‘DeSantis was supposed to offer Republicans what has become fashionable to call “Trumpism without Trump” — the same noxious politics without the grotesque personal behavior or the potential criminality. The limits of that vision are now on full display, as we watch a legal dispute unfold that is just as pointless, self-inflicted, and unhelpful to ordinary Americans as anything we witnessed during the Trump years — when we saw firsthand what it means to elect a power-hungry egomaniac to the presidency.’

Nice writing, by Ankush Khardori.

‘The Magnolia State was ranked 49th in U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best States rankings. The top ranked state was Washington, and Louisiana was ranked 50th. Arkansas clocked in at number 44, and Tennessee ranked 29th. Of the main categories cited, Mississippi finished dead last in health care, 49th in economy, and 48th in infrastructure.’

And now – ahem! – lemme tell you why yall should reelect me governor.

[A vicious national cabal made up of degenerate liberals] sees our progress on education and the economy and they want to stop it. You see, a successful, thriving, growing Mississippi does not work for them, not if it is also a God-fearing, family loving and truth-believing, hard-working conservative Mississippi … They want Mississippi to be the butt of their jokes …

Sing it, Dolly

You’ve beaten me again
Just as my campaign begins to pick up steam

You’ve left me on the floor just like you did before
And even made me pay your legal team

You’ve beaten me again
Just when I begin my run for free world chief
I tried to litigate but once again cruel fate

Hath brought me naught but grief


’75 of 117 Idaho OB-GYNs recently surveyed by the Idaho Coalition for Safe Reproductive Health Care said they were considering leaving the state. Of those, nearly 100% — 73 of 75 — cited Idaho’s restrictive abortion laws.’

 It’s happening in all the let ’em die states:

[W]omen’s health specialists from states where abortion is criminalized are beginning to relocate to places like Washington state, which has strong abortion rights laws.

 “[W]e are legally unable now,” explains an exiting Idaho doc, “to prevent harm to patients.”

Another: “This isn’t a safe place to practice medicine anymore.”

Not safe. Which has UD thinking along the following lines: With the removal of virtually all gun laws in some of these same states, we begin to see emerging what I guess these states have always wanted: The return of frontier life. Ain’t got no docs out here. Don’t need no docs. You’re on your own.

These same states tend to be, you know, also our big anti-vax states, our big anti-science states (schools should teach creationism, not evolution), our big anti-gay and (Idaho certainly!) our big anti-Jew/anti-black states, our big secession states… Obviously these attitudes aren’t out there everywhere in all of these places, but you can just see many maternal-death-before-abortion legislatures determined to rid their states of anything at all, say, associated with the Enlightenment.

It’s really queer, if I can transfer that term from gay provenance to, uh, the provinces. Radically queer.

Today’s Mass Murder Travelogue…

… takes us to the bustling, dynamic, city of Atlanta, Georgia, where a few hours ago a guy walked into a Midtown building and mowed down several people.

He remains at large; only one of his targets has died so far, but UD assumes others will succumb to their wounds.

Mr UD got a Police Officer Discount…

… yesterday, at a local cafe.

‘Last Saturday, the economist Dean Baker wrote on Twitter that First Republic’s [CEO] got paid $9.2 million last year and Silicon Valley Bank’s [CEO] was paid $9.9 million. “Is that the market price for someone to send your bank into bankruptcy? I’m pretty confident that I can send a bank into bankruptcy, and I would be willing to do it for half the pay.”’ 

Bankrupt, and drop dead GORGEOUS.

Mass Murder Travelogue

Did you know that Bay St Louis, site of today’s mass murder, is a charming Gulf Coast destination, and the birthplace of noted historian/plagiarist Stephen Ambrose? Voted Best Place to Live in Mississippi, BSL has also got berserk, bullet-spraying, teenagers. They own all kindsa guns, they know how to use ’em, and they like to kill lotsa people. Y’all come down now, y’hear? We got the “friendliest gun laws in the nation.”

MMT, a new way to travel the highways and byways of our amazing country. Stay tuned!

Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.

Sad that we keep having to learn this lesson.

Mickey’s Memory Lane

In 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention launched a boycott of Disney, once again for their pro-gay policies.

*************************

Disney just dug its heels. I mean, they basically said to the Southern Baptist Convention, “Fuck you, we don’t need you.” I don’t know whether the Disney guys were just arrogant or confident, but from the very beginning, they gave not an inch… The Baptists quickly learned that there was no real alternative in terms of popular culture for young children other than Disney. So, they were talking about sacrifice. And I think sacrifice is one thing if they’re asking adults to make it. Disney parks had by that time become a cultural imperative. Which is to say, if you wanted to be a good parent or a good grandparent, taking your children or grandchildren to one of the Disney parks became a cultural imperative. That’s one of the things—one of the boxes you had to tick. And they were a little bit queasy with trying to tell a 7-year-old that we’re not going to Disneyland or Disney World because we think they’re not as friendly to evangelicals as Walt was 30 years ago.

… DeSantis, in my view—and I’ve been covering Southern politics since 1972—is a political thug, a bully, and an arrogant person. Since his rise, no one of equal stature, until now, has stood up to him and said no. I think he really didn’t understand the power that a corporation like Disney wields… I don’t think he realized that Disney punches back, and they may punch back better than he punches. He shouldn’t set himself up to stand or fall on whether he can get Disney to capitulate, because he will never get Disney to capitulate. It will not happen. It didn’t happen in the ’90s, and for sure it’s not going to happen now. And if you had to bet, would you bet on an ambitious Florida governor, or would you bet on a multibillion-dollar corporation that knows what its audience wants?

“You want to know what comes between me and my Armalites?”

“Nothing.”

*********************

UD will be updating this story throughout the day.

*********************

UPDATE #1: 11:22 AM

The suspect, Francisco Oropeza, remains on the run.

He is rumored to have joined the so-called AR-Gang (the name is a takeoff on Our Gang), a large underground group of people all of whom are on the run from having recently killed at least five people with their AR-15s. The core membership is made up of mass murderers, but membership is open to any AR-15 owner who wants to meet with other AR-15 enthusiasts.

UPDATE #2: 11:29 AM

The NRA has issued a statement:

We are appalled but not surprised at the wokeism that would persistently harass a lawful owner of a firearm as he practices firing his weapon. Any family that would try to take away our guns needs some basic lessons in the Second Amendment.

As for Mr. Oropeza, the NRA Legal Defense Fund will be providing him a highly regarded Second Amendment attorney to represent him at trial.

‘Eric brings a … “Think Outside the Box” approach to problem solving.’

Failed local Republican candidate Eric Casteel‘s outside the box approach to problem solving focuses primarily on pulling guns on Republicans on the Allegheny PA county council when he doesn’t like the way a vote’s going. But he only threatens Republicans with his gun; let’s see what he does, next council meeting, or whenever they annoy him, to Democrats.

I mean, he’s being held without bond on terroristic whatever plus other shit right now, but when he gets out, locked and loaded and looking like this (scroll down for a portrait of our country’s compleat contemporary statesman), watch out, Libs!!!

‘Thursday’s occurrence marks the 14th death of an NC State student since the school year began on Aug. 13. Information provided to WRAL News showed 10 of those students who died were male. Eight students who died were enrolled in the College of Engineering.’

A suicide cluster (seven of the deaths were suicides) emerges at North Carolina State, and the dreadful thing is that each suicide risks nudging another student on the edge over the edge. Suicide is contagious.

This is presumably (aside from privacy/family considerations) why the school fails to describe methods – you don’t want to give on-the-precipice students ideas.

 “In any community there is always a certain number of people who are on the edge, and something as emotionally charged as a suicide (or multiple suicides) in the community (especially a small community) is frequently enough to tip more of them over.

What we do know about the school’s suicides is suggestive. Anyone who followed the male/Asian clusters at other engineering schools not that long ago will wonder about the ethnicity of some of the students at NC State/engineering who may have killed themselves.

How many were gun suicides? UD wouldn’t be surprised if it were one hundred percent. It’s North Carolina, where guns are everywhere. Guns would help account for the school’s high number: With a gun you almost never, as it were, miss. Every other method gives you a bit of a fighting chance.

As for the draining, shell-shocked sensation NC students who are watching all of this report feeling: Well yeah. Jesus.

Bio, New York University Trustee Maria Bartiromo.

She was a key on-air booster of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election-fraud lies and, in internal documents made public last month in the Dominion case, she said she was “depressed” by Joe Biden’s election win and texted Trump aides such as Steve Bannon that she simply refused to accept his victory.

“I want to see massive fraud exposed. Will [Trump] be able to turn this around,” she asked Bannon on Nov. 10, three days after Fox projected Biden as the winner. “I told my team we’re not allowed to say pres elect. Not in scripts. Not in banners on air. Until this moves through the courts.”

“A near-total ban on abortion failed Thursday in South Carolina, just hours before a six-week ban fizzled in Nebraska. Abortion remains legal in both states until 22 weeks of pregnancy.”

“Fizzled” is nice.

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Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

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Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

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I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

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If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte