I did promise reactions to the unrelenting stream of bullshit we all heard last night, so let's go:

• Everyone should start with the New York Times fact check, which is pretty long this year.
• CNN reporters Jennifer Aglesta and Ariel Edwards-Levy: "The pool of people who watched Trump speak on Tuesday was about 13 percentage points more Republican than the general public. ... Forty-five percent of speech-watchers said they had a lot of confidence in Trump to provide real leadership for the country, and 43% expressed a lot of confidence in him to use US military power responsibly, with 38% saying they were highly confident in him to make the right decisions about Iran."
• Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf: "Trump’s speech was light on new policy announcements. He said his administration would give all Americans access to retirement savings accounts akin to what federal employees receive, with $1,000 government matching funds. He did not elaborate on how the accounts would work or whether expanding access to them would require congressional authorization." (WAPO also collected responses from 10 of their opinion writers in one place.)
• Jamelle Bouie: "What Trump has, a little more than one year into his second term, is a failed presidency: one that has crashed on the rocks of his ambition to supplant constitutional government with that of his own will. Yes, Trump has done a tremendous amount of damage. And yes, he has degraded American democracy to the point where it is on life support. But he’s failed to make himself a dictator, and the public is poised to punish his party for his transgressions. Unfortunately, that will be the easy part. It’s what comes after that that will test our ability to make the union whole again." (In a video he posted last night, Bouie described the SOTU as "a Klan rally.")
• Adam Kinzinger: "Last night’s State of the Union was, in a very real sense, exactly what we’ve come to expect: a theatrical exercise designed to please an already convinced audience, with almost no chance of moving any voters who aren’t already in the base. In a political moment where the bar is so low that short of convulsing in a pile of his own filth Trump would get a pass, this performance hit the baseline and nothing more. ... [W]hen you paper over a divisive performance with sports teams and military medals, it’s a sign that substantive policy discussion has taken a back seat to spectacle. It felt less like a governance speech and more like an awards show with a political agenda."
• Paul Krugman: "Trump’s State of the Union was historic in at least one respect: It was the longest SOTU ever. The address may also have been historic in another way, although it would be hard to quantify. Did any previous SOTU contain so many lies?"
• Josh Marshall: "American Carnage, Part II, basically. My overall sense is still that it was generally shambling and scattered, which is to say more or less like the administration itself at the moment."
• Domenico Montanaro: "Voters have been saying for a long time that prices and the cost of living are their top concerns. It's largely what has landed Trump and the Republican Party in a precarious position ahead of this year's midterm elections. And yet, Trump largely ignored the economic hardships many are feeling."
• Tom Nichols: "As the whole business dragged on, the atmosphere started to seem less like a game show and more like the late-night Jerry Lewis telethons of the 1970s, in which a tired but pumped Lewis alternately griped at the audience, broke into maudlin emotion, or jumped up to welcome a new guest. The only thing Trump did not do was explain his policies—especially about war and peace—to Congress or the American people." Nichols also castigated the OAFPOTUS on his treatment of CMOH awards: "Military awards that should have been treated with dignity and respect were placed on men like prizes, including a moment when Trump’s co-host, the first lady, put one of the Medals of Honor around the neck of a 100-year-old fighter pilot."
• Chicago Sun-Times reporter Tina Sfondeles: "[Illinois Democratic] Sen. Tammy Duckworth, along with U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley, Sean Casten, Delia Ramirez, Jan Schakowsky and Eric Sorensen, boycotted the annual address, with Duckworth on Monday calling it 'another campaign rally full of lies.' "

Nothing yet from James Fallows. I can't wait.

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I eagerly await James Fallows' take on last night's clown-car-hits-dumpster-fire, and I'm holding off my "SOTU reax roundup" post until I can include his. It turns out, the world didn't stop for two hours yesterday:

• As the OAFPOTUS caused the biggest surge in Google searches for "American citizen how to live abroad" since 2017, Democrats won a majority in the Pennsylvania state legislature, while Democrats in Maine increased their majority over Republicans in that state's House.
• Jennifer Rubin reminds everyone that the OAFPOTUS stole our money through his illegal tariffs. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) wants it back.
• It too BBC reporter Thomas Germain to convince Google he can eat hot dogs more than anyone on earth.
• Ring's founder is very, very sorry about the Super Bowl ad that imagined a dystopian surveillance state enabled by his products.

And now, I have some meetings, right after I figure out if a couple of Canada geese actually smashed into my roof just now.

(I'm watching PBS News coverage on YouTube and keeping an eye on NPR's real-time fact check. All times Eastern US.)

20:55: Wow. First surprise of the evening: only Chief Justice Roberts (R) and Associate Justices Kagan (D), Kavanaugh (R), and Comey Barrett (R?) showed up.

21:01: All those people reaching out to touch the cabinet secretaries, do they have adequate supplies of hand sanitizer? Just wondering.

21:08: "Mister Speaker, the President of the United States!"

21:11: Speaker Johnson finally introduces the OAFPOTUS while the Republicans start chanting "U-S-A!" Sigh.

21:13: "Bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before!" Well, no, that was 2024. "This is the Golden Age of America!" Republicans stand. Democrats check their phones.

21:14: It's Biden's fault! And I fixed it all! A turnaround for the ages!

21:15: "Like never before" makes its fourth appearance in four minutes. And I've already got three bingo squares!

21:16: "Zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States! But we will always allow people to come in legally...to maintain our country." Technically true, I guess, as "illegals" are not technically admitted.

21:18: Uh oh, he's already off the prompter... "Biden gave us the worst inflation!" Another bingo square!

21:19: Gas is $1.89 a gallon! My god, five bingo squares... And more blaming Biden for the housing crisis, by both protecting house prices and making things more affordable. Um?

21:21: And my 6th bingo square: "More than $18 trillion in investments!" I mean, it's a lie. And we're "the haaaaaaatest country." Excellent.

21:22: "We just stole received 80 million barrels of oil!" And "drill, baby, drill?" That's an old one.

21:22:37: I just can't keep up with the lies, so I'll have to batch them. "100% of jobs in the private sector" will come as a surprise to all the ICE agents he hired.

21:24: "We're winning so much, we don't know what to do about it!" Uh oh, he's forgotten he's not at a rally. So have the Republican members of Congress, chanting "U-S-A" again because they weren't sure what country they represented. Oh, no, my party are also chanting now...

21:26: I believe the USA Women's Hockey team will not be coming to the White House while you're in it, Sir.

21:31: "Los Angeles is going to be safe, just like Washington, D.C."

21:33: "I was there" in Texas when the flood wiped out Camp Mystic, then said that "nobody knew" where the Coastie who rescued the kids came from. I was wondering when his confabulations would really get going, and frankly, I'm proud of him for going 29 minutes without something that...interesting.

21:37: "Largest tax cuts in US history" gets me another bingo square, and the Democrats voted against "these massive tax cuts." Yes, yes they did. Because we have the largest deficit in history now, and the OBBBB cut Medicare. This, by Republicans, is "fiscal responsibility."

21:42: Oh, he didn't say "trillions" from tariffs, so I can't claim that square. But "very unfortunate ruling from the Supreme Court" but "most countries and corporations want to keep the deal" because "it could be far worse for them." John Roberts looks like he ate something that needs to come out soon.

21:44: "Foreign countries pay tariffs so we can eliminate the income tax" and there's "trillions" for two more squares!

21:46: "11,188 Murderers" and "emptied prisions!" Two more squares!

21:48: "Rent is lower today than when I took office" is false. "Numbers that few people can believe" is true.

21:49: Lower healthcare costs? How about devastating Medicaid cuts?

21:50: BINGO!

21:55: "We will always protect Social Security and Medicare!" Sure, by letting private equity play with one and cutting the other so Americans die sooner than anyone else in the world.

21:57: He is talking about corruption? By calling out Minnesota's "Somali pirates" Medicare scams that the US Attorneys were on top of before they resigned because of his invasion? And, wait, JD Vance will be in charge of rooting out corruption? What, by looking for loose change in a sticky couch?

22:01: He wants a law barring any state from issuing a commercial drivers license to any "illegal" alien. He hopes you don't know that the states already don't allow that.

22:03: We're now in the "illegal aliens murder children" part of the speech, without which this would not be a complete nativist rally.

22:04: What the hell does he think the Dept of Homeland Security has to do with ploughing snow?

22:06: See, this moment is why the Democrats should have stayed home.

22:08: Voters already need to show ID to vote in almost every state. And to register to vote. But moreover, most election fraud came from Republicans.

22:11: "I just want to find 11,780 votes" guy is calling Democrats "cheaters." In psychology, we call this projection.

22:16: Oh, Erika Kirk, bless your little heart! You look as sincere as they guy who sold me my last used car.

22:21: "Crime is down nearly 100% in Washington!" No, it's down 17%. And Sarah Beckstrom would still be alive if she hadn't been deployed to Washington to be a target.

22:25: This may be the bloodiest SOTU ever. And in all his yelling about deranged people committing horrific crimes, he seems to have forgotten about the people his paramilitary thugs have killed. But no one else has.

22:27: Counting the wars he's "ended..." Yes! Another square! And another bingo!

22:29: Oh, of course Rubio will "go down as the best Secretary of State ever," which I'm sure John Jay, William Seward, and George C Marshall would question.

22:32: Is it me, or is he falling asleep while he's speaking? Oh, wait, he wants to end the war in Ukraine, which "would never have happened" if he was president. Well, I mean, he's president now, so why can't he end this one? Right, because Vladimir Putin plays him like my dog plays with a stuffed platypus.

22:33: Josh Marshall observes that "the non-clapping and non-standing seems to get to [him]." Has another president acknowledged the opposition like that? Well, no, because we've never had a demented, malignant narcissist in this role before.

22:35: No, I'm not imagining it, he's really fading. He's slurring, going off script more, and just looks bloody exhausted. Maybe the Adderall is wearing off?

22:36: "We will never have to use this power" as two entire carrier groups sit in the Gulf of Oman and the eastern Mediterranean...

22:38: Military recruitment is the best since the middle of the Gulf War, but it's a bit less than in 1942.

22:41: After blaming Mexico's government for not having the cojones to take down the drug cartels, he just took credit for Mexico's government taking down a drug kingpin.

22:42: Cut to the kids in the gallery, and I have questions: what did Eric smoke before the address, and who forced Tiffany to be there?

22:51: You know, I think the stunning success of our military kidnapping Venezuela's dictator was an even more stunning violation of US and international law. And ol' Bone Spurs gushing about the bravery of men and women who are a hundred times the human being he is turns my stomach. And giving the Medal of Honor to someone who participated—bravely, honorably—in an illegal mission is very troubling. More on that later.

22:55: "I've always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor but it's against the law to give it to myself." The narcissistic asshole just shat on the two CMsOH he just awarded. But since he has no concept of what the military actually does, or how its members view the world, he cannot comprehend the insult he just gave them.

22:58: If anyone smiled at me the way Speaker Johnson is smiling into the air between him and...whatever he's looking at, I would back away and call the white coats.

23:00: I had to turn up my volume at the teleprompted end of the speech. It looked like he was about to pass out right at the podium.

23:01: And immediately, the Democrats fled the chamber en masse as the old man hobbles off to sleep. Perchance to dream?

23:05: I, also need to extract myself from this insanity, at least until tomorrow when all the professional reactions come in. I'm especially looking forward to James Fallows, my go-to on presidential speeches, and Adam Kinzinger, my go-to on rational center-right American politicians.

Oh, here's my final bingo card. Did I miss any?

Since I had some time to kill before the OAFPOTUS's State of the Union address, I released a few bug fixes for Weather Now. And then I released some bug fixes for this application. Let's hope everything is more stable, yes?

I've just published a new release of Weather Now. This corrected a couple of bugs that have lingered for awhile, and also added Google sign-ins!

So, if you've created a profile on The Daily Parker with your Google ID, head over to Weather Now and add one there, too.

Today will be busy, so rather than keeping a bunch of browser windows open, I'm spiking them here:

• Brian Beutler praises the legislators who will boycott tonight's SOTU. (I will watch so you don't have to.)
• Glenn Kessler has a fun SOTU Bingo card so you can play at home!
• Matt Ford wonders what Justice Clarence Thomas (R) was smoking when he wrote his god-awful dissent in the tariffs case last week.
• Paul Krugman rolls his eyes at the "zombie tariffs" that have eaten Republicans' brains.
• Steve Inskeep looks at the US military buildup in the Persian Gulf from Iran's perspective.
• US Air Force lieutenant colonel (ret.) and former US Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) looks back on four years of Ukraine beating the snot out of the Russian Army: "Ukraine was supposed to fall. Instead, it rewrote modern warfare."
• My US Representative, Mike Quigley (D-IL), secured $850,000 in federal funding for the Weber Spur bike trail a few kilometers northwest of here. I've been on several unimproved sections of the trail with Cassie and with my Brews & Choos buddy, so this will be very nice when it's done.
• Cranky Flier digs into plans to radically contract St Louis International Airport 25 years after TWA merged with American and pulled out of the city.
• All the planets will be lined up on this side of the sun going into this weekend. Let's hope for clear skies to the west at dusk!

Finally, everything from New Jersey to Maine has gotten covered in snow by a truly epic Nor'easter. Providence, R.I., got almost a meter of snowfall (963 mm), completely obliterating the previous record set in February 1978 (726 mm).

Back in 2003, I got stranded in Washington during the Presidents Day Blizzard trying to get back to my project site in Richmond, Va., from New York. The Metroliner I caught in Penn Station fought its way to Washington Union Station through blinding snow, but the railroads in Virginia shut down entirely for almost a week. After two (free!) nights at the Hyatt, and walking around in my sneakers for two days, I finally rented a car and drove my ass to Richmond. Here's what it looked like down Delaware Ave. NE from Union Station:

Only five days ago O'Hare hit 17°C after the mean temperature rose steadily for four weeks. Just when we thought spring was a possibility, things shifted. Friday's high temperature was lower than Wednesday's low, and last night it ]bottomed out at -8°C, 25°C (45°F) colder than Wednesday's high.

Since the normal low for February 23rd is -4.3°C, and right now it's only 1.3°C below that, there's no point complaining.

Plus, I don't care what the weather does, because Spring officially starts Sunday. Six months from now we'll be dreaming of a cool autumn. This is why I live in a temperate climate: variety!

James Fallows wrote speeches for President Carter and has been a political journalist since leaving politics. He has five tips for watching Tuesday's speech, which I will be doing so you don't have to:

The challenge and problem for Donald Trump is that his natural speaking style is the exact opposite of what these formal occasions require. To the best of my knowledge, he has never once delivered a speech in the style that works best for SOTUs.

Here the viewer-tip will apply to the first 15 minutes of the speech. That’s usually as long as Trump can stay “on message”: Sticking with the script, reading the prompter as if he’s seen the words before, omitting the “like nobody has seen before” or “prices down 800%” marginalia, sounding as “big tent” as MAGA policies allow.

If he lasts that long, it will be a sign of a different kind of speech from what we’ve come to expect. But if he reverts to form in this opening stretch, when the audience will be largest, even with a few casual riffs that make him feel comfortable but aren’t in the script, we’ll know what the rest of the speech will be like.

Can Donald Trump surprise us all, by choosing this moment to seem calm, focused, purposeful, broad-spirited? Which is what the three presidents mentioned above managed to do, during SOTUs at low points in their lives? Which is what inspirational leaders through history are renowned for? Could he possibly meet the test of self-control, at a time when it matters most?

Some terminally online people don't think he'll even give the speech. Others wonder how bad his sundowning will be. We'll find out, and I'll be live-blogging.

In the past two weeks, two Brews & Choos Project breweries have closed or announced their closings: Short Fuse closed on Monday, and Illuminated Brew Works announced yesterday that they would close this coming June. Another brewery my Brews & Choos buddy and I visited (but was too far from public transit to make the list), Alarmist, closed January 31st.

It's a tough time to be in the alcohol business. Fully 26 of the breweries and distilleries I've visited have closed, and another 8 that were on the list went out of business before I could get there. That's 17% of the list. Sure, other breweries have taken over: Is/Was opened up in the space Urban Brew Labs previously occupied (and Koval occupied before them). But Chicago just isn't big enough to support 150 breweries, which every one of these businesses know.

Fortunately, Spiteful is killing it (and overdue for a re-visit), and so are Begyle and Burning Bush.

It's always¹ sad when a brewery closes, though. I liked Illuminated Brew Works, and thought Cassie would probably like it too. I hope we can get back there before the end of June.

I have a lot of prep to do for an event tomorrow, but I still found a few minutes to read these:

• Ruy Teixeira says "Gavin Newsom, you're no Bill Clinton."
• US Representative Celeste Maloy (R-UT) has proposed permanent half-hour daylight saving time, which has the TZDB list in hysterics. (For example: on December 21st in Chicago, the sun would rise at 7:45 and set at 16:53; on June 21st, 4:45 and 20:00. So it may not be the worst idea.)
• Amazon has cancelled its partnership with Flock Safety because, for some reason, most people don't want to live in a privately-funded surveillance state. Their Super Bowl ad didn't help, coming as it did while ICE was still merrily snatching people off the streets.

Finally, a town in Georgia has said "no" to Immigration and Customs Enforcement because they have no realistic way to provide municipal services to the concentration camp detention facility ICE wants to build there: "To be clear, the City has repeatedly communicated that it does not have the capacity or resources to accommodate this demand, and no proposal presented to date has demonstrated otherwise. The Department of Homeland Security has stated that an economic impact study has been conducted in connection with this proposed facility; however, City officials have not received a copy of that study and are awaiting the opportunity to review the analysis." Even in a community that supports the OAFPOTUS, ICE is still toxic.

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 today that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not let the OAFPOTUS impose taxes:

The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it.

IEEPA’s grant of authority to “regulate . . . importation” falls short. IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties. The Government points to no statute in which Congress used the word “regulate” to authorize taxation. And until now no President has read IEEPA to confer such power.

We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.

Chief Justice Roberts (R) wrote the opinion that the independent and Democratic justices signed on to. Justices Kavanaugh (R), Thomas (R), and Alito (R) dissented, as was their duty to the Republican Party for which they stand.

Josh Marshall says "don't be fooled:"

Indeed, today’s decision is actually an indictment of the Court. These tariffs have been in effect for almost a year. They have upended whole sectors of the U.S. and global economies. The fact that a president can illegally exercise such powers for so long and with such great consequences for almost a year means we’re not living in a functional constitutional system. If the Constitution allows untrammeled and dictatorial powers for almost one year, massive dictator mulligans, then there is no Constitution.

The Court also allowed the tariffs to remain in place while the government appealed the appellate decision striking down the tariffs back in August. Let me repeat that: back in August, almost six months ago.

In other words, most of the time in which these illegal tariffs were in effect was because of that needless stay. The logic of the stay was that deference to President’s claim of illegal powers was more important than the harm created by hundreds of billions in unconstitutional taxes being imposed on American citizens. It’s a good example of what law professor Leah Litman — one of the most important voices on the Court’s corruption — earlier this morning called the Court’s corruption via “passivity,” empowering anti-constitutional actions through deciding not to act at all or encouraging endless delays it could easily put a stop to in the interests of the constitutional order.

Paul Krugman argues that "the tariff ruling really matters:"

Trump’s invocation of IEEPA wasn’t about average tariff rates, or revenue. It wasn’t even about the trade deficit, which, by the way, hasn’t declined at all since he went on his tariff spree.

No, it was all about arbitrary power. Trump has reveled in being able to slap tariffs on Brazil for daring to put Jair Bolsonaro on trial for a failed insurrection, being able to threaten France and Germany with tariffs for getting in the way of his attempt to seize Greenland, and of course giving tariff waivers to businesses that help him build his ballroom.

The desire for that arbitrary power is why he went for IEEPA despite warnings that it might well be ruled unconstitutional.

No wonder, then, that he’s throwing a huge temper tantrum.

The government must now refund some $120 billion from the illegal tariffs, much of that going to hedge funds who bought the refund rights from small businesses who couldn't survive without the cash. Because even when he loses, the OAFPOTUS still does tremendous damage to almost everyone.

Chicago has a batshit-crazy seller's market right now:

In the month ended Feb. 15, a little more than 24% of all homes listed in the Chicago area went under contract within two weeks, according to Redfin. That's by far the highest proportion of quick contracts since the expiration of the pandemic-era housing boom.

In all the time since January 2023, Redfin's data show two-week contracts generally staying below 15% and often below 10%, except for March 2025 when the figure hit a recent-years high of 17.2%. That's a full one-third fewer fast contracts than have been inked this past month.

It's entirely possible Inner Drive Technology's World HQ might relocate soon...

With all the walking around outside and taking half a day of PTO, I didn't get a chance to read these articles I set aside to read later:

• Amanda Nelson suggests how Congress can arrest Attorney General Pam Bondi.
• Brian Beutler pays attention to US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and comes away with a wildly different take than Jeff Maurer does.
• Paul Krugman warns that "we are in the midst of an unprecedented power grab by America’s oligarchs."
• James Fallows asks, "What should the Dems do to win—and then to govern?"
• AI progress is giving Matt Ygelsias writer's block.

Finally, Funkytown Brewery announced a new taproom near Lake and Damen that should open in 2027. They make really good beer, currently pouring at Pilot Project. They're already on the Brews & Choos Project list. Can't wait!

The temperature got up to 17.2°C (63°F) at O'Hare this afternoon, but with 72 km/h (39 kts) wind gusts. Inner Drive WHQ managed 14.6°C, also with gusty winds. That's still warm enough to open all the windows and let Cassie sleep on the front deck. And she's had over an hour of walks today, with another half-hour in store when we go to pub quiz in just over an hour.

As an added bonus, here she is last night, doing what dogs do best:

The state registered Punzun Ltd, an Illinois corporation doing business as Inner Drive Technology, on 17 February 2000. The name, however, dates from my mind wandering in Mr Collins' algebra class on 21 March 1985, so really "Punzun Ltd" as a concept will turn 41 next month.

In other notable news:

• The Rev Jesse Jackson died today at 84.
• Brian Beutler points out the obvious: "Republicans are much more corrupt than Democrats."
• Paul Krugman shows how the OAFPOTUS's and his droogs' corruption has led directly to rising measles rates.
• A local business owner sought guidance from the City of Chicago on how to license her business, only to get temporarily shut down because the city Dept of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection doesn't (yet) know how to classify a sex dungeon.

Finally, Chicago hit a record 18.3°C (65°F) yesterday afternoon, blowing away the previous record by over 4°C. (Inner Drive Technology WHQ got up to 16.4°C (61.5°F), which is probably a record but the data only go back to 2022.)

And everyone please spare a thought for Cassie today. I'm having both of the couches she likes to sleep on cleaned right now, so she will have to content herself with the floor or (gasp!) the dog beds until the couches dry in about 12 hours.

Chicago set a new record high temperature for February 16th officially at 11:51 when the temperature at O'Hare got up to 15°C (59°F). That was also 4°C warmer than just an hour earlier, and at the moment it's 2°C above the record. By the way, 17°C is the normal temperature in Chicago on April 25th.

Inner Drive Technology World HQ is a lot closer to the lake, but the southwest winds have still pumped the temperature here up to 15.8°C. It was last this warm here on November 15th, 93 days ago.

In other news:

• Matthew Yglesias makes a Presidents Day observation: "Presidential democracy was a mistake."
• Josh Marshall proposes rethinking the Federal holiday schedule to get rid of Presidents Day and Columbus Day in favor of Freedom Day in June and a true Indigenous Peoples Day in the fall.
• Artist Judy Chicago quit the Google HQ project in Chicago after Google management repeatedly made the kinds of decisions that only a mega-corporation suffering from late-stage Peter Principle can make.

I'm sure other things happened over the weekend, but I've got some work to do and I want to make sure Cassie gets as much time outside as we can manage today. Right now she's soaking up the sun on my tiny deck.

The record temperature for February 16th is just 14°C (58°F). Officially at O'Hare it's 6.1°C (43°F) and foggy, but the forecast predicts a high of nearly 18°C (64°F)—the normal temperature for April 28th.

I have meetings off and on until 1:45, so Cassie won't get her long walk until then. I can't wait to see whether we've broken the record by then. And hey, if we're going to break a heat record, so much better to do it in February than July!

I've just released version 1.0.9543 of the software running the Daily Parker. This is the 9th production release since January 13th, which is 9 production releases more than in the previous several years. In fact, there were no new releases between 29 April 2019 and 13 January 2026, because of how difficult it was to maintain the previous version. That, of course, was one of the reasons for rewriting the thing from scratch.

This release fixes a few minor bugs and one security hole that I meant to plug 8 releases ago:

• Corrected the mishandling of tags that have single quotes in them (like O'Hare)
• Fixed a bug that forgot the user's origin page when the user logged in
• Plugged a security hole introduced by an upcoming feature that allowed anonymous visitors to see future, unpublished (but public) blog posts in certain circumstances
• Tightened a few other security issues
• Tweaked the order and spacing of icons and badges in event listings
• Migrated the UI to Blazorise 2.0
• Added robots.txt

I probably won't have another release for a couple of weeks, because (a) I haven't cracked the code on the next feature I'm building and (b) the rapid release cycle has let me fix all of the bugs I've found so far.

Also, it's sunny and already 8°C, and tomorrow's forecast calls for sunny skies and 16°C (61°F), which would break the record by 2°C. So I probably won't spend all my free time coding, you know?

Yesterday, St Boniface Cemetery, Chicago:

The temperature outside my door just hit 9.0°C, the warmest it's been since January 13th. And it might get up to 14°C (58°F) on Monday, a temperature we haven't seen since November 15th.

That's why Cassie and I took a 55-minute walk at lunchtime. We'll probably do another 3 or 4 hours this weekend. Yay Spring!

Exactly 30 days ago the Inner Drive Journal (the software powering this blog) went live. I've released 7 new builds since then. One of the driving forces behind the re-write was frequent releases, so that part seems to have succeeded tremendously.

So, how's it going? I'd like to hear your thoughts. Comment below with anything that comes to mind.

Matthew Yglesias takes a look at what average Americans consider to be corrupt behavior by politicians and concludes that voters "think everyone is corrupt:"

Some people think it’s because the voters don’t care about corruption, but I think that’s probably wrong.

Searchlight Institute polling on this shows that voters just have an incredibly low estimate of the baseline level of integrity of politicians. Seventy-one percent say the “typical politician” is corrupt. Typical Republican? Sixty-eight percent. Typical Democrat? Sixty-one percent. Seventy-two percent say that “long-term elected officials” are probably corrupt.

I think it’s hard to make political hay out of Trump’s corruption because, while it looks extraordinary to me (and probably to you if you’re reading this), many voters see it as pretty normal.

It doesn't help that Americans generally don't see the nuance: the Democratic Party tends to kick out its most corrupt members, while the Republican Party lauds theirs. Nicholas Kristof sums this up in his column today:

President Trump is unrivaled in American history in one respect: None of his predecessors ever cashed in on the presidency as he has.

The fire hose of disclosures has been overwhelming. A Times editorial estimated conservatively that the Trump family has made more than $1.4 billion in documented gains by exploiting the second term of his presidency. (Others offer higher figures.)

And all that pales beside the latest bombshell: a $500 million secret deal backed by a government leader in the United Arab Emirates, just four days before Trump was inaugurated for his second term.

What does this have to do with authoritarianism? Well, corrupt politicians crack down on their opponents, particularly the press, because they don't want to go to jail. Authoritarianism is always a cover for corruption.

On the other hand, by promoting loyalty (and silence) ahead of competence (and accountability), authoritarians always fail. Sadly, failure doesn't guarantee they get kicked out of power. I just hope that the authoritarian overreach by the Republican Party will lead to electoral reckonings in November and in 2028.