The prize for the winning corsage - We got engaged!

Today is Sadie Hawkins Day

Lynn and I went to the same college, where we met each other. The students there made a fairly big deal of "Sadie Hawkins Day." It is the day of the year where women can ask men to dance or go on a date.  There was a dance on Sadie's day and Lynn made me a corsage.  That corsage was a bit outrageous by normal flowers-on-or-in-the-recipient's lapel standards.  The two of us recently disagreed about the ingredients and appearance of her winning creation. 

I remember carrot greens and a ridiculously oversized bunch at that.  She made it but says my memory is way off as usual.  She says it was made from marshmallow peeps and long wooden stick stems.  We both remember it won a prize for beauty and originality.

Anyhow, today is a fine day to communicate to someone that you are grateful to have in your life, even someone you are normally shy about.

Bye-bye, Sadie H Day!  See you in four years!

Wham! weather

We have been having a very unusually warm winter.  The extreme yesterday was in the 60 degree range.  Right now it is 20°!  Plus high cold wind, new snow and ice.  The joke is on us!  It will be 9° tonight. (It is predicted to be 66° in four days.  Stay alert!

What did you say?

Whether it is a courtroom, a classroom or a cafeteria dining room, speech tends to fill the room.  I am impressed with what talk can do.  Sure, there are many other aspects of life: sports and action like dancing or exercising, cooking and eating and many others.  I like to put questions that come to mind in Google.  Whether some form of AI is being used to answer, I get interesting answers.  I just asked When did human speech begin?  and the answer is about 50,000 years ago.  I am confident that the answer depends on what is meant by speech.  Some of the answers said that early grunts and gestures were all that humans could manage 200,000 years ago, still in Africa and before the human expansion all over.  But body forms and evolution, along with purpose and effort, those valuable tools, improved the ability to make exact and distinct sounds.  

Whether it is through the use of drums or riders with some sort of document or verbal message, or the telegraph or the telephone or the radio right up to texting, the use of speech and writing in some form has advanced human life.  When I get a message that I have won a foreign lottery, speech or writing may induce me to provide the means for a scammer to take my stuff.  But in general, speech and writing seem to be major roads to more joy in human life.

Not like when I grew up

I have never been very impressive at drawing.  So, I don't expect to pick up a pencil and draw a set of lines that remind people of you. I admired the ability of a camera to capture lines, lighting, important features and faces with one click.  When I was in 4th grade, I had a darkroom where I could "develop" camera film.  It was rather simple if I was careful but it was far from instantaneous.  

The situation was far from today.  Now, a smartphone can snap a picture without a trip to a store to buy "film" and immediately send it to a friend or a social medium like Facebook.  Just as quickly and easily, today's smartphone can take a video that captures movement and sound, including speech, and send the whole thing to somebody or several bodies or a social medium like Facebook.  Unbelievable!  A Hollywood star recently said she had to be careful going in or out.  "If I slide or fall, it will be on the internet in 10 seconds."

What did we buy?

We have been looking thru our collection of older electronic and smart-ish stuff.  Lynn found a black box that said "Amazon" on it and asked me what it was.  I looked it over but didn't know.  

There was a model number on it.  Looking up the model number got nowhere.  I have nearly 3400 Kindle books and we have many other purchases with that company so I thought looking thru orders would not be very useful.

 

I called their customer service.  It begins with mechanical voices offering services and purposes you might have in mind but none of the choices seemed headed toward having them tell me what I had purchased.  I find if I press "O" about 20 times, I will get to a voice that says "let me call a person."  If they connect me to some young woman with a foreign accent, one with the energy to speak very quickly, I can only understand a random 19% of what she says.  This time, I got a man!  Once he understood my aim, he was obviously perplexed.  I am confident that he doesn't get customers calling to ask what they bought.  I thanked him and hung up.

I tried putting the model number in Google Search and there it was!  The object I had and the picture matched.  It is for connecting a smart speaker to a landline.

Changing world

Older people can sometimes be interested in how the world has changed over their own lifetimes.  I was born as WWII was starting and that is a while back.  When I began graduate school after teaching 5th grade for 4 years, computers were a new thing. After I got my doctorate, I got a job as an assistant professor in the UWSP School of Education.  We moved to a smaller town far from people we knew.  I had used the computer language Fortran in writing my dissertation

https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/dissertation-blog-issue-of-toward-the-light-links

There was one older professor who had a somewhat similar pattern to his work but I was basically alone.  I wrote in the campus faculty newsletter that if anyone in any department wanted to talk about computers, I was interested.  That note morphed into the side job of looking after and promoting the IBM 1600 that was being rented for faculty use.  I was to inform and encourage faculty who might find the computer a useful tool for their research or teaching.

Sometimes, a faculty member would ask "What is a computer?"  People today would probably not ask that question.  You may be aware of "being connected", "being online" and other expressions that refer to use of the Internet.  When I go to a campus weight room, it is often the case that every person I see, dozens of students, is using a smartphone or has a smartphone open and on, beside them.  The internet, computers connected to each other, is a current BIG TOPIC.  An emerging one is "AI", artificial intelligence.

I found this article from Pew Research quite interesting:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/05/8-charts-on-technology-use-around-the-world/

Expressing deeper love

Not just sex.  Admittedly, sex and reproduction and parenting is a big deal.  For some people, that is all they can reckon with.  However, between habituation and genuine affection, love can be a very strong force.  Have you ever looked into the eyes of someone you love and just wanted to " eat them up"?  I bet you have.  I suspect most people have.  Even if the person is indeed a marital partner, consuming them or diving into them is not available. In addition to sexual attraction and actions, there often is a more intense feeling that is not sex.  Sometimes, it can be disappointing that one can't just reach inside another's chest and tweak their heart.  

It can help sometimes if a message can be fashioned that expresses the frustration with this world's limitations.  A good solid hug can sometimes help. 

What my shoes say

We have our floors cleaned every so often.  After they have been cleaned, my shoe soles make all sorts of squeaks.  The squeaks can often sound like human speech or yells or screams of pain.  I am setting the table or getting a drink and my poor hearing delivers a fake message of alarm to my brain.  If you come over and I answer the door with tears in my eyes, the cause may be a mistaken interpretation of a shoe squeak.

We took a trip

Lynn needs a trip every once in a while.  She said we should plan one for today.  How about going to Madison, a city known for liberal politics and where Lynn got an apartment and lived while earning her PhD?  How about taking her brother with us?  We did and got back about an hour ago.

We know the way and both of us have been there many times but we still used her iPad to help us navigate.  To get Dennis, we have to go to a home for impaired memories and back there to take him back at the end of the day.  I pictured the well-known State St. and at least driving to the capitol building but that didn't fit in the day, this time.

Learning other languages

At lunch with other male retired professors, we got on the subject of the training we have had in other languages besides English.  When I worked for my PhD, I was required to take doctoral German.   The class met at 8 AM.  I got the feeling that most of the students were like me - not deeply committed to the subject matter.  I had taught 5th grade for 4 years and had gone to graduate school to get an advanced degree, which was required by Maryland's Dept. of Education.  I had started with a goal of a master's degree but my advisor told me of a new program that gave scholarships for a fulltime study for a doctorate.  

For my German course, I had to take a test.  I had had no instruction or practice in German but I thought maybe the fact that English is a Germanic language would enable me to pass the exam without an early morning class.  It didn't.  The examiners told me I was terrible: two standard deviations below the mean.  Take the class!  I did and then tried again.  They told me I was now only one standard deviation below the mean and they would credit me with passing!  Stop showing up at 8AM.  

Later, leading a student group through Germany and Switzerland, I found I was 99% ignorant of speech and signs.  Many kind people switched to English for me.   Thank you, kind people.

"The Atlantic Ocean will close"

That's what I read on the Weather Channel app today:"The Atlantic Ocean will close".  What the heck does that mean?  Some bunch of rebels are going to block access ?  No, some scientists or computer models detect a tendency of the tectonic plates beneath Europe and North America to drift toward each other, eliminating the Atlantic ocean.  The process will begin in about 20 million years. Lynn and I agree that we will probably miss it.

Books mentioned

It is Sunday, the day of the week that CNN photo editors post a link to Photos of the Week.  

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/15/world/gallery/photos-this-week-february-8-february-15

I also want to mention some books.  I have finished "Go Wild" by John Ratey, MD.  Ratey is a good writer for general audiences.  I like his explanations and handling of complex subjects. We just finished "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store", an interesting novel featuring Jews and Blacks living outside Pittsburgh.  We are beginning "Fluke", non-fiction about odd happenings and the interconnectedness of people, events and the consequences of the choices, big and little, that we make. I have had an ecopy of Walt Hickey's "You Are What You Watch" for awhile and I just started it today. 

Hickey is the man behind the Numlock News, which I read every day.  He mentions early on that people studying the components of human breath just need one thing: movies!  Our breath changes when we watch scary scenes from watching warm, comforting scenes.

In connection with Fluke, I want to mention "The Improbability Principle" by British statistician David J.Hand.  It is the best book I have read, so far, about weird stuff happening.  I just looked Prof. Hand up and found he has two websites.  I visited one and found the statement "the unusual day would be one on which nothing unusual happens". 

Research articles that have gotten my attention

Sept. 4, 2023 is the date of a blog post by me that mentions an experiment that used an atomizer sending aromatic oils into the bedroom air while subjects slept.  I bought two atomizers and essential oil sets.  We have both used them many nights. We have not noticed advanced intelligence in ourselves.  We may be at the top of human intelligence scale and be unable to go higher.  Other explanations also occur to us.  

It seems to be that most mammals pay far more attention to the sense of smell than humans do. I have been impressed by the feeling of youthful energy I have experienced since I have been drinking about 50 oz. of water daily.  I wanted to try atomizers but Lynn said I was overdoing it and the extra scent gave her a sore throat.

More recently, I saw an article that said using a breath trainer quickly led subjects to strong breathing muscles and better breathing.  I bought breath trainers for each of us from Amazon.  We just got them.  It is too soon to expect noticeable improvement in breathing and results like skin tone, energy, etc.  All they do is give the user a closed opening or a completely open one to work on challenging inhalation and exhalation.

The movie Dumplin'

We watched the 2nd half of "Dumplin'" last night on Netflix.  I heartily recommend it.  I am a small male and I have had a few experiences that show me that matters.  The movie shows the burdens of being a heavy-set teen girl.  I think it is well acted and well written.

Good morning docs

I like a good routine. A typical pattern for me is start up my computer, read CNN "5 Things", look among the new email messages for things from a person I actually know instead of an organization.  Read "Numlock News" and "Popular Information".  

When I was an elementary school student, I didn't like arithmetic so I was surprised when I was graduating from college later, that I had accumulated enough math credits to claim that subject as my minor.  Then, when I got a job teaching 5th grade, I was the 5th grade arithmetic teacher for all four sections, mine and three others.

So, whether I am in the mood or not, I go through Numlock News, edited by Walt Hickey each day. He recently published "You Are What You Watch" and I intend to look at my copy real soon.  You know the numlock key can be pressed on a keyboard to give you numbers from all those keys that serve two purposes, one of them being to type a numeral.  

Where else are you going to find items like this?

Tooth Fairy Inflation

The amount of money that the Tooth Fairy — a fey beast that forged an ancient compact with humanity to trade coin for fang, provided the terms are upheld and the summoning ritual is complete — pays out has become a somewhat testy topic, as some kids get a pretty hefty chunk of change for their first or final tooth, and that can raise expectations from other kids and cause disruption in the neighborhood. The national average payout per lost tooth is already up, from $5.36 per tooth in 2022 up to $6.23 per tooth last year, according to an annual poll sponsored by Delta Dental. So when a kid gets $100 for a first tooth and $20 for subsequent teeth, one might understand the class animosity that can quickly emerge. Not to mention the moral hazard: Let's be clear, the minute that a tooth out of the mouth is worth way more than a tooth in the mouth, kids are canny enough to spot a deal when one's presented in front of them.

Serena Ng, The Wall Street Journal

Valentine's Day

As she sometimes does, Lynn slept a bit late today. I used the time to gather the flowers, the box of chocolates, and the card together so that when she did wake up, I was ready to do my part.  The chocolates are from Candinas, an award-winning chocolatier, located in Wisconsin and someone we have dealt with before.  The flowers are from Columbia via Walmart and the card asks if the recipient knows why the marriage has lasted 63+ years and is so good.  Inside is a small mirror.

I had an appointment with a cardiologist today. My falls are not understood or explained, but my dosage for a blood thinner is back to the higher and recommended level, hopefully heading off strokes and such.

The day's ID

I have heard that people sometimes ask a person who seems disoriented or out of it, "What day is it?"  That can be a difficult question.  

For writing a blog, I often try to list, say, five prompts.  Sometimes a prompt immediately grabs my attention when I think of it and I know that is what I want to write about.  Sometimes, I can't think of enough ok ideas to list five.  I have used notebooks stored around the house and typically I use a notebook for comments.  That was before I ever heard of blogging and "web" services like Blogspot and WordPress.  There was never a good reason to start a new notebook when my last one was very far from full but that was why the notebook from 2009 had only nine pages used out of 70. I guess when I felt like writing, I was too lazy to locate the last notebook I used. 

Now, I memorize the color of the prompt notebook and I keep that one handy and use it over and over.  I find it interesting to use the same notebook for each day's prompts, which take a line for the day's info, five or so lines for prompts. Maybe some more if that day, my head is full of ideas. To keep track, I put the day first.

• What day of the week is it?

• What is the month?

• Number of today in the month?

• Year?

My book group read Lisa Genova's book "Remember".  As is typical with me, I didn't read the book but "looked through it" to prep for the discussion.  I have spent too much time searching for my parked car after buying food.  A passage of her book said you can't remember where you parked because when you parked, you didn't form a memory of the location.  When I am wandering around looking for my car, I often think of those words.  Writing the day's ID helps me know so I can answer the nice lady when she asks "What day is it?"

Couldn't post today

 I have not tried before today to attach a file to one of my blog posts.  I couldn't make it work and maybe that is by design.  Sorry.

CNN Photos of the Week

Photos this week: February 1-8, 2024 | CNN

It's an adventure!

Neither you nor I have lived this day before.  If you drive to your usual grocery store and buy your usual bread, that particular drive and that particular loaf, however much like other drives and other loaves, has never been driven before, never been bought before. What happens during the next ten minutes has never happened before!  What happens during the next ten minutes we won't know!  Oh, sure, you will know about that phone call you will make but I won't.  I won't know what you said or what Sherry said.   You won't know about the sentences I think of writing but reject.  Neither of us will know just what our blood pressure was at 2 PM and if Ethiopian spies using the usual sophisticated devices tell us, we will quickly forget the numbers.

The woman named "Byron Katie" said, "I am having the time of my life watching my body fall apart."  I like to take a version of that statement, remember that this instant is unique and note the ups and downs of this moment and the next and enjoy what is now.  I'm telling you: it is one surprise after another!

John Ratey, MD

Just want to note that I am getting to be more and more of a fan of the author John Ratey, MD.  One of the first ebooks I bought in 2008 was "Spark", about exercise and the body.  Now I am reading "Go Wild", about countermeasures that can stop or lessen ill effects on the body from habit and customs of civilization.

Clara Ann Fowler

I was home alone for lunch.  I played hit songs sung by Clara Ann Fowler (Patti Page).  

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-m&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=patti%20page&utm_source=pocket_saves

I was transported back to 8th grade, living in the same house, being juiced up by the melodies and lyrics I listened to as I got dressed for school.  Her version "Tennessee Waltz" is slow enough and sad enough and her song "That Doggie in the Window?" is cheerful enough to put me back there.

Small time

I think it was my grad school course in the history of psychology where we touched on astronomers finding that their observations of astronomical events didn't always agree with each other.  They came to face the fact that the speed with which events were recognized and recorded needed to be accounted for.  Awareness of "reaction time" and "individual differences" grew.  

Maybe you have looked at the website "time.gov", run by the US Bureau of Standards and giving exact time, to the extent that is possible.  I just visited that site and was informed by the software that this computer that I am using to "word process" has an internal clock that is running slow by a third of a second.  Ok, by .364 if you want more precision.  My watch, clocks in every room, electronic devices disagree.  I have tried going around and getting them all correct but some truths are

• I can't get them all correctly set

• As soon as I get them more nearly the same, they begin getting out of whack

After some experience with the subject, I find it is not a matter of importance in our lives.

Verification from the other end

Some of the firms I deal with send me a code or do other things to satisfy themselves they are really dealing with the person I say or write that I am.  But I am beginning to need verification from them, not just from me.  How about I send a 21 digit number to an address I am pretty sure is really them and they let me know what that number is.  You know, just to be sure.

Chance everywhere

Normally, I am not that much of a writer.  Sure, sometimes I am eager to explain or support or reveal but normally, I can communicate or not.  I know that some people look forward to an idea or a friendly message.  I am confident that I am not good at predicting who happens to be looking for something from me so the best thing seems to be to write from the heart and post for anyone to see how today's idea sits with them.  

That description points to a sort of gamble.  Who, if anyone, will find today's post helpful?  Who will find it trivial, super-ordinary or completely useless?  I picture a big jar with chips or slips of paper.  Some of the chips will be drawn and most will be skipped over.  You know that chips that were drawn yesterday may well be skipped today but a few repetitions may well occur.  This picture of a jar, an urn, a bowl from which items are drawn can apply to many situations.  It is the sort of image that lured thinkers into developing the subject of statistics, and has been of use in nearly every branch of science and investigation.

Mid winter and CNN photos

Today is the mid-day of winter.  From now on, there is less to go that we have already gone.

Today is a Sunday so there is a selection of photos from CNN t.ly/hPQAH This is a link in Firefox.  If you don't like Firefox, you can look up CNN photos of the week.

Minds can use training and direction at any age

The book "Incognito" is excellent at directing one's attention to parts of the brain and mind that work while deliberate thinking and reasoning go on consciously.  Habits and hormones direct our attention and energies in ways that it is easy to overlook since they work quietly and without noticeable effort. But the smaller and yet more complete book, "Your Brain is Not for Thinking" was more helpful to me. Also Prof. Barrett's TED talks, especially this one You aren't at the mercy of your emotions -- your brain creates them are very helpful.  And available for free.  And short and complete.

Fwd: February 1, 2024

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American <heathercoxrichardson@substack.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 2, 2024 at 12:22 AM
Subject: February 1, 2024
To: <olderkirby@gmail.com>

One of the biggest stories of 2023 is that the U.S. economy grew faster than any other economy in the Group of 7 nations, made up of democratic countries with the world's largest advanced economies. By a lot. The International Monetary Fund yesterday reported that the U.S. gross domestic product—the way countries estimate their productivity—grew by 2.5%, significantly higher than the GDP of the next country on the list: Japan, at 1.9%.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more February 1, 2024 Heather Cox Richardson Feb 2   READ IN APP   One of the biggest stories of 2023 is that the U.S. economy grew faster than any other economy in the Group of 7 nations, made up of democratic countries with the world's largest advanced economies. By a lot. The International Monetary Fund yesterday reported that the U.S. gross domestic product—the way countries estimate their productivity—grew by 2.5%, significantly higher than the GDP of the next country on the list: Japan, at 1.9%. IMF economists predict U.S. growth next year of 2.1%, again, higher than all the other G7 countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta projects growth of 4.2% in the first quarter of 2024. Every time I write about the booming economy, people accurately point out that these numbers don't necessarily reflect the experiences of everyone. But they have enormous political implications.  President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and the Democrats embraced the idea that using the government to support ordinary Americans—those on the "demand" side of the economy—would nurture strong economic growth. Republicans have insisted since the 1980s that the way to expand the economy is the opposite: to invest in the "supply side," investors who use their capital to build businesses.  In the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration, while the Democrats had control of the House and Senate, they passed a range of laws to boost American manufacturing, rebuild infrastructure, protect consumers, and so on. They did so almost entirely with Democratic votes, as Republicans insisted that such investments would destroy growth, in part through inflation.  Now that the laws are beginning to take effect, their results have proved that demand-side economic policies like those in place between 1933 and 1981, when President Ronald Reagan ushered in supply-side economics, work. Even inflation, which ran high, appears to have been driven by supply chain issues, as the administration said, and by "greedflation," in which corporations raised prices far beyond cost increases, padding payouts for their shareholders. The demonstration that the Democrats' policies work has put Republicans in an awkward spot. Projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are so popular that Republicans are claiming credit for new projects or, as Representative Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) did on Sunday, claiming they don't remember how they voted on the infrastructure measure and other popular bills like the CHIPS and Science Act (she voted no). When the infrastructure measure passed in 2021, just 13 House Republicans supported it.  Today, Medicare sent its initial offers to the drug companies that manufacture the first ten drugs for which the government will negotiate prices under the Inflation Reduction Act, another hugely popular measure that passed without Republican votes. The Republicans have called for repealing this act, but their stance against what they have insisted is "socialized medicine" is showing signs of softening. In Politico yesterday, Megan Messerly noted that in three Republican-dominated states—Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi—House speakers are saying they are now open to the idea of expanding healthcare through Medicaid expansion. In another sign that some Republicans recognize that the Democrats' economic policies are popular, the House last night passed bipartisan tax legislation that expanded the Child Tax Credit, which had expired last year after Senate Republicans refused to extend it. Democrats still provided most of the yea votes—188 to 169—and Republicans most of the nays—47 to 23—but, together with a tax cut for businesses in the bill, the measure was a rare bipartisan victory. If it passes the Senate, it is expected to lift at least half a million children out of poverty and help about 5 million more.  But Republicans have a personnel problem as well as a policy problem. Since the 1980s, party leaders have maintained that the federal government needs to be slashed, and their determination to just say no has elevated lawmakers whose skill set features obstruction rather than the negotiation required to pass bills. Their goal is to stay in power to stop legislation from passing. Yesterday, for example, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who sits on the Senate Finance Committee and used to chair it, told a reporter not to have too much faith that the child tax credit measure would pass the Senate, where Republicans can kill it with the filibuster. "Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good…means he could be reelected, and then we won't extend the 2017 tax cuts," Grassley said. At the same time, the rise of right-wing media, which rewards extremism, has upended the relationship between lawmakers and voters. In CNN yesterday, Oliver Darcy explained that "the incentive structure in conservative politics has gone awry. The irresponsible and dishonest stars of the right-wing media kingdom are motivated by vastly different goals than those who are actually trying to advance conservative causes, get Republicans elected, and then ultimately govern in office."  Right-wing influencers want views and shares, which translate to more money and power, Darcy wrote. So they spread "increasingly outlandish, attention-grabbing junk," and more established outlets tag along out of fear they will lose their audience. But those influencers and media hosts don't have to govern, and the anger they generate in the base makes it hard for anyone else to, either.  This dynamic has shown up dramatically in the House Republicans' refusal to consider a proposed border measure on which a bipartisan group of senators had worked for four months because Trump and his extremist base turned against the idea—one that Republicans initially demanded.  Since they took control of the House in 2023, House Republicans have been able to conduct almost no business as the extremists are essentially refusing to govern unless all their demands are met. Rather than lawmaking, they are passing extremist bills to signal to their base, holding hearings to push their talking points, and trying to find excuses to impeach the president and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Yesterday the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, which is firmly on the right, warned House Republicans that "Impeaching Mayorkas Achieves Nothing" other than "political symbolism," and urged them to work to get a border bill passed. "Grandstanding is easier than governing, and Republicans have to decide whether to accomplish anything other than impeaching Democrats," it said.  Today in the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin called the Republicans' behavior "nihilism and performative politics." On CNN this morning, Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) identified the increasing isolation of the MAGA Republicans from a democratic government. "Here we are both on immigration and now on this tax bill where President Biden and a bipartisan group of Congress are trying to actually solve problems for the American people," Goldman said, "and Chuck Grassley, Donald Trump, Mike Johnson—they are trying to kill solutions just for political gain."  Notes: https://www.axios.com/2024/01/31/us-economy-2024-gdp-g7-nations https://www.wfla.com/politics/florida-gop-rep-says-she-cant-recall-how-she-voted-on-chips-appropriations-bills/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/alejandro-mayorkas-impeachment-house-republicans-border-immigration-homeland-security-1a431a5d https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/09/politics/biden-republicans-infrastructure-law/index.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/01/gop-blunders-nihilism/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/11/05/house-infrastructure-reconciliation-vote/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/greg-abbotts-performative-border-clash-is-a-classic-maga-era-stunt https://www.marketwatch.com/story/greedflation-is-replacing-inflation-as-companies-raise-prices-for-bigger-profits-report-finds-bfb51060 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/us/child-tax-credits-pandemic-colorado.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/31/politics/house-vote-tax-bill-child-tax-credit/index.html https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/31/southern-republicans-obamacare-00138109 https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/31/media/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-right-wing-media/index.html https://www.cbsnews.com/news/child-tax-credit-bill-senate-vote/ Twitter (X): atrupar/status/1753093857527382355 IanSams46/status/1752511045187383334 TheDemocrats/status/1753101008086171900 RepSwalwell/status/1752870024014975228 TristanSnell/status/1752874545474683060 WhiteHouse/status/1753161307233173642 SteveRattner/status/1753140645584146579 Share You're currently a free subscriber to Letters from an American. 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