A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
I left a note for myself in the middle of James Austin Johnson's 'Trump' hijacks the Last Supper on 'SNL' for Easter when I wrote "This clip covered lots of news, including Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni taking trips on Harlan Crow's yacht and the expulsion of two Tennessee legislators for protesting gun violence, that I should blog about." MSNBC has been all over both stories, as well as a ruling reversing the FDA's approval of mifepristone, which I don't recall "Saturday Night Live" mentioning in the clips I shared yesterday. Huh. I'll get to that story later. Right now, I'm concentrating on Thomas not reporting Crow's hospitality, beginning with MSNBC's latest upload to YouTube covering it, Bombshell Thomas reporting renews call for SCOTUS reform.
ProPublica's Jesse Eisinger joins Katie Phang to break down the stunning report examining Justice Clarence Thomas' lavish, globe-trotting vacations and who actually paid the bill.
According to the report, for more than 20 years, Clarence Thomas has been gifted luxury trips by billionaire businessman Harlan Crow. None have appeared on his financial disclosures. Justin Elliott -- one of the reporters who broke the story -- joins to explain it all.
[T]he Supreme Court needs more accountability and transparency. I'm less clear about which reforms Congress can and should implement. The bills for a greater transparency and compliance with ethics rules would certainly be a good start.
That's the long-term structural response to this incident, which shows that these proposed reforms are definitely needed. The short-term response is to ask what to do about Justice Thomas. Should he resign? Abe Fortas resigned for something similar although involving less money, even after inflation. Will he? Ha! No, not unless the situation gets much worse for Justice and Mrs. Thomas. Should he be impeached, convicted, and removed? It doesn't matter, because the Republican House majority will never vote to impeach Thomas. We'll have to wait until 2025 for a Democratic majority. Even then, I doubt the Senate would convict, even if the Democrats retain their majority. We'll just have to outlast him. Sigh.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Ron DeSantis signing a bill that allows Florida residents to carry concealed guns without a permit.
This clip covered lots of news, including Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni taking trips on Harlan Crow's yacht and the expulsion of two Tennessee legislators for protesting gun violence, that I should blog about. In the meantime, I'm glad I mentioned them here; they deserve attention.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a YouTuber getting shot in a mall after recording a prank video.
I already have a post planned for the Artemis II astronaut announcement for Yuri'sNight. I won't miss it this year!
Angel Reese (Punkie Johnson) stops by Weekend Update to discuss being invited to the White House after LSU's win over Iowa in the NCAA women's basketball championship.
This segment and the previous one both qualify this entry as the Sunday entertainment feature.
A co-worker who's extremely busy doing seemingly nothing (Heidi Gardner) stops by Weekend Update to discuss Americans returning to the office in person.
I close the highlights section of this entry with CNN App - SNL.
A commercial advertises an app where reporters detail Trump's indictment and arrest in a new way.
As I first wrote in 'SNL' on Thanksgiving and repeated in 'SNL' shares scary news for Halloween 2022, "This clip serves as another demonstration of the commercials parodies being one of the best parts of 'SNL.' When they're on, they're on, and this one was ON!"
The four criminal investigations into the former president, explained...
Donald Trump is now the first former US President to face criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
This case involves hush money that Trump’s lawyer paid to an alleged former sexual partner. But it’s actually just one of four criminal investigations into the former president. The other three investigations focus on his behavior after the 2020 presidential election.
A Georgia team is examining Trump’s efforts to persuade Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” more Trump votes after the votes had been counted and Raffensperger had declared Joe Biden the winner.
Federal special prosecutor Jack Smith is heading up the other two investigations. One group is looking at the Trump team’s attempts to persuade officials in a handful of states where Biden won not to certify his victory, and instead to claim Trump won the state despite the vote counts.
The other federal investigation is focused on classified documents that Trump brought with him from the White House to his Florida estate after losing the 2020 election. According to reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times, when the FBI searched his estate in August 2022, they found documents related to nuclear weapons, as well as files containing information that could put US informants in the field in danger.
As president, Trump didn’t just say outrageous things, he acted in unprecedented ways. Now that he’s out of office, investigators in a variety of jurisdictions are trying to figure out if he broke the law, too.
As I wrote, "New York today, Georgia and the Federal Government tomorrow. Stay tuned."
Since three of the investigations are about electioninterfererence, broadly construed, follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts about the 2022 election.
We made Desi Lydic watch Fox News and chug Logan Paul's energy drink for six days straight so she could explain what's really going on with Trump's indictment.
Thank you, Desi, for watching Fox News so the rest of us don't have to.
The most read entry about January 6th during the blogging year just ended did not feature Colbert. Instead it was Desi Lydic, an Emmy-nominated performer, Foxsplains the January 6th Committee Hearings, written on August 8, 2022. It was the number one post of August 2022, earning ~1,860 default and 2,114 raw page views that month after I shared it at the Coffee Party USA Facebook page. It continued gaining page views, ending calendar year 2022 with ~2,110 default and 2,201 raw page views, and blogging year twelve with the same ~2,110 default but 2,228 raw page views, good enough to rank fifth according to default page views, sixth among entries posted during the previous blogging year and seventh overall accoring to raw page views. It was also one of three pins from the current blogging year saved during September 2022. Look for me to recycle this paragraph when I write about top posts covering awards shows.
It was also the most read entry about awards show nominations. I like posts that do double duty!
Follow over the jump for a retrospective about the rest of last year's most read entries about awards shows.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Wednesday repealing Michigan's abortion ban from 1931 that made it a crime to assist in an abortion.
Governor Whitmer is right to call this a "zombie law." It had been dead since Roe v. Wade 50 years ago and could have risen from the grave after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. While Proposal 3's passage should have kept it there, the Democrats running Michigan wanted to take no chances, so they repealed the law. Good. I like my zombies in entertainment, not in real life.
Local 4's Paula Tutman had a chance to sit down with Governor Gretchen Whitmer for an exclusive interview just before she repealed Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban. They talked about how the battle over abortion rights is still playing out across the country and how that could impact here in Michigan.
Local 4 spoke with two women with different views on the abortion battle. In Birmingham, the repeal of the 1931 law that bans abortion in Michigan with the stroke of the pen, the law is off the books. In an exclusive sit-down interview before striking down that law, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she believes the moment is on the side of reproductive rights, as evidenced by what's happening around the country.
The former president drew a puny crowd of supporters outside his arraignment in New York City, while his friend Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene sought to compare him to other historical figures who have been arrested.
I like "Bail to the Chief" better than "Jail to the Chief." The former was a certainty. The latter is a distant possibility. As I wrote last Friday, "I expect he'll be sentenced to house arrest in Trump Tower with the Secret Service as his guards, at least for this set of crimes. He might get a more severe punishment if he's indicted and convicted for crimes in Georgia and Washington, D.C." That assumes a jury convicts TFG, which is not guaranteed. Ideally, our criminal justice system should acquit all innocent people. The price for that is that some guilty people go free. In practice, it seems to work the other way. It tries to convict all the guilty people and takes some innocent people along with it. Even then, it fails, as some guilty people still go free. Sigh.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump's arrest and appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court as he is arraigned on a total of 34 felony charges.
I found it easier to watch Seth making jokes about the news than watching the news itself, especially the live feed at LaGuardia Airport waiting for The Former Guy's plane to land. I watched another video instead. It also helped that this closer look was shorter than usual, so it went fast.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shares her thoughts on Trump's indictment and arraignment, calls out the lack of a formal due process that applies to everyone and discusses members of Congress interfering in investigations.
Speaking of legal ideals, equal justice under the law is another and yesterday's proceedings showed some effort at making it real.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump arriving in New York to be arraigned at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse after a grand jury voted to indict him, making him the first U.S. president in history to face criminal charges.
I'm sure Seth, along with Colbert and Kimmel, will return tonight after the arraignment, which will certainly provide more fodder for comedy. In the meantime, I'm returning to Randy Rainbow, who sang and danced for a lot of us when he performed Lock Him Up Yesterday! - A Randy Rainbow Song Parody last August.
New York today, Georgia and the Federal Government tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Congress has gotten steadily older over the past few decades, and that has major implications for the issues the legislature cares about.
The short answer to the question is demographics — America has growing older, despite fallinglifeexpectancy during the pandemic — and the power of incumbency. I'm sure my fellow fans of Strauss and Howe would not be surprised by this result; those authors saw something like this coming at about this time 30 years ago. I'm also sure that they would notice that FiveThirtyEight is using Strauss and Howe's names for the generations as well.
I agree with FiveThirtyEight's quick summary of what our gerontocracy means for policy. It's good for issues relevant to seniors, but maybe not so good for those important to younger Americans. That's good and bad for me personally. I'm 63, so the current Congress would be more likely to pay attention to health issues, like my diabetes, and retirement. On the other, they might not take climatechange and technology as seriously as I think they need to, while a younger group of legislators would. Sigh.
The end of the semester approaches and I need to spend more time on my work, so stay tuned for another short post tomorrow.
Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) promotes his new album.
This skit was as much about making fun of the January 6 Choir as the indictment itself; the music is much more transparent than the indictment, which hasn't been unsealed yet. We'll probably find out Tuesday, when TFG surrenders voluntarily. I'll leave it to any of my readers who are law enforcement or lawyers whether that counts as an arrest.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like President Biden calling for an assault weapons ban.
TFG's legal troubles, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Ron DeSantis all got the attention they deserved, but the biggest reaction was to the April Fools prank Michael Che played on Colin Jost. It helped make for a fast five minutes.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a sperm donor being sued for increasing the risk of accidental incest.
I think Colin should pay less attention to Punxsutawney Phil and pay more attention to his local groundhog, Staten Island Chuck, who predicted an early spring. That prediction came closer to the truth for New York City.
Michelangelo's David (Michael Longfellow) stops by Weekend Update to address the recent controversy surrounding an image of him being included in a school curriculum.
I remember the days of "banned in Boston." Now it's "banned in Florida."
I'm concluding the highlights of last night's episode with Quinta Brunson Monologue - SNL, which continues the theme of education.
First-time host Quinta Brunson talks about working on Abbott Elementary and how poorly teachers are treated in the United States.
I agree, pay teachers more.
Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts showcasing videos from SNL.
This episode is a mystery in the most classic literary sense of the word. It’s a whodunit detective story that spans more than a century - the saga of the Piltdown Man Hoax. From a gravel pit in Sussex, we follow the faked fossils through history, to what’s now the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are using new technologies to try to unravel the identity of the fraudster, and explore how this hoax impacted the study of human origins.
The podcast episode focuses much more on the fake fossil and the people who likely created it than on its effect on the rest of science. It makes for a good unsolved mystery as well as a good hoax to examine on April Fools Day.
This episode is a mystery in the most classic literary sense of the word. It’s a whodunit detective story that spans more than a century - the saga of the Piltdown Man Hoax.
I liked this better as a YouTube video than a podcast episode. If nothing else, it has appropriate images supplementing the audio. I hope PBS Eons turn more of their podcasts into videos.
Scientists are sometimes deemed objective observers of the world in which we live, but that’s not entirely true. They’re still human and can find themselves victim to fraudsters just like the lot of us.
SciShow is much more certain about Charles Dawson being the hoaxer/fraudster than Martin Hinton, who might have been trying to figure out how the fraudster/hoaxer faked the fossils.
That's enough of Piltdown Man. I might write about the IgNobelPrizes next year, which I haven't done for nearly a decade. Time to return to them. In the meantime, follow over the jump for part one of a retrospective about the top holiday posts during the twelfth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
