incident, first reported by Vice News, happened during an election simulation involving the New Yorker and WNYC radio last week.

Mr Toobin, in a statement to Vice, said: "I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera."

Not just exposing himself, though:

The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin for masturbating on a Zoom video chat between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio last week. Toobin says he did not realize his video was on.

So what kinda Zoom call was this? Back to the second link:

Two people who were on the call told VICE separately that the call was an election simulation featuring many of the New Yorker's biggest stars: Jane Mayer was playing establishment Republicans; Evan Osnos was Joe Biden, Jelani Cobb was establishment Democrats, Masha Gessen played Donald Trump, Andrew Marantz was the far right, Sue Halpern was left wing democrats, Dexter Filkins was the military, and Jeffrey Toobin playing the courts. There were also a handful of other producers on the call from the New Yorker and WNYC. 

I will say this: having the notorious lefty Jane Mayer pretending to be "establishment Republicans" isn't nearly as a big a stretch as one might think.

Okay, let's think about this. You had a bunch of big-shot writers LARPing on a Zoom call. The players (so to speak) are indulging in a strange fantasy ritual. And in the midst of this Toobin changed his surname into an Urban Dictionary verb. Just a reminder: these are our betters.

Something I don't get

 Why does any Republican sit down for an interview with Bob Woodward? Under any circumstances? I don't think Woodward's latest broadside against Trump is going to make much of a difference, but seriously, Woodward has been in the business of screwing Republicans for nearly 50 years, and yet Trump and the rest of the politicians take his calls and sit for interviews with the guy.

Don't understand it.

Friends and neighbors

On the streets of Minneapolis last night:

In the end, at about 4:22, the Alpha News reporter gets a face full of temporary bollard and her phone is stolen. The phone was apparently found in a fountain the next day, destroyed, but the footage was retrievable. And this video is the footage in question.

You can argue that protest movements are about justice, but this isn't justice. These are not people seeking justice. Larceny and aggravated battery are not justice. There is a fundamental emptiness in their lives, which you can hear in the desperation of their F-bomb laden screeching. And all the SJW cant and street violence cannot fill the void. These are fundamentally broken people. And in their rage, they are intent on dragging others into their void. Don't let them.

Question for the audience

Technical question, actually:

• Do you use an ad blocker?
• If you don't, do you see ads on my blog?

The reason I'm asking is my ad blocker indicates it's blocked multiple ads on my site. And I don't have ads on my site, at least that I've authorized.

Let me know -- I'm curious about this.

Who knew?

I'm impressed by this. The Guardian must have a hell of a Twin Cities bureau to scoop everyone about this development:

A pro-Trump Republican candidate for Congress who is aiming to unseat Ilhan Omar in Minnesota has been charged with a felony after allegedly stealing from stores.

Danielle Stella was arrested twice this year in Minneapolis suburbs over allegations that she shoplifted items worth more than $2,300 from a Target and goods valued at $40 from a grocery store. She said she denied the allegations.

Stella, a 31-year-old special education teacher, was reported this week to be a supporter of the baseless “QAnon” conspiracy theory about Donald Trump battling a global cabal of elite liberal paedophiles.

I follow politics fairly closely. I'd never heard of Stella before. Had you? Impressive bit of reporting by the Guardian, I gotta say.

I'm pretty sure I saw the Elite Liberal Paedophiles open for the Del Fuegos at the Turf Club back in '88.

Franken Agonistes

Al Franken wants his old job back:

At his house, Franken said he understood that, in such an atmosphere, the public might not be eager to hear his grievances. Holding his head in his hands, he said, “I don’t think people who have been sexually assaulted, and those kinds of things, want to hear from people who have been #MeToo’d that they’re victims.” Yet, he added, being on the losing side of the #MeToo movement, which he fervently supports, has led him to spend time thinking about such matters as due process, proportionality of punishment, and the consequences of Internet-fuelled outrage. He told me that his therapist had likened his experience to “what happens when primates are shunned and humiliated by the rest of the other primates.” Their reaction, Franken said, with a mirthless laugh, “is ‘I’m going to die alone in the jungle.’ ”

And now, a musical interlude:

Regrets, he has a few, which Franken shared with Jane Mayer, last seen going after Brett Kavanaugh for things Kavanaugh hadn't done, but now in commiseration mode with a politician who actually did things:

When I asked him if he truly regretted his decision to resign, he said, “Oh, yeah. Absolutely.” He wishes that he had appeared before a Senate Ethics Committee hearing, as he had requested, allowing him to marshal facts that countered the narrative aired in the press. 

The piece I've linked, in the New Yorker, is very long and full of attempts at exculpation. Does Franken deserve a second chance? Was what happened to Franken fair?

Well, Franken's not going to get to represent Minnesota in the Senate again, unless Tina Smith were to stand down. Do you see that happening? I don't. Do you think Franken is going to primary Smith, the former Planned Parenthood executive? Do you think the DFL would let him? I don't. If Amy Klobuchar were to retire after her term is up (she's not going to be president, you know), Franken could run for that seat, but he'll have to wait until 2024 to have a chance. Franken will be 73 years old at that time, and there's little reason to believe Klobuchar would give up her seat in any event, unless she runs for president again. If that were to happen, there's a gaggle of younger DFL politicians a mile long who would want her seat and would not be amenable to standing aside to let Franken assuage his psyche.

If Franken really wants to avenge his situation, there's another solution: move back to New York and challenge Kirsten Gillibrand. Of course, he'd have to wait until 2024 for that chance, too. But if he's got anyone to blame for his fate, assuming he doesn't look in the mirror, Gillibrand is the culprit. Back to Mayer:

Minutes after Politico posted the story, Senator Gillibrand’s chief of staff called Franken’s to say that Gillibrand was going to demand his resignation. Franken was stung by Gillibrand’s failure to call him personally. They had been friends and squash partners. In a later call, Gillibrand’s chief of staff offered to have Gillibrand speak with Franken, but by that time Franken was frantically conferring with his staff and his family. Franken’s office proposed that Franken’s daughter speak with Gillibrand instead, but Gillibrand declined.

Gillibrand then went on Facebook and posted her demand that Franken resign: “Enough is enough. The women who have come forward are brave and I believe them. While it’s true that his behavior is not the same as the criminal conduct alleged against Roy Moore, or Harvey Weinstein, or President Trump, it is still unquestionably wrong, and should not be tolerated.”

Minutes later, at a previously scheduled press conference, Gillibrand added insult to injury: she reiterated her call for Franken to resign while also trumpeting her sponsorship of a new bill that banned mandatory arbitration of sexual-harassment claims. She didn’t mention that Franken had originated the legislation—and had given it to Gillibrand to sponsor, out of concern that it might be imperilled by his scandal.

For her part, Gillibrand regrets nothing:

I recently asked Gillibrand why she felt that Franken had to go. She said, “We had eight credible allegations, and they had been corroborated, in real time, by the press corps.” She acknowledged that she hadn’t spoken to any accusers, to assess their credibility, but said, “I had been a leader in this space of sexual harassment and assault, and it was weighing on me.” Franken was “entitled to whichever process he wants,” she said. “But he wasn’t entitled to me carrying his water, and defending him with my silence.” She acknowledged that the accusations against Franken “were different” from the kind of rape or molestation charges made against many other #MeToo targets. “But the women who came forward felt it was sexual harassment,” she said. “So it was.”

So Franken got knifed by an ambitious pol who pretended to be his friend. Should we be sympathetic to his plight? You can if you'd like. But as far as I'm concerned, if I'm going to feel sympathy for a former Minnesota senator, I'll pick Norm Coleman instead.

Total solutions

The invaluable Richard Fernandez on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's fever dream:

But even if money were no object the total commitment required by the Green New Deal incurs the opportunity cost of not pursuing an alternative strategy based on cheaper energy and climate adaptation -- or even doing nothing.  The Green New Deal for example rules out clean nuclear power.  It can brook no rivals because solving Global Warming requires every resource we can muster.  If we spend trillions on the GND we've no money left for anything else if it bombs. 

Organisms in nature typically undertake multiple parallel strategems in order to survive.  "The Red Queen hypothesis, also referred to as Red Queen's, Red Queen's race or the Red Queen effect, is an evolutionary hypothesis which proposes that organisms must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate not merely to gain reproductive advantage, but also simply to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing organisms in a constantly changing environment.

Nature attacks and defends on many fronts. But a giant ideological bureaucracy can do what Darwin can't: embark on a single strategy to the exclusion of all else.  Nature hedges its bets but only socialism can bet the farm. 

When I was AOC's age, I was pretty certain about many things, but in the 25 or so years that have followed, I've been disabused of many notions. The World Wide Web was, in 1993, still in its infancy. Amazon, the company that has essentially taken over vast sector of retailing in this country, had not yet opened its portal, so to speak. The term "brick and mortar," to the extent it was a term, was not a pejorative. I was working for a large retail organization then and hardly anyone there could have envisioned what has come to pass since then.

Perhaps events will unfold as AOC envisions. But are you willing to sign up for her vision?

Lightning Round -- 020419

Freezing rain this morning. Yes, it's about 55 degrees warmer than it was a few days ago, but Mother Nature is still trying to kill us. So shake down the thunder:

• The Super Bowl was dull. Just about everyone (with a few exceptions) is tired of the New England Patriots, but it must be said -- they cracked the code on the Rams. Considering half the league is either already planning to, or will begin shortly, emulating the Rams, Bill Belichick's master class will make things interesting for next season. I hope Matt LaFleur was watching closely in Green Bay.
• Ralph Northam now says that yearbook photo of his isn't him, although he did pick out all the other images on his page. It's bad enough to be a racist and a ghoul, but being an unskilled liar takes things up a notch. My next prediction -- Northam will reveal he is actually Bill Clinton's half-brother.
• Super Bowl ads were mostly meh, but the jarring one was the "wait, what?" appearance of Andy Warhol, dead 32 years now, as a pitchman for Burger King. I'm eagerly waiting for the Picasso endorsement of Culver's and the inevitable pairing of Jackson Pollock and Jack in the Box. This one has Top Ten List potential, although having Frida Kahlo saying "Yo quiero Taco Bell" might be beyond the pale.
• By the way, pitchers and catchers report in less than two weeks.

By the way. . .

It's cold:

Who's bitter?

Every once in a while, Mother Nature tries to kill us. Be careful out there, if you have to be out there.

Cold shot

This is a tough blogging moment -- there are some obvious things going on that aren't really ripe for discussion, and others that await further developments. It's also cold as hell right now in the Twin Cities:

Seriously, why do we live here?

There will be a thaw eventually. But right now, everything is cold. One interesting tidbit about Mayor Val Johnson's recent scrape with the law:

Things that make you go hmmmm.

So the mayor has expired tabs and needs a public defender? To quote a guy from Hibbing, something is happening here, but you don't know what it is.

Profiles in Cowardice

It is traditional to refer to a bishop as "your excellency." We don't stand much for tradition these days, because, frankly, most bishops aren't excellent in any way. And that goes double for Roger Foys, the bishop of Diocese of Covington. Let's recall the original bleating from this moral colossus:

Condemnation

Now, we get this:

“We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements which were made with good will based on the information we had,” said Bishop Foys in the letter, which was addressed to the parents of Covington Catholic students.

 We're sorry if you were offended? Our statements were made with good will? And based on the information we had? Did it occur to you that you might get more information from the people who were actually there? Did you even talk to anyone from Covington Catholic before you issued your statement?

The next paragraph is closer to the truth, but still well afoul of the 8th Commandment.

“We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it.”

Pardon my French, but how in the hell does a bishop get bullied? You have the staff and the hat, sir. You preside over the high school these students attend. You also have a responsibility to defend not only the faith, but also to provide aid and comfort to the faithful. There's more:

“I especially apologize to Nicholas Sandmann and his family as well as to all CovCath families who have felt abandoned during this ordeal. Nicholas unfortunately has become the face of these allegations based on video clips,” said Foys. “This is not fair. This is not just.”

Felt abandoned? No, Bishop Foys. Sandmann and everyone else there were abandoned, in straight-up Pontius Pilate style. And your malignant statement was up on the diocesan website for two full days before you shut the website down for "maintenance." You're right about one thing -- it wasn't fair. It wasn't just. And you were responsible for it, along with your superior, Joseph Kurtz, who had this to say:

Since I joined with Bishop Foys in condemning the alleged actions by Covington Catholic students, I apologize for what was a premature statement on my part based upon incomplete information. I very much regret the pain and disruption in the lives of the Covington Catholic community and in the broader Church and society.

We look to our bishops and archbishops to provide moral and spiritual guidance. We expect that guidance to be based on reflection and prayer. Instead, we got a couple of hot takes.

Back to Foys:

Foys’ most recent statement said that it was his “hope and expectation” that this investigation would “exonerate” the students, and that they will be able to move past this ordeal. He also expressed support for Robert Rowe, the principal of Covington Catholic High School. Rowe is a “fine leader,” said Foys, and “those calling for his resignation simply do not know him.”

The buck doesn't stop with the principal, Bishop Foys. It stops with you. There's more:

“I pray that with the grace of God and the goodwill of all involved peace will once again reign in the hearts and minds of our faithful,” said Foys.

For peace to reign, there needs to be justice. And justice requires those in position of authority to do more than offer a liturgical version of "whoops, my bad."

Meanwhile, as you consider the matter of goodwill, consider what happened in Washington, D.C., as the Covington Catholic students were returning to a firestorm and a bishop with a gas can:

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has confirmed that protesters led by the Native American activist Nathan Phillips attempted to disrupt the celebration of Mass on the evening of Jan. 19.

On Jan. 23, a spokesperson for the Washington, DC basilica released a statement to CNA confirming the previously reported events of Saturday night.

The statement said that while Mass was being celebrated, “a group of approximately 50 individuals attempted to gain entrance to the basilica while chanting and hitting drums.”

I don't know the condition of Nathan Phillips's soul, but based on the available evidence it's difficult to find much goodwill in his actions, either at the Lincoln Memorial or at the Basilica the next day. I would encourage Bishop Foys to continue to pray for Mr. Phillips, but I'd also suggest that Bishop Foys ought to have a resignation letter in the mail to the Pope.

Benster and D Pick Your Games -- Patriots Aren't Underdogs Edition

Old dude, does it bother you that the Patriots are underdogs? Was Darth Vader an underdog during the Star Wars saga?

When you're talking comparative morality and Las Vegas is involved, I'm not sure it's a distinction of much value.

I really don't like morality plays. I am feeling the HYYYYYPPPPEEEE!, and can't wait to discuss these games.

I sense a disturbance in the Force. Or is it a Very Special Comment?

Watch and see. It is time to watch me work.

Los Angeles Rams (+3) vs. New Orleans Saints. This is a rematch of a game played earlier this year where the Rams were run out of the Dome. Some say that Sean McVay's personal assistant is going to be hired as a head coach, because apparently McVay knows everything and is the coaching flavor of the month. The Saints are almost unbeatable in the Dome these days, and I think they are going to dominate again. The Rams are too much of a finesse offensive team and all their talent has not won anything yet. Saints 70, Rams 49.

Saints are going to make their free throws, I assume? I expect a shootout, but perhaps not to that extent. Rams will have a chance, but I'm thinking Brees will find a way. Saints 34, Rams 28.

New England Cheatriots (+3) vs. Kansas City Chiefs. It's time for another Very Special Comment. I know that New England is not the underdog, but the NFL needs to seriously consider if it is better for their brand to keep having New England being showcased all the time. The Patriots have a coach and star player who knowingly cheated and an owner who makes Jerry Jones look like a moral guardian. How can Patriots fans continue to root for a team that does not care about the rules and is a bad example for our children? If Robert Kraft had any morality or shred of humanity, he would give back all the tainted money and fire every single cheater on his staff, and be banned from ever owning a football team. The Hoodie should be banned and stripped of his wins and be forced to give back his salary to the league. Brady should be stripped of his wins and give all of his mtroney to Adam Vinatieri. Vinatieri is the only reason that the Patriots are relevant these days, and every single Patriots fan should thank the heavens that he could kick in the clutch. Patriots fans, if you have any shred of morality, give up your tickets and turn your back on the team. You are aiding cheating and have shown you won't hold your "heroes" accountable. Kansas City should win, and they have a moral duty to. I am going to call on Roger Goodell to strip New England of every single win that the cheating weasels won and force them to give back their trophies to the teams who were screwed over by a rogue organization that is an embarrassment to the game of football. Chiefs 31, Cheatriots 0.

Whoa. I love you, young fella, but that was some Grade A crapola you just put out there. For a guy who claims he doesn't like morality plays, that's a ton of moralism you're flinging. I checked the record, just to be sure. I believe Adam Vinatieri left the Patriots around 2006. A lot has happened since then. I'll grant you one thing -- the Patriots are shady as hell. But I've been watching them for a long time and they win because they figure out how to beat their opponents and rarely make mistakes when the game is on the line. Anyway, on to the particulars. I think the Chiefs are better overall, but they haven't been in the Super Bowl since the 1969 season. Patrick Mahomes is a heck of a talent, but I have a feeling ol' Hoodie has something special for him. I don't like saying this, but. . . Patriots 27, Chiefs 24.

That was straight fire right there. Ben out.

Twitter me this

On balance, I think Twitter sucks. It's a place where one stray comment can bring down the furies on you. It's a giant cesspool of SJW thought-policing. And they tend to ban conservative voices for no apparent reason, as was the case for Jesse Kelly:

Kelly, a former Marine who ran two failed campaigns for Congress in Arizona, in 2010 and 2012, currently hosts a talk radio program in Houston. It is not clear which of his recent tweets prompted the ban.

According to Twitter's "range of enforcement options" page, Kelly should have been provided an explanation from Twitter around what policy he may have violated.

"When we permanently suspend an account, we notify people that they have been suspended for abuse violations, and explain which policy or policies they have violated and which content was in violation," according to Twitter.

I have a Twitter account, but I rarely tweet; mostly I use it to read others, especially Orange Man Bad. I wouldn't miss it if it's gone. Maybe it should be.

Yesterday

Too much to discuss, really. But for me, a few things stand out. First of all, Lindsey Graham's finest hour:

Second of all, RedState blogger Streiff notes the utter cynicism of the Senate Democrats, and Dianne Feinstein in particular, first by highlighting an exchange between Feinstein and Texas Senator John Cornyn:

Cornyn: Can you tell us your staff did not leak it?

Feinstein: Oh, I don’t believe my staff would leak it. I have not asked that question directly, but I do not believe they would.

Cornyn: Do you know that? I mean how in the world did that get in the hands of the press?

Feinstein: The answer is no. The staff would not.

Cornyn: Did you as your staff or any other member of the Judiciary Committee?

Feinstein: I just did. Well, Jennifer reminds me I’ve asked her before about it.

Cornyn: Well, somebody leaked it, if it wasn’t you.

Feinstein: Well, I’m telling you it was not…I did not…I mean I was asked to keep it confidential and I’m criticized for that, too.

And why would that be? Back to the link:

The problem here is that a) CNN got a copy of the letter she sent to Feinstein in confidence and b) Ford said, under oath, she didn’t send the letter to anyone else. 

Under oath, Christine Blasey Ford said she didn't send the letter to anyone else. So is Ford lying under oath? That would be the obvious implication of Feinstein's remarks. Lindsey Graham makes the point well:

Boy, you all want power. God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through this sham. That you knew about it and you held it. You had no intention of protecting Dr. Ford; none.

She’s as much of a victim as you are. God, I hate to say it because these have been my friends. But let me tell you, when it comes to this, you’re looking for a fair process? You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend. 

They have been Graham's friends, or so he thought, but it seems the scales have fallen from his eyes.

One other thing worth noting -- now, apparently doxxing your opponents is cool:

Several Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had their home addresses and phone numbers released to the public on their Wikipedia pages during Thursday’s hearing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.

The victims included Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

According to Caleb Hull, editor of the Independent Journal Review, the wife of Mr. Hatch “has been receiving calls nonstop ON HER BIRTHDAY and their home address was made public.” 

CongressEdits, a bot account that for four years automatically retweets edits to Wikipedia made anonymously from IP addresses associated with the U.S. Congress, said the information was also posted on Mr. Lee and Mr. Graham “from US House of Representatives.”

From the House of Representatives. We'll just leave it there.

Lifetime sentence

At one point, Jennifer Rubin was proffered as a conservative blogger for the Washington Post. She's apparently grown in office:

Sarah Huckabee [Sanders] has no right to live a life of no fuss, no muss, after lying to the press—after lying to the press, after inciting against the press. These people should be made uncomfortable, and I think that's a life sentence, frankly.

That's Rubin, opining on MSNBC's "Morning Joy." Life is a long time. Sanders is, at the time I write this, 35 years old. It's reasonable to assume she will live another 50 years or even more. Should we assume that, in 2068, angry people ought to be harassing her? To what end?

As a wise old blogger has written more than once, this is how you get more Trump.

Little Woke on the Prairie

Last year it was knocking down statues. Now it's Laura Ingalls Wilder getting smashed:

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name will be removed from a major award because of how the “Little House on the Prairie” author portrayed minorities in her novels, the children’s division of the American Library Association voted Saturday.

“This decision was made in consideration of the fact that Wilder’s legacy, as represented by her body of work, includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC’s core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness,” the Association for Library Service to Children said in a statement after the unanimous vote.

Wilder really should have been more woke. On the bright side, Wilder has no living descendants who could get hassled in a restaurant, meaning the SJWs will be able to marshal their resources to jump down the throat of Trump administration officials seeking nosh.

There's a place for us

You hurry to a spot that's just a dot on the map.

           -- Frank Sinatra, "The Tender Trap"

When I was younger, I used to joke that my hometown, Appleton, Wisconsin, was a suburb without the city attached. The eternal joke about Appleton concerns one of its most famous sons, Harry Houdini:

Q. What was Houdini's greatest escape?
A. Getting out of Appleton.

I got out, too, but it wasn't an escape, really. I just didn't come back after I graduated from college. First I made my way to Chicago, then after Mrs. D and I were married, we came to the Twin Cities, over 25 years ago now. This is a major metropolitan area and almost 3.5 million people live here. But if you believe Bill Kristol, we're nowhere:

Earlier this year, Bill Kristol, editor at large at the Weekly Standard, tweeted ahead of the Super Bowl that it was too bad two Acela Corridor teams, the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, had to play their matchup “in the middle of nowhere.”

It was a reference to the host city of Minneapolis’ location in the Midwest, far from the "civilized worlds" of Boston and Philadelphia – the assumption being that unless you are on the East Coast, your town’s sophistication and glamour could not live up to the modern amenities of a cosmopolitan city.

Kristol has been busy sneering at nowhere for a long time now, as the author of the linked piece, Salena Zito, knows. For her part, Zito has been trying to understand all the nowheres that sent Donald Trump to the White House. She discusses one such place, Lost River, West Virginia, in her article:

The tale of the enigmatic vanishing of a flowing river that seemingly disappears underground only to reappear elsewhere is the stuff that holds visitors or children spellbound as the tale of subterranean passages explain away the naming of this town.

Lost River is one of four unincorporated towns along West Virginia state route 259 that attracted America’s frontier families for its rich resources; surveyed by 16-year-old George Washington, this area has never had much population, never had the commerce to keep enough people here long enough to make it boom, but just long enough to make it stick with tourists.

Today, it attracts them in droves from Washington, D.C., and is considered a destination point for gay travelers. The population is still small, and career opportunities are limited. And like the river that vanishes and then reappears as part of a larger, more important river, its pattern is very much like the pattern of the lives of people living in Middle America.

Zito's point is simple enough -- the people in these small towns haven't vanished, but they are rarely observed. In the past month or so, I've stopped in a few of these small towns -- Waverly, Minnesota, and Plainfield, Iowa. As we travel again later this month, I'll likely stop in a few more, perhaps in Indiana or Ohio. And we need to see the towns. Back to Zito:

In my estimation, there is no patch of geography in this country that is the "middle of nowhere." This is America; everywhere is the middle of somewhere.

Whether it is Tightwad, Mo., Mooresville, Ala., Hyder, Alaska, Oatman, Ariz., or right here in Lost River, W.Va., every place, large or small, depressed or thriving, or down to one mailbox on one lonely road, is somewhere.

We are all equals; we all contribute to the culture, diversity, dialect, and importance of this country. We build things, we serve in our communities, we serve in our military, we create families, businesses, and technology no matter where we are – we find a way to make each village and town and city a unique snapshot of this country.

As regular readers of this feature know, I've been taking pictures for almost half a year now and posting them on social media, sometimes here. These places are worth noting, because they matter. It took me a long time to understand that Appleton, Wisconsin mattered, and I had to leave it to really understand why. Some people don't want to understand the places they avoid. Back to Zito:

It is an idea and an ideal that Hillary Clinton not only got wrong in the last election, but is still getting wrong; her remarks in India in March reinforced that.

"If you look at the map of the United States, there's all that red in the middle where Trump won," she said. "I win the coast, I win, you know, Illinois and Minnesota, places like that."

She went on to say that where she won, America is thriving: "I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So, I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. And his whole campaign, 'Make America Great Again,' was looking backwards."

Clinton is not the only person to hold that contempt. Many of her supporters have gone on to agree with her and to hold those same strident positions – and their condescension for half of the country has only deepened since November 2016.

Letting go of contempt is difficult. I went all ad hominem on a high school kid in these pages not long ago. But I'm trying. As Zito makes clear, we all need to keep trying. Her piece is well worth your time, so read the whole thing.

A refreshing glass of juche

Apparently we're supposed to admire the North Korean cheerleaders:

It was about 10 minutes before puck drop in the much-anticipated unified Korea women’s hockey team debut, when the North Korean cheerleaders stole the show.

Kanye West blared on the arena speakers, and the cheer squad of young North Korean women decked out in matching red and white outfits decided it was time for their first routine.
They waved small unified Korean Peninsula flags, and swayed in unison and sung “ban gap seup nee da,” or nice to meet you.

The crowd was instantly transfixed.

“It felt like I was competing in my own country,” Jong Su Hyon, one of 12 North Koreans on the joint team’s roster, said of the atmosphere following Korea’s lopsided defeat to Switzerland.

Others love 'em:

North Korea’s cheerleaders seem to be enjoying the Winter Olympics more than the athletes. They’re having a ball if pictures taken of them at the event in Pyeongchang, South Korea, are anything to go by.

The latest images showed several members from to 200 strong team wearing masks as they cheered on the unified Korean hockey team. Around 75 North Korean cheerleaders dressed in matching red with white caps made noise during a preliminary game against Switzerland in Gangneung.

Some people thought it looked a bit weird but they seemed to be having fun so we can’t be too down on them. The story of the Winter Olympics so far has been the united front the two Korean countries have showed.

There's nothing united about the two Koreas, of course. Kim Jong Un would wipe out Seoul in a heartbeat if he weren't aware that he'd be wiped out himself in the next heartbeat. It's easier to send out the cheerleaders and pretend things aren't what they are:

Shake down the launch codes from the sky

You can find amusing examples of videos that poke fun of this sort of thing, like this one:

It's not really amusing, though. And we shouldn't be encouraging the North Koreans.

Lightning Round - 020518

Not much time this morning, so here we go:

• The Nunes memo wasn't a dud, but it wasn't a bombshell, either. I am assuming there will be subsequent documentation of the claims made and that we'll hear things that are even more alarming when the Inspector General's report comes out. I am simultaneously amused and alarmed that the FBI apparently considers Yahoo News a credible source of information. Seems like one weird trick to me.
• It was a good Super Bowl, but with more than a little bit of strangeness to it. Tom Brady is a warrior, but it became evident that the Patriots weren't able to "do your job," as they famously claim, especially on defense. No one patches things up better than the Patriots, but I saw mostly a bunch of guys on their defense and the Eagles were able to exploit that. I'll be highly curious to see what happens to Nick Foles now that he's a Super Bowl MVP. Carson Wentz is their quarterback, but Foles was a much more important backup than, say, Jeff Hostetler. 
• The halftime show from Justin Timberlake was kinda all over the place, but the highlight for us was the presence of the University of Minnesota Marching Band in the middle of it, with two former Irondale Marching Knights on the field. Very, very cool.
• The Super Bowl ads were preachy and tendentious. Tell me why I should buy your product. Your commitment to social justice gives me no guidance as to whether your 4G network matches the competition. Sheesh.
• I'll be curious to see how the final financials break out on the Super Bowl from a local perspective. My sense is that things were so expensive that a lot of people who live here stayed away. Couple that with the difficulty of getting downtown at all and I was never seriously tempted to go any further south than Larpenteur Avenue all weekend. 

McCabe and Mr. Mueller

If you want to understand the sort of people who run our government and how they operate, this story from Mollie Hemingway is crucial:

The FBI’s top brass initiated conversations with a White House official that were quickly leaked to CNN, according to a new book.

Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe asked to speak privately with White House chief of staff Reince Priebus following a February 2017 intelligence briefing. The scene is described in “Media Madness,” Howard Kurtz’s new book on the press and its relationship with the Trump administration. McCabe said he asked for the meeting to tell Priebus that “everything” in a New York Times story authored by Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt Apuzzo was “bullsh-t.”

Well, yes. Way too much of what is in the NYT is bovine fecal matter. We continue:

McCabe claimed to want Priebus to know the FBI’s perspective that this story was not true. Priebus pointed to the televisions that were going non-stop on the story. He asked if the FBI could say publicly what he had just told him. McCabe said he’d have to check, according to the book.

McCabe reportedly called back and said he couldn’t do anything about it. Then-FBI director James Comey reportedly called later and also said he couldn’t do anything, but did offer to brief the Senate Intelligence Committee on the matter later that week, suggesting they’d spill the beans publicly. You’ll never guess what happened next, according to the book:

Actually, I bet we all could, but here you go:

Now, a week later, CNN was airing a breaking news story naming Priebus. According to ‘multiple U.S. officials,’ the network said, ‘the FBI rejected a White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to U.S. intelligence.’

Priebus was stunned by the implication that he was pressuring law enforcement. Had he been set up? Why was the FBI leaking this information when one of its top officials had initiated the conversation?

Because Andrew McCabe is a weasel. And Reince Priebus was a trusting guy from Wisconsin who didn't understand how the game is played. In other words, this is what happened (video not safe for work):

And these sorts of games continued. Back to Hemingway:

This story gives a glimpse into how that original Russia narrative may have been spread around to overly compliant journalists and other members of the “resistance.” It was the hysteria surrounding this and other stories that led the White House to be frustrated with a law enforcement agency and chief playing games. As Comey admitted under oath, he did tell President Trump three times that Trump was not under investigation. These private statements to Trump occurred while Comey publicly insinuated the opposite. This story above fits the same pattern.

These are the dedicated public servants Adam Schiff and the rest of the Democrats are claiming deserve deference. And these are the friends of Robert Mueller.