So, how do you think Biden is doing?

Me, I honestly have no complaints thus far, but maybe I'm naive. He seems to have thoroughly learned the lessons of the Obama administration. He seems to understand that you only get two years to ram as much stuff through as possible, and I'm on board with the order of 1. Covid, 2. Filibuster Showdown over Voting Rights, 3. Infrastructure, given the constraints of reconciliation and what is practical. Hopefully the infrastructure reveal will be intensely focused on sustainable measures that tie into fighting climate change?

During the campaign, I felt like he wasn't my ideal candidate into the primary, but he turned into the perfect candidate as a Covid foil for Trump. I'm kind of still feeling like he's a great fit for this moment in time: appears gentle and nonthreatening to people who aren't paying attention, willing to pivot towards the progressive winds that are blowing, genuinely compassionate to people who are struggling, knows how to cut deals (and voters have forgotten that they used to be so contemptuous of cutting deals), knows how to hand off policy and wonkiness to competent people and let them deal with it, and has picked competent people to receive stuff and run with it, and he listens to them.

I'm sure you will all tell me what I'm missing, though!

I follow Tiny Kitchen on Instagram. Here's a sample:

(Pro-tip: speed it up to 2x.)

Two thoughts on tiny cooking:
1. I am a vaguely surprised that so many recipes seem to be scale-invariant. Surface area and volume scale at different rates. On the other hand, we're not seeing the ingredients measured out, nor tasting the final product. Nor seeing the failures.

2. I don't find it soothing or relaxing to watch these at all. It's clausterphobic almost to watch the fine motor skills needed to navigate these tiny scenes. I do find them interesting, though.

And not worth it's own post:
3. The shape of Nutella jars is really annoying.

Traffic jam in the Suez Canal.

Via some of you, at the other place

This is intended to be our system for checking in on imaginary friends, so that we know whether or not to be concerned if you go offline for a while. There is no way it could function as that sentence implies, but it's still nice to have a thread.

Episode 72.

Here's a minorly annoying thing: the new meds we're trying are $500, and insurance covers $80. But wait! There is a coupon, and you can use the coupon up to 13 times a year! With the coupon, your first month is free, and after that it's only $25. If you're uninsured, it's $75 thereafter.

So clearly, $500 is a motivational price to get you to register with their website. I'm inferring that there is some law that says that pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to get consumer details from the pharmacies, and so this is their workaround to get their hands on that nice juicy mailing list. We jumped through their hoop, but I resent it.

I just heard the line, "Most corrections are overcorrections" on a podcast, and it gave me pause. There's a kernel of truth there.

It probably doesn't apply to the previous post about Biden fixing colonialism injustices by recognizing the Native Hawaiian government, though.

Mossy Character sends in this link without comment.

The Biden administration is poised to settle this problem [of residual colonial treatment] by federally recognizing a Native Hawaiian government in a similar process to that which it does American Indian tribes. Re-establishing a government-to-government relationship with the US has been praised as a way of protecting entitlements, programs and services for Native Hawaiians.

At first glance, that may sound like a positive step. But federal recognition could be a final nail in the coffin for Hawaiian sovereignty. For that reason, it is steadfastly opposed by most Native Hawaiians and has earned the moniker "Fed Wreck"...In fact, federal recognition would have the effect of officially ceding authority to the US, for the first time ever, of over approximately 2m acres of national land stolen from the Hawaiian Kingdom and Native Hawaiians.

Oh man, what a mess. I guess it just depends on what kind of timescale the Native Hawaiians are willing to dedicate to fighting for justice, and it sounds like they're dedicated to nothing short of autonomy, ie the very longest haul.