I actually heard about this. Somebody said: “Lindsey Graham just died. Good. I’m glad he died. He can no longer hurt innocent people.”
Isn’t that a terrible thing to say?
OH, WAIT....
It wasn’t Lindsey Graham. It was Robert Mueller. And it was Trump who said that. That was Trump’s message just after Mueller died.
There’s that old belief that even the worst people do some good at some point in their lives. Lindsey Graham’s good deed was that he supported Ukraine in its war against the Russian aggressor Putin. He had just returned from Ukraine before he died.
My friend, no conspiracy theorist, thinks the Russians may have had something to do with his death. They are, after all, experts at surreptitious assassinations.
I will say that it is too bad he did not have the courage to call out Trump. After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Graham said he had enough of Trump. But, like so many of his colleagues, he caved and fell into line. Too bad. He wrecked his reputation and will go down in history as a toady, which he was.
Suppose you had an endangered bird, say a whooping crane, that wintered in a certain very limited area in Texas. Every year in the spring the birds migrated to Canada. In the summer there are no whooping cranes in their winter home. You discovered a deposit of bauxite in the area, bought the land, and commenced a huge mining operation.
The cranes returned, flew around looking for their winter home, couldn’t find it, and all died.
Under a new rule promulgated by the Interior Department and the Commerce Department, that is now legal. You didn’t actually “‘harm” the birds. You didn’t shoot them, poison them, or catch and strangle them. You just took their habitat they need to live, so you didn’t actually harm the birds. No more need to do environmental impact statements.
Grown men and women backed by the American Petroleum Institute and other mining and commercial interests came up with this. And yes, it is as idiotic as it sounds. But hey, we can make some money. Of what use is a bog turtle or a desert pup fish or a whippoorwill if it gets in the way of profit?
Skip all the meanness and stupidity that happened today and play the official version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” The video is a just a wee bit silly, shot in a former asylum in England and featuring men in tights and altar boys with glowing eyes. Concentrate on the lyrics and that voice. That voice.
I remember the first time I heard this song on the radio. Amazing. I couldn’t hear it enough. I still can’t hear it enough.
P.S. You might also listen to “Holding Out for a Hero,” featured in the Kevin Bacon movie “Footloose.” Again somewhat silly video, but listen.
That’s the title of the lead article in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs magazine. The author is Paul Scharre, who served in the DOD in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. The article points out that our weaponry is not geared to future wars and it contains some rather sobering examples.
In the meantime our Commander-in-Chief, Private Bonespurs, is still harping about the need for Greenland.
We aren’t drifting into tyranny or slow-walking into tyranny. We are hurtling down that highway. Here are a few headlines I gathered from the New York Times on July 7. There were more, but here is a sampling.
“Trump Remaking Judiciary System” [Trump personal attorney Emil Joseph Bove III was appointed to the appeals court of the middle Atlantic states. Approximately 1/3 of appellate court justices now are Trump appointees.]
“U.S. Defends Move to Drop Bribery Case of Billionaire” [The accused agreed to invest billions in the U.S. to get the case dropped.]
“Lawsuit Alleges a Threat to Free Speech by Agents” [That would be ICE agents. I posted about that yesterday.]
“White House Accuses Smithsonian of Negative Portrayal of U.S.”
“Court Allows The Removal Of Exhibits At U.S. Parks”
“Trump Reverses Dozens of Gun Rules, Alarming Public Safety Advocates”
Since then Trump’s been weakening NATO, making noises about seizing Greenland, and bashing Spain. I can’t keep up. Tomorrow I plan to post about making currant jelly and the birds at my feeder and trying to chase away the deer eating the soybeans in our fields.
Our friend Anne from Brussels sent us a message that she was so happy the Belgium team beat the U.S., but she knew we must be sad. Actually, we are not sad at all. Once Trump bullied the head of FIFA into overturning an official’s call, a victory by the U.S. would have been tainted in any case.
Sportswriter Rick Reilly published a book in 2019 explaining how Trump cheated in golf and how that said everything you need to know about his lack of integrity. Overturning an official’s call is just the kind of behavior one should expect from a liar and a cheat. He cheats his investors, his wives, and the American voters who actually believed his bullshit.
So, no, I was not sad that the U.S. lost. Once Trump got involved, I had a feeling the U.S. team would lose. Every thing he touches turns to–I think you can fill in the rest.
