Breaking news: Jury in civil trial finds that Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, awards $5 million in damages. https://wapo.st/42m6sFC Tweet from The Washington Post @washingtonpost Democracy Dies in Darkness Washington, DC.
Looking at it in the most simplistic way, the Body Politic is similar to any other body. It wants to protect itself. Essentially, bodies defend themselves by releasing antibodies. In the case of The United States Government, the antibodies have been The Courts, and that seems to be what is happening now.
Former President Donald Trump has been convicted for battery and defamation of Jean Carroll. As an aside, convicted is the wrong word, as this was a civil trial, better wording is that Jean Carroll won a judgment against Donald Trump for five million dollars. End aside. Congressperson George Santos has been charged with Fraud, Money Laundering, Theft of Public Funds, and False Statements. Over 1,000 people have been indicted for various offenses in relation to the January 6th insurrection. So far, out of that 1,000, 351 people have been to court and had their cases heard, and 192 people have been sent to jail.
It seems that the antibodies are kicking in and the country feels a little safer for it.
I read a short article about our Senator, Dianne Feinstein, recently. It was about how Feinstein is hanging on to her Senate seat even though she is 89, and it was not very complimentary. Feinstein just got out of the hospital after spending the last two months incapacitated because of shingles. That is sad.
I last saw Feinstein on TV on January 4, 2019, and it was back-to-back with AOC’s arrival in Washington. There were a group of Children – organized by the Sunrise Movement – picketing House Minority Leader, soon to become the first woman Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi’s office and newly minted Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, soon to be almost universally known as AOC, had joined the picket line. The contrast with Feinstein was striking; the picketers were in front of Feinstein’s office when she returned from somewhere, and she had no idea what the Green New Deal or the Sunrise Movement was. After a minute or two of explanation, Feinstein said something like, “You are all children; you’re too young to vote. Why should I care.” she waded through the crowd and entered her office.
Even if I were a pro-destroying the Earth guy, I would still have disapproved. The optics were terrible. Feinstein seemed to have no idea what was happening, and it never occurred to her that the smartphones pointed at her were filming everything. Children coming to the Capitol to see how government works being blown off still shocks me. It’s sad, especially when I reflect on all the good things Dianne Feinstein did for the environment. I’m sorry for her, and I am sorry for the environment. I’m greatly bothered by the number of Democrats who want to die in office, shutting out the next generation rather than seeing them as the asset we desperately need.
I saw a picture recently of three American generals that became presidents; General George Washington, General Ulysses S. Grant, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The time between Washington and Grant is about 70 years, give or take a couple, and the time between Grant and Eisenhower is about 80 years. Yet, Washington and Grant’s uniforms look radically different, and Grant and Eisenhower don’t. I think that this is a result of the invention of photography.
Photography freezes the moment, and in terms of men’s clothing, it sort of made men’s dress clothing officially a suit. There are no photographs of Washington and the average person did not have a good idea of what he looked like, so, in a way, when a man wanted to look powerful, he had to improvise. Photography was invented in 1838, but pictures were only available to the average person once they appeared in newspapers in the late 1880s. That froze the look of men’s clothing.
Conversely, deep into the television-driven era, women’s looks on television are becoming even more sexually charged, changing how women look as they go to the mall. Watching the Academy Awards, it is hard to miss that most women wore dresses with décolletages that plunged to their navel. The Academy Awards are a controlled environment but I am now starting to see this look – which seems so contrary to the concerns over the objectivation of women – in uncontrolled environments like in the stands at the NBA Playoffs or the Miami Grand Prix.
Speaking of the NBA and the Miami Grand Prix, over the last sixteen years that we have followed Lewis Hamilton, his look and demeanor has shifted from a White man with dark skin to a proudly Black man. The same thing is happening in the NBA, with players who used to have short hair now sporting dreadlocks. I like change but watching black culture change away from my previously dominant, culture is fascinating but uncomfortable to watch. I can actually physically feel the discomfort on the back of my neck. It is not a discomfort I want to have, but it is there, a reflexive bristling.
The problem is that I want all of us to be treated equally; while not necessarily equal in outcome, equal in treatment and opportunity, and I want my culture to be the dominant culture. These are not compatible desires (duh). They are not compatible in me, in anybody really, or in the broader culture (duh, again).
I want to make a quick brag; about nine months ago, when the US said they were not going to send Patriot SAMs – surface-to-air missiles – to Ukraine because, among other reasons, it would be too provocative and it would take too long to train the Ukrainians because the system is so complicated, I said that we would be sending Patriot to Ukraine in less than a year. Yesterday, Ukraine said they used a newly fielded U.S. Patriot missile to shoot down a Russian hypersonic missile.
And, lastly, a confession: when President Reagan started touting The Strategic Defense Initiative – derisively called the Star Wars Program – which eventually became Patriot, I thought it was a waste of money and would never work. That’s what all my news sources said, and I bought in. I was wrong. They were wrong.
Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. A Tweet -since deleated – by Marjorie Taylor Greene @mtgreenee Congresswoman for GA-14, Christian, Mom, Small Business Owner, Proud American 100% Pro-Life Pro-Gun Pro-Trump.
If I wanted to bolster the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, I would encourage my allies on the bench to take fewer bribes — just because they can get away with it legally doesn’t make it good public relations. Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias Slow Boring. Bloomberg columnist.
Linda Melton asked me what I thought about the young man who posted intelligence secrets on social media. I’ve been thinking about the question, off and on, ever since.
What I said at the time was Wow, I haven’t thought about it very much. My bias is usually antimilitary and pro-leaker, so there is that. The poor son of a bitch; Jack Teixeira, E-3/Airman First Class 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. How can he be that stupid, reckless, and/or thoughtless, and that needy for affirmation. I think he has done a lot more damage to himself than to the country. South Korea knows we spy on them, Russian intel, below toady level, knows we have embedded informers. No names were exposed. We over classify anyway. When I was in Korea, back in the film days, I took a color picture of the inside of the Battery Control Central [which was classified as Secret]. It was all lights and radar displays in the dark [so, with ASA 25 Kodachrome, no real information was exposed], but I was afraid to get the film developed.
I still pretty much feel that way, except that, Airman First Class Jack Teixeira is not a very sympathetic character. It turns out that Jack is a racist and an antisemite who keeps a small arsenal of guns in his closet. He leaked information to impress his online friends who presumably were also racists and antisemites. I think that intent is relevant. Most may be wrong here, but lots of might be better – leakers are acting as whistleblowers or think they are. Daniel Ellsberg and Chelsea Manning leaked documents to expose governmental actions they thought were immoral and probably, illegal. Jack Teixeira released documents, as Linda put it, just trying to impress his chums. I’m glad that both Ellsberg and Manning are not in prison, even though it was because the Nixon Administration bolloxed the whole thing by spying on Ellsberg and Chelsea Manning was pardoned by President Obama. Still, I would be OK with Teixeira going to jail for a long time.
Regarding liars, my cousin-in-law, Marion, asked what I thought of the FOX/Dominion settlement, which disappointed her. The fact that FOX was lying and bagging about it is surprising even to me, and I would love to see FOX put out of business. Still, I am OK with the settlement.
I don’t really understand Libel laws in the United States – or elsewhere, as far as that goes – except that if the defamation is verbal, it is slander, and the First Amendment, which includes freedom of speech, complicates the issue. Also, it was going to be a Jury trial, and juries are unpredictable, especially in a politically charged environment. On the Dominion side, a $787.5-million settlement is a lot of money; they are spending oodles of money on lawyers every day, and they have gotten good PR for themselves and an admission of guilt from FOX, so taking the money and running is their best bet. For FOX, a $787.5-million settlement plus their legal fees is also a lot of money but, $1.6 billion-plus all legal fees are even bigger and they don’t have to admit guilt on the air.
I want to say that I’m shocked about the revelation that Clarence Thomas has a sugar daddy, Harlan Crow – a name straight out of Justified – but it does seem in character, so I shouldn’t be. Mildly surprised would be more accurate. However, I’m also mildly surprised that I still thought Supreme Court Justices wouldn’t take bribes. Despite all the evidence, I somehow thought these guys were all thoughtful and impartial; it makes me feel sort of foolish.
I could go on and on about this, writing about everybody from Chief Justice Robert’s wife being paid $10.3 million in commissions by law firms who have argued cases in front of the court to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s private trip to Israel paid for by billionaire Morris Kahn – who, of course, has had cases heard by the Court – but I’ll leave it to the great Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to have the last word.
Members of the Supreme Court: ‼️Accepted payments from billionaires and special interests ‼️who had business before the court ‼️and kept that info from the public ‼️now they are refusing to comply with a Congressional inquiry about it
There are not many people that are interested in the land snails of the Caribbean Islands, but those that are, really are. Stephrn J Gould as remembered – probably badly – by me.
Michele and I drove to Stove Pipe Wells the other day, and then we drove back home. I think we were tired of winter and wanted out of the cold, if even for a day. It was a glorious 95° at Stove Pipe with a clear blue sky.
Stove Pipe Wells is a named place, officially listed in GNIS, the Geographic Names Information System. A named place is one step smaller than a census-designated place, which is one step smaller than an official town. It is at sea level, at the bottom of a road that drops about 5,000 feet, down an alluvial fan in an almost straight line. It is near the middle of the enlarged Death Valley National Park but at the edge of the geological Death Valley. Stove Pipe Wells really is just a motel across the road from a general store/gas station, with a newish Ranger Station in a sort of trailer/temporary building. Its only charm is that it is charmless. When we got there, the Ranger Station was closed for the evening.
Michele had popped an extra ten bucks for a “Dune View” room, putting us in the building farthest from the restaurant. Dune view is pushing it somewhat, but, from the covered porch in front of our room, the dunes were distantly visible. The Dune View room also put us next to three pairs of fellow desert rats. When people ask me about Death Valley and how long they should plan to be there, I tell them, “Two hours is too long, and two weeks is not enough.” Our fellow travelers all fit in the two weeks is not enough category. Like us, they had been coming here for years, and, also like us, they used to camp out and were now spending the night inside at the Stove Pipe Wells Hotel.
Michele went down to the local Saloon, only four buildings away, and came back with an Old Fashion for herself and a Manhattan for me so we could join our neighbors in an ad hoc cocktail hour overlooking the distant dunes. I had hoped to pick up a couple of tips on new, to me, roads and walks but we had all been to the same places so it was a cocktail hour of trading stories. It was a cocktail party with strangers, all madly in love with the same place, a warm and friendly get together with old friends, talking about old times. I enjoyed the hell out of myself.
The Bay Area has been rainy and cold this year, with an emphasis on cold. The constant rain has made everything green, which is great to see after years of looking at dry, exhausted hills, but the sky has been low and grey. Since early February, almost every day has felt like winter. I’ve reacted by complaining and hibernating. But, and this sort of surprised me, the natural world didn’t hibernate; it just acted almost normal.
In some cases, hyper-normal might be a better description.
I love California, irrationally so, I know. My daddy loved California – it was as close to God as he ever got – and I think he passed that on to me. California is so big and so varied. On the San Francisco coast, the Sierras mean watershed, but they are also a wall, putting a big part of California in a rain shadow.
This fascinating topo map is in a lovely building, the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center, that is new to us even though it has been there for almost twenty years. The interagency part is sort of interesting and a result of funds coming from the Federal Government – US Forest Service, National Park Service, and BLM – State Agencies, and the notorious City Of Los Angeles Department Of Water And Power. The Center is designed by Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects and built by Atherton Construction LLC. Marcy Wong et al. are from Berkeley; in this case, they probably didn’t displace any local architects. Atherton Construction LLC seems to build only for the Federal Government.
On our first night – of only two – we stayed in Lone Pine so I could see the Sierras full of snow in the morning light. We had dinner at a seldom open French restaurant in the booming town of Independence, a census-designated place of about 670 people (up by 95 souls from ten years earlier). Michele had the Lamb Shank a La Gasconaise which she very much enjoyed and I had an OK French Onion Soup with a nice salad .
The next morning , I got up earlier than Michele and drove north then east past the abandoned airfield that used to support Manzanar. Looking back at the bright white Sierra Nevada escarpment , it looked like The Wall from Game of Thrones stretching both north and south as far as I could see. The Owens Valley was warm – T-shirt temperature warm – even early in the morning, but the grass and shrubs were still brown and the trees were still leafless. It seemed like an inhospitable place and the remains of Manzanar made its location especially cruel.
During WWII, the United States Government imprisoned about 110,000 Americans who were of Japanese ancestry, I don’t think they were even arrested, they were just rounded-up and imprisoned. Manzanar Relocation Center – and I’m not sure that is the real name, now it is just called Manzanar Historic Site but Manzanar Forced Relocation Center or Manzanar Concentration Camp would be more accurate – was “home” to about 10,000 of those Americans.
On the way home, we drove back to 395 and then south to the Red Rock Canyon Recreation Area which the LA Times said had good flowers.
