I love you, but you are not serious people.

• This article contains some absolutely bonkerballs statistics: Analysis Finds That Google AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization – via @drskyskull
• I think we all agree that the narcissism of our current POTUS makes it impossible for him to carry out the duties of the presidency in the way the Constitution requires.
• The Next Coup Attempt, And How to Stop It
• A 19-year-old Mexican migrant died at a Florida immigration detention facility last month, and ICE hasn’t been able to find his arrest record.

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.
Nelson Algren, A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Mahatma Gandhi

So Much Bad News:

• The secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party started a group chat primarily for conservative students last fall — and within three weeks it was filled with racist slurs, someone wrote dozens of ways of violently killing Black people and the chat was renamed after what one member described as “Nazi heaven.”
• Students in Savannah grieve teacher killed in crash with driver pursued by ICE.
• A Call to Conscience, by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago
• A little-known group stacked with lobbyists for the artificial intelligence industry has been sending congressional staffers on upscale trips over the past year to tour AI companies in San Francisco, London, New York City, and Los Angeles.
• The U.S. Built a Blueprint to Avoid Civilian War Casualties. Current Administration Officials Scrapped It.
• Department of Homeland Security leaders removed top privacy officers who objected to mislabeling government records to block their public release.
• Administration Officials Attended a Summit of Election Deniers Who Want the President to Take Over the Midterms

It Could Be All Downhill from Here:

• In any other universe, this would be the biggest story of the month. But in our current dystopian hellscape, it barely made the news: The US Justice Department withheld testimony that POTUS sexually abused a girl when she was 13 or 14. – via @adamjschwarz
• In any other universe, this would be the second-biggest story of the month. But in our current dystopian hellscape, it barely made the news: The US Secret Service shot and killed an armed man who entered the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago.
• Companies with backbones should be supported.
• Wired is reporting that a popular right-wing account that called a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes “a masterpiece” appears to be run by a White House staffer.
• What is clear is that Kansas Republicans have weaponized the government to target a tiny subset of an already small portion of the population to score political points and institutionalize cruelty.
• Someone referred to VPOTUS as the Pillsbury Proud Boy and that is simply some top-tier comedy right there.
• An analysis reveals that the social media accounts of Nicki Minaj, which are now advocating for conservative causes, has been amplified by an army of bots and coordinated activity.
• U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas resisted growing calls from fellow congressional Republicans to resign over a report of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire.
• More than a dozen states sued the current administration over its rollback of vaccine recommendations for children, calling the move an illegal threat to public health.

Polio was first described in the 18th century, but it wasn’t identified until 1909. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, regular polio outbreaks terrified Americans — polio was highly contagious and mostly affected children. In 1921, the disease struck 39-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His wife, Eleanor, said, “Probably the thing that took most courage in his life was his mastery and his meeting of polio.” Roosevelt’s money and fame transformed the fight against polio. He created a foundation called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which later became the March of Dimes. He convinced his good friend and law partner, Basil O’Connor, to run the foundation. Throughout the war years, the March of Dimes gained public support with Roosevelt as its public image, Hollywood celebrities and war generals promoting it, grassroots chapters, and a simple fundraising platform: a dime at a time.

The March of Dimes devoted a lot of its budget to research. Researchers had been hard at work on a “live” version of the vaccine — using the living virus, but weakening it so much in a lab that it wouldn’t cause disease. But live vaccines were hard to stabilize, and progress was slow. March of Dimes director Basil O’Connor was interested in another approach — a “killed” vaccine, in which the virus was inactivated with heat, chemicals, or radiation before being made into a vaccine. A killed vaccine would be less potent and require booster shots, but it was easier to stabilize, didn’t require refrigeration, and was safer because there was no danger that it might revert back to the original virus. Most promising, there had been a successful killed vaccine for influenza during World War II. O’Connor talked to the doctor who had pioneered the influenza vaccine, and that doctor suggested young Dr. Salk as a good candidate to work on a polio vaccine. So the March of Dimes recruited Salk.

Meanwhile, the polio epidemic was growing worse. Various attempts at controlling the disease were not working, including quarantining children or putting them in metal respirator tunnels called iron lungs. The worst outbreak in America’s history hit in 1952, with 58,000 cases reported; more than 3,000 people died and more than 21,000 were left with some degree of paralysis. Schools closed, the public grew desperate, and pressure on scientists increased. That same year, Salk announced that he had discovered an effective vaccine but that he needed to test it on a large scale. So he set up a field trial involving more than 220,000 volunteers, 20,000 physicians, and 1.8 million schoolchildren. On this day in 1954, the first group of children were vaccinated, 137 students at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh. Dr. Salk gave each vaccination personally in a makeshift lab set up in the gymnasium.

On April 12, 1955, the monitors of the test held a press conference and made an official announcement: the vaccine was safe and effective. The announcement was a huge national event. Stores broadcast the event on loudspeakers, and judges even stopped trials in the middle so that everyone could listen. After they heard the news, churches across the country rang their bells, factories took a break for a moment of silence, and spontaneous celebrations broke out all over the country. It was 10 years to the day after the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

When asked whether he had applied for a patent for the vaccine, Salk replied: “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” Salk has been praised for this selfless approach, and it may have been his personal belief, but also the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis had already looked into applying for a patent and determined that it would not qualify.

Salk said: “Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.”
– via The Writer’s Almanac

Winter Olympics

• The newest Olympic sport goes by the name skimo, which is short for ski mountaineering.
• The president of the biggest soccer club in the Ukraine has announced a $200k+ donation to skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych after he was banned from the Winter Olympics.
• Does US speed skater Jordan Stolz really eat pizza every day before training?
• Mac Forehand, the freestyle skiing Big Air silver medalist, reveals the process behind stomping a world’s first trick on the penultimate jump of the competition, which helped push the sport to new heights. (Click the image to view his jump!) – via Sports! with Rodger Sherman
• Higher-than-anticipated demand led to a condom supply shortage after organizers provided only four for each Olympian, compared to the thirty given to everyone competing at the Paris games.
• Meet the cameraman who skates backward to capture Olympic triumph and defeat.

None of This Is Normal:

• Reading this chilling account of how the current administration is abusing a repurposed Navy logistics program to rapidly expand its ability to hide people is enough to make anyone sick to the stomach, but ignorance is not an option these days. The bottom line is that the Department of Homeland Security is buying warehouses across the country to build out concentration camps for caging and deporting immigrants, and this program is allowing them to be operational in a matter of weeks.
• Speaking of terrible immigration policies, I give you a very rare 20+ thread post that is well worth reading.
• Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs.
• “I don’t think we should allow the secret police to round people up and sort them by race.”
• In case you’re still on the fence about whether to use their service or read publications there, you can read about how Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters. – via Kottke
• The current administration is using $15,000,000 from USAID funds to pay for security for budget director Russ Vought for the year.

My uncle had two small parts in the 1990 Tom Cruise NASCAR film, Days of Thunder, which was filmed partly in Daytona Beach and the surrounding area. He’s at the very beginning of the film for a few seconds as a reporter interviewing one of the racers and he appears again in the fake police officer prank as a Florida Highway Patrolman. He’s the very tall trooper with a mustache. Uncle Dic (Domenic Albanese) was a supreme exaggerator and teller of tall tales, but for some reason I always believed him – because it sounded so authentic – when he told us that while they were waiting to film the scene he and Robert Duvall got in a farting exchange that had Tom Cruise in stitches. (I am also in the movie. You can see me during the celebration after the last race, right behind Cruise’s car. I’m the dumb teenager wearing a leather jacket in Florida.)

Winter Olympics

• I don’t know if there is any possible way NBC could do a worse job this Olympics. Several times now I’ve managed to avoid all social media and my email, flipped to NBC to start watching, and caught the end of the local news team spoiling everything I was about to watch. Peacock doesn’t help much, either, as it seems every time I try to watch anything there I see a message telling me the event has just concluded or hasn’t started yet, or I click to watch speed skating and am shown women’s hockey instead. It’s all very frustrating.
• France’s Viral Ice Dancing Team Has A Dark Backstory
• Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych is the most important athlete at the Olympics right now
• SNL always has great sketches for the Olympics. I liked this year’s about the terrified luge racer, but it doesn’t top the All-Drug Olympics or Jason Priestley (with Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman announcing) as the worst ice skater in history.
• Norwegian skier Atle Lie McGrath, grieving his grandfather’s passing at the start of the Olympics, was so distraught from losing the men’s slalom gold medal that he threw his poles, unstrapped his skis and walked toward the nearby woods to be alone.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things:

• The highly classified whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner.
• Cardi B slammed the Department of Homeland Security after it mocked her for saying she’d “jump” ICE if they came after her fans during a show.
• A Florida handyman who received a pardon from POTUS for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been convicted of multiple state charges of child molestation and exposing himself to children
• A Pennsylvania Olive Garden employee killed himself by plunging his head into a hot deep fryer. (When I was a teenager a broken piece of fryolator equipment caused me to submerge my right arm up to the elbow in 425°F peanut oil. I got second and third degree burns all over my arm and where the oil splashed, and it was easily the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced.)

Winter Olympics

• Sarah Schleper and son Lasse skiing for Mexico will make history as they become the first mother and son to compete at the same Winter Games.
• Olympic organizers are investigating with “maximum attention” after a spate of medals have fallen off their ribbons during celebrations on the opening weekend of the Games. – via Rodger Sherman
• German ski jumper Philipp Raimund won gold, which is quite a feat for someone afraid of heights.
• Norwegian biathlete wins bronze medal, then, totally unprompted, reveals he cheated on his girlfriend, she left him, and he wants to apologize publicly hoping she takes him back – via @rodger

A Functioning Democracy Does Not Imprison Children:

• Eric Swalwell: “You said you wanted to see a deportation process that was ‘like Amazon Prime but with human beings.’ How many times has Amazon Prime shot a mom 3 times in the face?” – via @atrupar.com
• RFK Jr. Went Dinosaur Bone Hunting with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – via What A Day
• Ha! Paul Thomas Anderson and Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) Want Melania Doc to Remove Phantom Thread Music
• ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. – via @jamellebouie.net

Winter Olympics

• U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn — who has arguably been the biggest story of the Winter Olympics — crashed during her fifth Olympic Games. So she won’t go home with a medal, but she will go home with the heart of a champion.
• “The summer games are about pleasant activities — swimming! running! playing games with your friends! — and the winter games have 11 separate terrifying ways to almost die hurling your body at maximum speed down an icy mountain.”
• US reaches first Olympic curling mixed doubles final, will face Swedish siblings for gold
• Hot Mic At Winter Olympics Catches NBC Announcer Call Snowboarding Big Air Final ‘So Boring’ – via @blobcostas

A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission)

• You are probably getting brain damage from all those COVID infections.
• How TikTok 2.0 Became a Weapon for ICE – via @scalzi.com
• Children trapped in Texas immigration facility recount nightmares, inedible food, no school – via @letatcestmoi
• Heartbreaking: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility
• The President’s online drugstore isn’t what it seems.
• POTUS shares racist video depicting the Michelle and Barack Obama as monkeys
• Dr. Mehmet Oz, of all people, urges Americans to get the measles vaccine as cases rise across the country.
• “Life on Peptides Feels Amazing,” says everyone who’s buying from looksmaxxers on Instagram or AI bots in China and injecting them into their bloodstream.

• A French hospital was reportedly forced to evacuate after medical staff discovered an unexploded World War I artillery shell stuck in a man’s rectum. – via standard.co.uk
• Covid was the #3 killer in 2020, but has now slipped out of the top 10; an American is more likely to die these days from cirrhosis or suicide.
• How to turn off only the cursed AI summary feature in Gmail. – via Laura Olin
• Oh, look! I found yet another excellent article that does a great job of explaining why Substack is the worst. – via @paperalphabet (and me)

Winter Olympics

• Five minutes into the first event of the Games, they lost the stadium lights in the middle of a mixed doubles curling match.
• Mary Carillo will replace Savannah Guthrie as the co-host of the NBC coverage. (I always loved her wonderful 2004 rant about badminton.)
• Facing a 1,000-metre drop, the Milano Cortina 2026 freestyle skiers must overcome more than just their competitors, but their nerves as well. (See also: Japanese freestyle skier Kokone Kondo hurt in training crash, taken to hospital)
• Ice Hockey Underdog Italy earns first Olympic win
• The World Anti-Doping Agency could investigate if evidence emerges that male ski jumpers are injecting their penises in a bid to improve sporting performance.

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness:

• This should be terrifying to everyone: DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old US Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email
• How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism
• If the Fourth Amendment permits the government to tear down your door with nothing more than an administrative warrant, the Fourth Amendment doesn’t exist.
• South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace is getting dragged after a damning New York Magazine profile revealed she forced staffers to create burner Reddit accounts to boost her standing in a “hottest women in Congress” forum. – via Comic Sands

• For the first time in nearly 25 years, an Asian elephant gave birth to a calf at the Smithsonian Zoo. – via What A Day
• Got kids? Send them a link to Ian’s Shoelace Site!
• Super quick and easy way to send a message to your reps asking them to stand with the people of Minnesota against ICE: ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA NOW – via @bhay
• NSS: The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023. – via @jfallows
• Leslie Jones shares what her reaction would be if she were a reporter and the President insulted her.

Winter Olympics

• Lindsey Vonn says she is competing this weekend despite rupturing the ACL in her left knee just a few days ago.
• Winter House is definitely a better name than the original.
• Where, when, and how to watch the Opening Ceremony
• How to watch Mikaela Shiffrin live at Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics
• As law enforcement officials continue to search for her mother, Savannah Guthrie will no longer be part of NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage – via @latimes.com

What fresh hell is this?

• In an interview with NPR, Melinda Gates confirmed that she ended her marriage with Bill Gates because of allegations contained in the Epstein files.
• Operation Dirtbag, Swamp Sweep, Operation Catch of the Day, the Speedway Slammer, the Cornhusker Clink, Alligator Alcatraz, and Deportation Depot are just some of the degrading, dehumanizing, and disgusting names the current administration has been using for ICE operations and facilities.
• Health officials in New Mexico are warning against consuming raw dairy products after a newborn baby in the state died from a listeria infection that they say was likely contracted when the baby’s mother drank raw milk during pregnancy. – via @philplait
• The POTUS urged Republicans to seize control of elections and place voting under national authority, one of his most explicit signals yet that he plans to interfere with the workings of democracy. – via @marcelias
• ICE confirms measles outbreak at Dilley family detention center – via @pgourevitch

Jane! Stop this crazy thing!

• What it’s like to see ICE tear gas kids
• Ugh. Three fraternity members were arrested after the death of a Northern Arizona student following a rush event.
• “It’s perhaps unfair for me to call Melania the worst film ever made, since I haven’t seen every film ever made. But I have seen Porky’s 3, Police Academy 6, and many Rob Schneider vehicles, so you know I mean business when I say it’s the worst film I’ve ever seen.”
• This essay on the rise and fall of Scott Adams (and Dilbert) was mostly depressing.

• Evidence is accumulating that the shingles vaccine also protects against Alzheimer’s disease and can slow biological aging. – via The Progress Network
• Mr. Math Blog is a great tool to keep in your back pocket if you have an elementary school student learning algebra.
• Reasons To Watch The Martian For The 47th Time, Ranked – via Lauren
• I highly recommend Night Thoughts, the new stand-up special from Kumail Nanjiani on Hulu.
• The Wirecutter published a quick and easy overview about keeping your text messages secure.
• Wil Wheaton on losing Rob Reiner
• Oh, man. RIP to one of my favorites: Catherine O’Hara – via TMZ
• For decades, Eve Baer remained convinced that her son, unresponsive after a severe brain injury, was still conscious. Science eventually proved her right.

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish:

• America’s Biggest Oil Field Is Turning Into a Pressure Cooker
• An unidentified man dressed as Batman angrily confronted Santa Clara city officials for allowing ICE to operate at the upcoming Super Bowl in the city. – via What a Day
• He reached to grab a toddler he said he thought was falling. Then he spent weeks in jail before the case was thrown out.
• ICE Agents Arrested Don Lemon. Then the Story Got Even Darker. – via @gregsargent

An unopened present might be anything – gems, crystal, oranges, a promise of devotion. While the present is unopen, it can rest under the tree to be regarded and speculated upon at length, becoming whatever the recipient wishes.
…
The smell of Christmas cookies baking can be as satisfying as eating them, the first cup of Christmas cheer as gratifying as the next several combined.
Gregg Easterbrook