Pun Salad

"A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead—your next stop…" The Trump-Mamdani show. (WaPo gifted link) Well, that's how the WaPo editorialists see it anyway.

Well, that's weird. Not only the Trump/Mamdani lovefest, but the WaPo for pointing out, later in the editorial, "their shared affinity for state capitalism and protectionist rackets."

Almost as much fun as reading the new attitude of the WaPo editorial board is noting their commenters' heads explode in indignation. Example, from "Frank in Alexandria":

The EB strikes again with malarkey and balogna. We know that Democratic Socialists are very scary to your Billionaire Puppet Master, but you guys (and yes, I imagine most, if not all of you are men) really need to lighten up. Vermont has had a DS Senator for years and more and more will be elected in the future.

Hey, maybe. But also: maybe not.

Also of note:

• 

  I think I agree with Walter. Isaacson, that is. He has a new book (Amazon link at your right) and I think the Free Press has an excerpt: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.

  Two hundred and fifty years ago, one sentence became our common creed and mission statement, binding a diverse group of pilgrims and immigrants into one nation.

  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

  In this era of poisonous and sometimes violent political polarization, when even discussions of our history threaten to divide us, we must find a way to put differences aside and celebrate, with gratitude, who we are. One way to achieve this would be by appreciating anew that sentence, the second of our Declaration of Independence, which may be the greatest ever written by human hand.

  For some reason, the Portsmouth (NH) Public Library doesn't have it. I will poke them.

• A brief legal tutorial. Also at the Free Press, Jed Rubenfeld explains it in words even Trump might be able to follow: No, Democratic Lawmakers Didn’t Commit Sedition.

  Technically, there’s no generally applicable crime of “sedition” in U.S. law. Instead, there’s “seditious conspiracy,” which is committed when two or more people agree to try “to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them.” The crime also includes conspiring to “oppose by force the authority” of the U.S., or conspiring “by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States.”

  The lawmakers’ video does not come remotely near any of this. For one thing, the video is speech, not “force.”

  That said, U.S. law does makes it a crime for anyone with the “intent to interfere with, impair, or influence the loyalty, morale, or discipline” of the armed forces to “advise,” “urge,” or “attempt to cause” “insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty” by any serviceman. This is not a capital offense (neither is seditious conspiracy), but it’s a serious crime, punishable by 10 years in prison. When the nation is at war, the punishment can increase to 20 years.

  Jed goes on to explain: "Nevertheless, while the video is legal, it’s also potentially misleading and dangerous—not least for servicemen who may see it and act on it." Fair warning to any barracks lawyer. And (as I said a couple days ago) those CongressCritters will not be testifying at your subsequent court martial.

• RFK Jr. might want to disagree with this medical advice. Nevertheless, guys, I shall link to this Ars Technica article that purports to explain Why you don’t want to get tuberculosis on your penis.

  A man in Ireland earned the unpleasant distinction of developing an exceedingly rare infection on his penis—one that has a puzzling origin, but may be connected to his work with dead animals.

  What follows might make a good episode of House, if they ever decide to reboot that series. (You know, like they did with Matlock.)

• How many shades of red can a cryptographer blush? Also, Ars Technica: Oops. Cryptographers cancel election results after losing decryption key.

  One of the world’s premier security organizations has canceled the results of its annual leadership election after an official lost an encryption key needed to unlock results stored in a verifiable and privacy-preserving voting system.

  I wonder if the official checked for a Post-it® underneath their keyboard?