The Sonnenrad sets over New Hampshire

POLITICS DEP'T.

What Did the Ron DeSantis Campaign Accomplish?

THE FUN AND cheerful thing to say about the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign is that it fell apart two days before it even got to New Hampshire. Say it! It does feel good! This goon tried to bully his way to the top of our nation's politics and was fully, mercilessly rejected. He got nine figures worth of PAC and campaign funding and a year's worth of coverage hailing him as the most serious alternative to Donald Trump and he cashed it all in, or out, for a grand total of nine delegates, or two more than Ben Carson collected in 2016.

The less cheerful thing to say about the DeSantis campaign is that it kept going for six months after it had put out a video that used explicitly Nazi imagery to celebrate the candidate. Remember that? The New York Times, to its credit, brought up the Nazi incident twice in its campaign obituary. But between then and now, whole cycles of Decision 2024 news went by in which DeSantis—who had ended up with a neo-Nazi video because neo-Nazi edgelords were his target audience—continued to be treated as a basically normal, if more and more evidently incompetent, mainstream presidential aspirant.

DeSantis was not driven from the race by public revulsion at the intolerance he cultivated—neither for his underlings' offenses in meme-space nor for the program of abuse he directed, in his own governance, against trans people, gay people, migrants, people needing reproductive health care, and anyone trying to reckon justly and accurately with the effects of racism. He washed out for the same reason everyone else in the Republican field washed out: their voters still want Trump to be president. There's no uplifting message about American principles here, or even American taste. DeSantis on the national stage turned out to be a vain, charmless oaf, mincing around with lifts in his cowboy boots and allegedly indulging in terrible table manners, but he's nowhere near as vulgar and grotesque a figure as the man who beat him.

DeSantis was a loser, but the idea of DeSantis did the work it was meant to do, to mediate between the open bigotry of the open fascists and the more respectable desire among more respectable people to—to what? To declare that certain kinds of changes had gone too far, to speak up against the excesses of the new century. To reassert the old principles about who rules over whom.

One epitaph for the DeSantis movement was delivered the day before he dropped out of the race, by David Brooks of the New York Times. The most non-threatening of the Times' non-threatening conservative columnists wasn't even writing about the presidential contest, but about the curse of bureaucratic administration, in the private and public sectors alike. Yet in passing, he threw a note in his column about one particular kind of administrator:

Conservatives complain that diversity, equity and inclusion administrators are injecting a dangerous ideology into American campuses. That’s true.

Unfortunately for Brooks, the front page of the next day's Times would feature a long investigative story about how the complaint against "diversity, equity, and inclusion" was cooked up by a network of right-wing activists as part of an ever-evolving campaign to find acceptable public ways to promote the bigoted and conspiratorial beliefs and goals they held in private. As the propaganda scheme advanced from "critical race theory" to "diversity, equity, and inclusion," with stops for gender and sexual orientation along the way, DeSantis was one of the leading government figures putting it into action—so assiduously that, in the end, he was left babbling to confused Iowa voters about higher education accreditation.

Still DeSantis had reached his real constituency: people who wanted to feel like they were moderates, seeking a way for the country to get more racist without anyone being as rude as Trump about it. The aim was not to turn away from Trump's vile worldview, but to make it less jarring, so that the fact that it remains the dominant outlook of the Republican Party wouldn't raise any concerns about whether this ought to be one of the two parties in a two-party system.

Now David Brooks, who depends on seeming inoffensive to liberals, was firing off race-panic jargon about diversity in his column as if it were part of some uncontroversial consensus (and as if Brooks, personally, were not a notorious diversity hire). And DeSantis, failure though he was as a presidential candidate, can go back to inflicting his policies on the nearly 22 million people in Florida who have to live under his governorship. The forces who backed DeSantis didn't send him to the White House, but they got what they were looking for.

WEATHER REVIEWS

New York City, January 21, 2024

★★★ Dawn-pink twigs quaked in the wind above their shadowed mates, against a clear sky. A gust of cold pushed its way in from the stairwell when the apartment door opened up, and a seeping chill overpowered the bedroom heaters. The true freeze had still been an exhilarating returning visitor a day before; now it was plain winter, settling in. The knuckles on both index fingers cracked and bled a little in the dry air. A hawk flew low in the sun along the brownstone rooftops. Out back, a fat gibbous moon was in the treetop. Down on someone's patio the snow had left the flagstones, but it still densely filled the spaces in between.

EASY LISTENING DEP’T.

INDIGNITY MORNING PODCAST

Indignity Morning Podcast No. 202: Immeasurably far behind.

Tom Scocca • Jan 22, 2024

BLUESKY DEPARTMENT

READERS OF INDIGNITY who have previously benefited from the Bluesky-code generosity of other readers of Indignity are now daily paying it forward and providing us with even more codes for the still-beta social network. If you haven’t already gotten a code from us, we have lots of codes. Email indignity@indignity.net and we will award Bluesky codes to those who respond, one per reader, first email, first served.

SANDWICH RECIPES DEP’T.

WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS for the assembly of sandwiches from Electric Refrigerator Menus and Recipes, Recipes prepared especially for the General Electric Refrigerator, by Miss Alice Bradley, Principal of Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery, Cooking Editor of Woman’s Home Companion, Author of: Cooking for Profit, Candy Cook Book, For Luncheon and Supper Guests. Copyright 1927, General Electric Company, Electric Refrigeration Department, Hanna Building, Cleveland.These recipes are now in the Public Domain and available at archive.org for the delectation of all.

Ice Cream Sandwiches or Shortcakes
An ice cream sandwich or shortcake is made with a slice of any frozen dessert between two slices of cake. It is usually served with a sauce. Nuts can be sprinkled on top.

Raspberry Ice Cream Sandwich — No. 80
Make Raspberry Mousse (use raspberries in place of peaches in Peach Mousse — No. 41, freezing it in small refrigerator pan in a layer 1 inch thick). Cut Angel cake or any light white cake in slices. Cut the mousse in slices the same size and place between the slices of cake. Serve with Melba Sauce — No. 65.

Peach Mousse — No. 41
Peel fresh peaches and mash enough to make 1 cup, add 1/2 cup sugar, or 1/3 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons corn syrup. Few grains salt. 1 teaspoon gelatine soaked and dissolved in 1 tablespoon water (see How to Use Gelatine, page 39) and a few drops almond extract. Put in refrigerator pan in freezing chamber. Stir and beat when it begins to thicken. Beat 1/2 pint cream until stiff, beating in gradually the peach mixture. Put in refrigerator pan and leave 3 hours or until frozen. If canned peaches are used it may not be necessary to add any sugar.

How to Use Gelatine
Measure granulated gelatine into a cup and for each level teaspoon add 1 tablespoon cold water or other liquid. When water is absorbed set cup in a dish of boiling water and stir until gelatine is dissolved. Add a small amount of the ice cream or sherbet mixture and then strain into remaining mixture. Chill in refrigerator pan. Before it is firmly set, mixture may be beaten until light. One-quarter package sweetened and flavored gelatine dissolved in i cup boiling water may be used with 1/2 pint cream and no extra sugar.

Melba Sauce — No. 65
Force 1 cup canned or fresh raspberries through a sieve fine enough to hold back the seeds. Add 1/4 cup sugar and cook 6 minutes, or long enough to make a heavy syrup (216 degrees F.). Serve cold. This is especially good on Vanilla Ice Cream No. 56 or a Chocolate Ice Cream.

For Peach Melba place half a canned peach on ice cream or any Vanilla Mousse and cover with Melba Sauce.

Vanilla Ice Cream — No. 56
Put 1 1/2 cups milk in top of double boiler and add 1 teaspoon gelatine. When milk is scalded, stir until gelatine is dissolved. Mix 1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons corn syrup, 1 teaspoon flour, and a few grains salt. Add to milk and stir until thickened.

Cover and cook ten minutes. Beat 1 egg yolk slightly, add a portion of the hot milk, return to double boiler, and stir and cook one minute. Strain into refrigerator pan, chill, then beat until very light. Beat 1 egg white until stiff, then beat 1/2 cup cream until stiff and beat into first mixture with 2 teaspoons vanilla and the egg white. Freeze like Freezing Methods I or II, page 44 and serve in any way desired.

Freezing Method I — A small amount of mixture will be partially frozen in about 1 hour. A larger amount will take a longer time. When the mixture is partially frozen remove it from refrigerator pan, put in large mixing bowl and beat vigorously with a rotary egg beater. Return to refrigerator pan, place again in chilling unit and leave. In 2 to 2 1/2 hours the mixture may be beaten a second time, returned to the pan and left until ready to serve.

Freezing Method II — When the mixture is partially frozen stir it toward the front to thoroughly mix the frozen and liquid portion. Return to refrigerator and continue to stir and mix every 15 or 20 minutes, or stir only twice during freezing if mixture is rich with cream. Scrape and beat each time until the mixture is perfectly smooth. It will take 2 to 8 hours to freeze, depending upon the amount.

The results are about the same whether the mixture is beaten once or twice with a rotary egg beater during the freezing or stirred every 20 minutes with a spoon. But it requires less of the housekeeper’s time to use the egg beater than to do the stirring.

Pineapple Ice Cream Sandwich — No. 82
Serve Vanilla Mousse I, II, III, or IV, pages 80 to 86, between slices of Yellow cake. Cover with Crushed pineapple.

Vanilla Mousse I — No. 36
Beat 1 1/2 cups cream until light and beat in gradually 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons corn syrup, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and few grains salt. Put in refrigerator pan and freeze by Freezing Method III, page 45.

Vanilla Mousse II — No. 39
Soak 1 teaspoon gelatine in 1 tablespoon cold water, dissolve by placing cup in boiling water, add slowly 1/4 cup milk, then add to 3/4 cup milk, add 1/2 cup sugar, or 1/3 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons light colored corn syrup, few grains salt and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Strain into refrigerator pan and put in chilling unit. When beginning to stiffen, beat until light. Beat 1/2 pint cream until stiff and gradually beat in the gelatine mixture. Freeze like Desserts and Salads That Need No Stirring, page 45.

Vanilla Mousse III — No. 42
Scald 2/3 cup milk and add 1 tablespoon cornstarch or flour mixed with 1/3 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons corn syrup, few grains salt and 1/3 cup cold milk, and stir until smooth. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Remove from fire, strain into refrigerator pan and chill. Beat 1/2 pint cream until thick, add 2 teaspoons vanilla and beat in the chilled mixture. Freeze like Desserts and Salads That Need No Stirring, page 45.

Vanilla Mousse IV — No. 45

Scald 1 cup milk with 1 teaspoon gelatine. Stir until gelatine is dissolved, then add to 2 egg yolks mixed with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup white corn syrup and a few grains salt. Return to double boiler and stir until thickened. Strain onto 2 egg whites beaten stiff. When cool, put in refrigerator until very cold. Beat 1/2 pint cream until thick, add 2 teaspoons vanilla, then add cold mixture gradually beating just enough to mix. Turn into pan of refrigerator and freeze like Desserts and Salads That Need No Stirring, page 45.

To Freeze Desserts and Salads That Need No Stirring
Freezing Method III — Many mixtures can be frozen without stirring. Put mixture in the refrigerator pan and leave in the chilling unit 3 hours or until mixture is firm.

A mousse or a parfait frozen in this way in the General Electric Refrigerator is most delicious.

One hour makes 1 pint of mixture very cold and partially frozen.

After 2 hours it has a mushy consistency.

In 3 or 4 hours it should become hard enough to slice and hold its shape. It can be served the same as ice cream. Very fluffy mixtures may not freeze as solidly on top as on the bottom.

In 4 hours it seems to be especially good and somewhat ripened.

A larger amount of mixture takes a longer time to freeze.

It is usually practical to prepare a frozen mixture immediately after one meal and leave it in the refrigerator until the next. One to 2 quarts of mixture may require 7 hours. We have filled the large pan with mousse on Saturday morning, have gone away from home and returned to serve it Sunday night. It can be prepared after breakfast and served for evening dinner or after lunch to serve in the evening.

If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.

MARKETING DEP'T.

The second printing of 19 FOLK TALES is now available for belated Holiday gift-giving and personal perusal! Huddle up against the cold with a cozy collection of stories, each of which is concise enough to read within the snowy part of a wintry-mix storm.

HMM WEEKLY MINI-ZINE, Subject: GAME SHOW, Joe MacLeod’s account of his Total Experience of a Journey Into Television, expanded from the original published account found here at Hmm Daily. The special MINI ZINE features other viewpoints related to an appearance on, at, and inside the teevee game show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, available for purchase at SHOPULA.

FLAMING HYDRA will launch in January of 2024. The FLAMING HYDRA Holiday Preview Spectacular, a rich sampling of the writing and art you’ll enjoy as a subscriber to the forthcoming daily newsletter, is available now for your inspection. FLAMING HYDRA is the work of 60 world-class talents, but that’s just one reason to subscribe. FLAMING HYDRA is a 100% cooperatively owned, ad-free publication with no owners and no investors; just a bunch of writers and artists working together and splitting the proceeds equally.

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