Here are some of the topics that have caught my attention as I’ve been browsing the internet:
It’s 90 Seconds to Midnight
Albert Einstein joined several University of Chicago scientists involved with the Manhattan Project to found The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1945. As part of their publicity efforts, the organization created The Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of the apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet.
The Bulletin updates the clock each January. This year’s update moves the clock’s hands forward to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest they have ever set it to midnight.
The Bulletin explains why its Science and Security Board made this change: “This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.
The war in Ukraine may enter a second horrifying year, with both sides convinced they can win. Ukraine’s sovereignty and broader European security arrangements that have largely held since the end of World War II are at stake. Also, Russia’s war on Ukraine has raised profound questions about how states interact, eroding norms of international conduct that underpin successful responses to a variety of global risks.
And worst of all, Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict—by accident, intention, or miscalculation—is a terrible risk. The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone’s control remains high.”
The Bulletin also cites the danger that the last remaining nuclear weapons treaty between Russia and the United States may expire in February 2026, the impact of the climate emergency, biological events, and the potential misuse of disruptive technologies as factors requiring them to move the clock forward.
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MAGA’s Godfather Retires
Paleoconservative columnist Patrick J. Buchanan announced his retirement from a 60-year writing career. He started as an op-ed writer with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat before moving into a speechwriting role with former President Richard Nixon. When not serving in the White House, Buchanan was a national columnist and television pundit. He also ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1992, 1996, and 2000.
Why should we care? Because I agree with John Ganz’s assessment of Buchanan’s career: “I’ve long believed there’s a case to be made that Buchanan, not Buckley, not Goldwater, and not even Ronald Reagan, is the most consequential right-wing figure of the past century.”
Those runs for president may not have succeeded personally, but they set the stage for former President Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition. Intelligencer’s Ed Kilgore explains this dynamic: “To put it plainly, Pat Buchanan was the living link between the nativist, isolationist, and protectionist paleoconservative tradition in GOP politics — which most observers thought had died in the 1950s — and the MAGA conservatism associated with Donald Trump. Both these strains of right-wing thought substituted nativism and economic nationalism for the free-market ideology that prevailed in the last half of the twentieth century, combined with an aggressive traditionalism on cultural matters and heavy-handed appeals to white racist fears of a more diverse nation. This “blood and soil” politics provided an American version of the authoritarian movements that wreaked so much damage in Europe and beyond.”
Ganz goes into more detail about Buchanan’s career, including how he persuaded Nixon to veto legislation that would have created a national system of daycare and afterschool programs because Buchanan saw the idea as a threat to the family unit and Western Civilization.
And I hope Kilgore isn’t prophetic as he sums up Buchanan’s career: “The Buchanan legacy is one of a deeply reactionary point of view that quite recently looked to be a thing of the past but now seems prophetic. He may have statues built to him if the right-wing authoritarians he admires gain power in America or elsewhere.”
Meta Brings Back Trump
In the January 17 edition of this newsletter, I made a prediction about what I feared Meta’s President for Global Affairs Nick Clegg would decide to do as he faced a deadline to announce if the company was going to allow former President Donald Trump to return to Facebook and Instagram. Meta banned Trump in the wake of the January 6, 2021, insurrection against the United States government.
I wrote, “Given that Trump’s posts have gotten even more extreme on his Truth Social platform, I believe Meta should make Trump’s ban permanent. Facebook may not be as powerful as it was in 2020, but it was one of the social media platforms used to organize the failed coup attempt in Brazil earlier this month. The danger to our democracy remains.
Given the damage done to the United Kingdom in the aftermath of Clegg’s decision to take his Liberal Democrats into a coalition government with David Cameron’s Conservatives in 2010, however, I fear this is another big call Clegg will get wrong.”
Clegg has a brand. Oh well. But I guess this was one way for Facebook actually to add a user in 2023.
The Washington Post’s Will Oremus writes about how Clegg is justifying the decision to reinstate Trump: “He went on to lay out a somewhat convoluted, legalistic explanation for why reinstating Trump was the only logical move according to Meta’s protocols and community standards, maintaining the company’s tradition of valiantly resisting any notion that it’s simply making all this stuff up as it goes along.
The crux of the argument is that suspending Trump was a move made in a moment of crisis for the country, and that the crisis has since subsided, justifying his return. Though the Jan. 6 committee found evidence that Facebook and other social platforms helped to create the conditions for the U.S. Capitol attack, its final report buried those findings, and Clegg’s announcement made no mention of Facebook bearing any responsibility.”
Abortion, Every Day
Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care.
Valenti writes about a horrific story from Texas: “Conservatives claim that women won’t be targeted as a result of abortion bans, but that lie has been falling apart at the seams. The latest example comes to us from Texas, where a young woman miscarried at a hospital and the fetal remains were released to her—legally. But when she had a small burial at a local park, someone called the police, who dug up the remains, sent them for an autopsy and issued a public alert looking for the woman and another person seen with her at the park. The woman went to police after seeing the media coverage; but even after explaining the situation it appears that the remains are still with the medical examiner and the District Attorney is reviewing the case.
So this young woman who just lost her pregnancy is now dealing with the horrific trauma of being investigated—her fetus dug up against her will—and the added shame of having the media cover her loss as if it was some kind of crime. This is our post-Roe reality.”
This is vile.
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California Sends Toxic Waste to Nearby States
This CalMatters investigative report finds that “environmentally stringent California sends nearly half its toxic waste across its borders, often to states with weaker rules.” Worse, the Department of Toxic Substances Control is one of the biggest out-of-state dumpers.
U.S. Soccer Honors Grant Wahl
Journalist Grant Wahl passed away while covering the World Cup in Qatar. For a long time, he was the only mainstream journalist (starting at Sports Illustrated) to cover women’s and men’s soccer in this country. His death at the age of 49 devastated the U.S. soccer community.
So I appreciate that his legacy will be appropriately honored over the next few years. The Associated Press explains: “The late Grant Wahl will be honored with this year’s Colin Jose Media Award — given to journalists who made long-term contributions to soccer in the United States — and a seat will be saved for him in the press box for every home U.S. men’s and women’s game between now and the 2026 World Cup.”
Thank you, @ussoccer @ussoccer_comms @AmericanOutlaws @soccerhof. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
— Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA 🇺🇦 (@celinegounder) 3:43 AM ∙ Jan 26, 2023
I discussed Wahl’s legacy more in the January 9 edition of this newsletter, as I shared an op-ed written by his widow, Dr. Céline Gounder, the prominent infectious disease physician and epidemiologist. “Dr. Céline Gounder explains what she’s faced after the loss of her husband, the late soccer journalist Grant Wahl, to a ruptured aortic aneurysm while he was covering the recent Men’s World Cup in Qatar. (Wahl was one of my favorite writers and journalists, and his death deeply impacted many people.) Because Grounder is an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist who has been a prominent voice during this Covid pandemic, anti-vaxxers leaped to blame the vaccine—and Grounder—for Wahl’s death. The messages they sent to her were nothing short of evil.”
Quick Pitches
The best thing about this graphic is realizing that batters have a .378(!) on-base percentage (14/37) when they are the potential final out of a perfect game. The Los Angeles Dodgers were the best team in 2022 with a .333 OBP.
Rarity of events in MLB games (individual, not team)
— Jay Cuda (@JayCuda) 1:07 AM ∙ Jan 26, 2023
Marc Maron will deal with some hard stuff in his new stand-up special coming out on HBO Max on February 11 (including the sudden passing in May 2020 of his partner Lynn Shelton). Maron said he felt good about the taping while discussing it on his podcast. So I have been looking forward to seeing how he puts it all together.
His happy place is darker than most.
#MarcMaron: From Bleak to Dark premieres February 11 on @hbomax.
— HBO (@HBO) 6:00 PM ∙ Jan 25, 2023
There’s a bit of this going around.
Word of the day is ‘bayard’ (16th century): one who shuts their eyes to reality and has all the confidence of ignorance.
— Susie Dent (@susie_dent) 8:47 AM ∙ Jan 26, 2023
And watching this is death by a thousand cuts.
Here’s 52 seconds of senators making Taylor Swift references at the Ticketmaster hearing.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) 7:55 PM ∙ Jan 24, 2023
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