The 2024 Election, Part VII. Drama

September 23, 1923.

Probably not the right place to put it, but it seems to fit into an election atmosphere everywhere that's a bit over the top.

Casper's mayor has resigned after having been accused of physically assaulting his wife in Texas. In resigning, he stated.

It is readily apparent to me that the City Council has abandoned me, band members who I have worked with for a number of years, have ended their relationship with me and it is apparent to me that every effort is being made to destroy me to the public.

Well, after photographs were run of his wife with a major scar suture on her head, no matter what happened, it'd be in the press.  Perhaps the surprising thing this year is that it turned out to matter, given that so little otherwise seems to in regard to public conduct.

We will note that he's disputing her allegations, stating that she was intoxicated and fell.

He'd been in the press with comments a fair amount, including this recently:

Challenging airport funding and looking at subsidization of transportation in a different light.

I didn't note it there, but he's a pilot himself and did a crash landing not all that long ago.

Now about the ongoing races:

President.

Democrats:

Joe Biden; the incumbent.  

Marianne Williamson.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  

Republicans.

Donald Trump. 

Nikki Haley

Vivek Ramaswamy.  

Perry Johnson,

Larry Elder 

Asa Hutchinson. 

Tim Scott.

Ron DeSantis

Chris Christie

Mike Pence.

Doug Burgum

Will Hurd 

Steve Laffey 

Ryan Binkley 

Green Party

Cornel West.  

American Solidarity Party

Peter Sonski  

U.S. Senate

Republicans

John Barrasso, maybe?

The long serving Senator has not announced if he's running or not.  Right now, because it's pretty obvious that Mitch McConnell is headed on to the next realm, he stands to potentially be Senate Majority Leader.

Reid Rasner.

Rasner has announced and is running essentially as a far right populist.  If Barrasso stays in, his campaign will be forgotten within days of the primary election.

September 25, 2023

Former President Trump's comments are getting increasingly extreme, even unhinged.

He's now openly threatening the Press.  The scary part here is that his supporters will fall right in line with this.

September 27, 2023

A New York court has determined, in a partial ruling in a case, that Donald Trump committed fraud in the process of building his real estate empire, apparently by misrepresenting his assets.  The ruling does not determine damages.

Joe Biden joined UAW picketers yesterday.

September 29, 2023

Some members of the Converse County GOP wish to censure Rep. Forrest Chadwick, whose districts straddles Natrona and Converse Counties.  Included in their proposed censure is "failed to vote in a manner that has any semblance to the oath that he made to God to ‘support, obey and defend the Constitution’ or any semblance to the Wyoming Republican Party Platform.”

I'm not certain at all that the oath legislators take is a divine one.  They take an oath, but I don't think it's in that context.

Ironically, moreover, many of the populist far right, including in Wyoming, have been supporting sedition, at least in their statements, which is clearly violative of their oaths if they're in office, as it amounts to subverting the U.S. Constitution.  Lying, in the Catholic view, with Catholicism being an Apostolic and therefore an original branch of Christianity (and given Apostolic succession, the original branch) is regarded as a grave sin in some circumstances, which does invoke a person's relationship with the Divine, but not for the same reason.  Here too, however, the far right position is rather ironic, given what is just noted above.

WyoRino, which recently failed to make an appearance at a Natrona County debate, is mentioned by name.

The effort appears to be tied to his vote against the Life is a Human Right Act as he thought it was unconstitutional and his vote for the budget in the last session.  A person could be upset about either of these (although It's hard to grasp being upset about a necessary budget), but that doesn't amount to a violation of his oath of office.

October 3, 2023

I know nothing about Butler, and she may be supremely qualified, but its hard not to assume there's a fair amount of box checking going on in the selection, something that Democratic politicians are particularly likely to do. Butler is black, fulfilling a Newsom promise, and she's gay, making her the first black openly gay U.S. Senator. Should that matter?  No, but its statistically improbable while also fulfilling promises to one major Democratic demographic and also satisfying, maybe, the desires of another.

John Kelly, a former adviser to Donald Trump, slammed his former boss in a CNN interview, stating:

What can I add that has not already been said? A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.

October 4, 2023

The Trump campaign, in what should be regarded as an expression of concern, is calling on the GOP debates to end, so all resources can be focused on defeating Joe Biden.

A plea to end attention to other candidates, even though they have not touched him so far, demonstrates that something is causing concern in the Trump camp.

October 6, 2023

Cornell West, who may get as many as 5 or 6 votes next November, has ditched the Green Party in favor of running an independent campaign in hopes of actually getting on the ballot in various states.

This is his third switch this season.

West is a figure who fascinates American leftist and is otherwise wholly unknown to the American public.

October 8, 2023

Steve Laffey, a long shot candidate for the Oval Office on the GOP ticket has dropped out of the race and dropped out, as well, from the Republican Party. He called the GOP "dead".

October 9, 2023

Robert F. Kennedy is now running as an independent.

cont:

Will Hurd has backed out and endorsed Nikki Haley.

October 11, 2023

Far right populist Kari Lake has announced a bid for an Arizona Senate seat.  She will run against independent incumbent Kyrsten Sinema, the Senates most photogenic member, and Arizona Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego. This assuming, of course, that Sinema runs.

October 12, 2023

Cenk Uygur, a media personality, has announced his candidacy for the Democratic ticket for the Oval Office.

As he was born in Turkey, he's not eligible to be President.

Trump, in a recent interview, stated, regarding Benjamin Netanyahu, the following:

He was not prepared. He was not prepared and Israel was not prepared. And under Trump, they wouldn't have had to be prepared.

Why doesn't it occur to Trump supporters how deeply weird statements like that are? 

October 17, 2023

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso has endorsed Kari Lake for Senator from Arizona.

This is politics, of course, but it really shows how far people are willing to go for no other reasons other than politics.  Lake is an extremist.  The calculation probably is that she might win, and you'd want her to owe you some favors.

October 25, 2023

The absurd flap on which Democratic primary will occur first means that Biden might not appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot.

October 27, 2023

Larry Elder has dropped out of the Republican race.

cont:

Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips announced that he is running for President on the Democratic ticket and that he will seek to appear on the New Hampshire ballot.

October 28, 2023

Mike Pence has dropped out.

From here on out, with Pence breaking the dam, candidates will start dropping out of the GOP race. Pretty soon, it will be Christie against Trump.  

While it expresses a minority view, my guess is that as Trump looks more and more childish and faces more and more criminal problems, Christie will gain.

For the second time, it should be noted, Pence has done something for the good of the nation.

October 30, 2023

Arguments commenced today in a Colorado suit on whether Trump's role in the January 2020 insurrection bars him from seeking office.

The Minnesota Supreme Court hears arguments on the same topic later this week.

If Trump loses either of these cases, this issue will be on its way to the Supreme Court, but perhaps not be heard until quite near the 2024 election.

Last prior edition:

The 2024 Election, Part VI. The 14th Amendment Edition.

Related threads:

Random snippets. Another thing that Biden will oddly not get any credit for.

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVII. Eh?

Marjorie Taylor Greene was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus.

Apparently this was due to her recent squabble with Insurrection Barbie.

Greene, at this point, acts like a spoiled toddler most of the time, screaming, messing her drawers, and holding her breath until she turns blue. She's an attention seeker.

Ironically, after being booted out, she tweeted, apparently, that the key to success was avoiding "distractions", when at least from the outside, being a distraction is mostly her point.

But this is fairly interesting for all sorts of reasons.

Last prior edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVI. Vulgar, Gross and Distressing. Are we seriously going to pick one of these guys?

Babylon. . . um, then or now?

 An original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

Description of the movie Babylon.

Seriously?

Well, in keeping with the ostensible focus of this site, let us first acknowledge that early Hollywood was a complete moral sewer.  I haven't seen, obviously, Babylon (nobody in the general public has yet) and I'm not going to, but it would frankly be difficult to inaccurately depict the moral depravity of early Hollywood by going too low. . . which is what makes it the perfect topic for Hollywood today, doesn't it?

Before the Hayes Production Code came in, in 1934, movies were unrestrained by any standards other than community and local ones, and they plumbed the depth as far as they could.  As we earlier noted:

The Hays Production Code of 1934 had been a voluntary code that the movie industry had imposed upon itself to prevent further regulation due to outcry of the moral content of early films, some of which were outright pornographic even when aimed at a general audience and even when camouflaged with supposedly religious themes with even such moviemakers as Cecil B. DeMille taking that approach.  The code had imposed eleven items that were outright prohibited in films, including nudity and associated sexual portrayals, but also banned such items as profanity, disrespect to the clergy, childbirth and willful offense to any religion or race.  It also included twenty five items that film makers were required to be careful about in their depictions.

Indeed, illustrating the above, Cecil B. DeMille, whom we associate with Biblical epics like The Ten Commandments, released a "Biblically" themed silent movie which still receives viewer warnings today due to such scenes depicting female "saints", in Roman times, writhing in agony, nude, chained to columns.  People went to see that in order to see nude women on the screen and have some excuse for it.  It was pornography then, and it remains pornography now.

And not just that, although that's a spectacular example.  Fairly routinely moviemakers slipped in nude scenes of women to see how far they could go.  One famous example involving a well known actress then and post code had a brief snipped of the actress emerging from a bathtub.  It's apparently really brief, but the point was she was nude.  Filming nude swimming actresses was pretty common, barely obscuring them.  You get the point.

And not just that. The moral tone of movies itself was often amazingly low.  Indeed, many popular films of the pre code era were refilmed shortly after the code was put in place, in part because they could still be viewed.  1940's beloved Waterloo Bridge was a remake, for example, of the 1931 variant by the same name.  IMDB provides the plot line for the 1931 version as this:

In World War I London, Myra is an out-of-work American chorus girl making ends meet by picking up men (i.e, by being a prostitute) on Waterloo Bridge. During a Zeppelin air raid she meets Roy, a naive young American who enlisted in the Canadian army. They fall for each other, and he tricks her into visiting his family, who live in a country estate outside London, where his stepfather is a retired British Major. However, Myra is reluctant to continue the relationship with Roy because she has not told him about her past.

The 1940's variant? Well:

On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front. Myra stayed with him past curfew and is thrown out of the corps de ballet. She survives on the streets of London, falling even lower after she hears that her true love has been killed in action. But he wasn't killed. That those terrible years were nothing more than a bad dream is Myra's hope after Roy finds her and takes her to his family's country estate.

A little different. . . ^{1  2}

As far ago as a century back, it was widely known that actors and actress in Hollywood were a libertine set, which they remain.  Scandals surfaced early on, with marriages breaking up and affairs sufficiently rife in order to hit print from time to time.  While social standards generally remained fairly high in American society itself.  People basically turned a blind eye to it, as long as it didn't surface.

Of course, it did surface spectacularly with the death of Virginia Rappe, an actress now remembered only for her death.  We had an item back on that in 2021, which we will repeat here in its entirety, as it is realevant to this entry:

Labor Day, September 5, 1921. The Wages Of Sin

On this day in 1921 one of the most infamous, most misreported, and one of the most still most mysterious deaths in Hollywood history occurred.  And one that features all the things that still cause Hollywood to fascinate and repel.

The death of young actress Virginia Rappe.

Even though the critical events in the death of Rappe, then age 26, occurred at a party, where lot of people were around, what really occurred leading to her untimely death remains a mystery.  From what seems to be clear, we can tell the following.

Rappe was a guest at a party hosted by Fred Fischbach, a friend of celebrated silent movie comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.  The party was partially in celebration of a hit Arbuckle movie, Crazy To Marry.  The five reel movie was a recent release and doing well, although it is now obscure and may be in the category of lost film (I'm not sure of that).  At the time, Arbuckle was making $1,000,000 a year from films, a gigantic sum not only now, for most people, but particularly then, given the respective value of a dollar compared to now.  Arbuckle, we'd note, was married, with his spouse at the time being Minta Durfee, although the couple had recently separated.  In spite of that, it should be further noted, Durfee would call Arbuckle in later years the most generous man she'd ever met, and that in spite of their 1925 divorce, if given the choice, she'd do it all again.

Minta Durfee.

Fischback rented three hotel rooms, and, in the spirit of the times, supplied them with large quantifies of bootleg booze.  Rappe was an invited guest, and arrived with  Bambina Maude.  At the party Rappe drank a lot of alcohol.  At some point in the party it seems that he and Rappe went into room 1219 of the hotel alone, and shortly thereafter some sort of commotion occurred, Arbuckle emerged and Rappe was desperately sick.  She was taken to the hospital and died four days later from a ruptured bladder and peritonitis.

One of the hotel rooms after the party.

Arbuckle was arrested and accused of rape and manslaughter, with an essential element of the accusation being that forced sex had caused Rappe's death.

Seems, at first blush, clear enough, but it gets very confused from there.

Arbuckle maintained his innocence throughout.  He was tried three times, resulting in two mistrials, and then an acquittal.  Bambina Maude was a witness in the story, filling in lurid details, but she was later revealed to be a procurer who used that role to blackmail recipients of the favors she'd arranged to supply, although there was no evidence that she was acting as a procurer at the time of the attendance at the party.  Indeed, while there are multiple stories as to what occured, one of the versions that exists is that the room that Rappe went into was the only one with a bathroom and she went into it to throw up, going through the bedroom where Maude was having sex with a movie director. In that version, which isn't the only one, Arbuckle went in the room to carry the collapsed Rappe out. ^[1]. 

The final jury apologized to Arbuckle for what he'd been through. And, indeed, it seems fairly clear that whatever occurred between Arbuckle and Rappe, it wasn't that which resulted in her death, but rather a chronic medical condition that was exacerbated by alcohol.  It's likely her drinking at the party, which killed her.

Rappe, who was at one time regarded as the "best dressed girl in films".

Even that, however, doesn't flesh the entire tragic story out.  Rappe was only 26, but by that age was already a photographic veteran, having worked as an orphan raised by her grandmother as a model since age 14.  She had some trouble holding alcohol and was inclined to strip when drunk.  She'd been the live in with Henry Lehamn only fairly recently, to whom she'd been engaged.  According to at least some sources, which may be doubted given that they are a century old, she was freer with her affections than the norms of the time would have endorsed.

What occurred between Arbuckle and Rappe is not known and never well be and now too much time has passed to sort it out.  About as much as we can tell is that it seems that Arbuckle might have made some sort of advance on Rappe and that at first Rappe might have welcomed it.  That she was desperately ill is clear.  Her illness killed her.

This, in turn, provides an interesting look at public morals and standards, then and now.  At least some of the conduct Rappe and Arbuckle were engaging in was immoral by Christian standards, and Christian standards were clearly the public standards of the day.  Be that as it may, it's clear that in his trials, the fact that Arbuckle was doing something with a drunk woman doesn't seem to have been held against him, or at least it ultimately wasn't.  Of course, maybe the jurors didnt' feel he was doing anything with her, or even aiding her, or at least some must have thought that in all three trials.  If Arbuckle was advancing on her, it most definitely would be regarded as improper today.  Having said that, it wasn't all that long ago that "get her drunk" was sort of a joke which implied that inebriation to the point of being unable to consent was consent.

Arbuckle's career would never recover from the evening.  Perhaps, in some ways, it shouldn't have.  He wasn't a killer, but what occurred was unconscionable for other reasons. .  reasons we seemingly have managed to forget, however, over the years.  Even after his acquittal he was more or less blackballed in the industry for a time, and then when that was lifted his star power was gone.  He changed his name and made a much smaller living behind the scenes before starting to stage a minor comeback in the 1930s.  He died in 1933 in a hotel room from a heart attack.  He was 46.

Arbuckle movie poster from 1932.

It's interesting to see how this event compares to contemporary ones.  We have a person in attendance at the party who associated with the rich and famous whose role seems to have been supplying female favors (Maude), much like Jeffrey Epstein and his hangers on have been accused of.  We have a Hollywood set who lived personal lives that departed greatly from public standards, something that's still the case, although less so now as standards have declined so much, and we might have some sort of sexual contact between a male Hollywood figure and a very drunk actress (or not), something that in our contemporary culture would be a career ending event irrespective of the accusations of rape.  Indeed, accusations of rape in Hollywood, not all of which are substantiated, have become very common in recent years.

In the end it was a terrible tragedy.  People thought they were going to a party  Rappe probably knew she was drinking too much.  Arbuckle surely knew he shouldn't make advances on her.  Death came like a "thief in the night", which nobody anticipated.

On the same day, elsewhere, the League of Nations convened for the second time and admitted Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland and Luxembourg.

Footnotes:

1  Yet another version, upon which a book was written asserts that Rappe had received  botched abortion that had nicked her bladder, and it ruptured when she tickled Arbuckle and he accidentally kneed her.  

Others criticize that assertion, which would by definition be based on a large element of speculation.  It seems based on Rappe having reported received something like five prior abortions in an era when they were all fully illegal.

Rappe's death remains a tragedy, but the wider details of how the overall situation came about, sex, abortions, alcohol and the like, are pretty beyond the pale even now.

Or are they?

Nothing since Rappe's death in 1921 has improved, morally, in Hollywood.  Indeed, the irony of Babylon is that moral depravity that was recognized as such in 21 is celebrated now, in no small part because Hollywood always recognized that going below a moral standard generated income.  The problem always was that once you erode a standard, you need to go still lower still.

Which in one way brings us back around to Babylon.  Apparently it contains an orgy scene.  Is that something unreasonable to depict as to Hollywood in 21?  No, not really.

Could such a scene have been included in a movie in 21?  Frankly, probably. Which is why the Code came about.

Reports hold that the actresses who were filmed in the orgy scene were worried it would be cut out of the movie.  It was, of course, not.

Why would it have been.  Post code, the moral standard today are much lower than they were in a century ago.  The movie might not even be a success, moral depravity and all. And part of the reason for that is depicting the shocking violation of a moral standard, which in our heart of hearts we know remains one, might not be all that interesting when we already figure this is pretty much how Hollywood is today.

Harvey Weinstein. . .Jeffrey Epstein. . .your cue to appear on screen has been lit.

Footnotes:

1. The plot of the first version is remarkably similar to one of the vignettes in Rosellini's Paisan.

2.  Humphrey Bogart version of The Maltese Falcon is also a remake.  For one thing, the first version had veiled references to homosexuality in it.  Reportedly the second version is almost word for word the same as the first, but for things offending the code removed.

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist XXXVII. Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad fīnem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?*

Let's do a post that's guaranteed to somehow offend everyone. 

 Cicero denounces Cataline.*

Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?

Voltaire.

Lies, Blinders, Hypocrites

Al Franken's 2003 book, written before his stint in Congress, and before his political fall from grace.  Copyrighted image posted under the fair use exception.

Al Franken, the left wing comedian, was Minnesota's Senator from 2009 to 2018. 

My goodness, 2018 seems so long ago, it's like a different world. 

Franken tended towards biting social and political satire.  It's not everyone's cup of tea, but he was funny as a rule.  He migrated towards being disgusted, principally with the political right, and in 2009 entered the Senate.  His downfall came due to one Leeann Tweeden in an event which, while it would seem Hollywoodescque in some ways now, probably wouldn't have led where it did if it were to break as a story now. 

Tweeden was one of those figures who came up due to being exposed, literally, in Hugh Hefner's monument to juvenile male fantasy, which has now been exposed as related in every fashion to the worst sort of sexual crimes imaginable, that being the Playboy magazine rag.  Having prostituted herself photographically, she leveraged that into a sort of career, which in turn ended up with her being assigned to a tour for the troops in Afghanistan, sort of like one of those now embarrassing events memorialized in grossly exaggerated form in Apocolypse Now.  You know, big boob babe appears in front of troops, with musicians and comedians, so they can ogle over her. Franken trespassed a line that shouldn't have been crossed, by her account, in some forced kisses that were part of rehearsals.  I'm not discounting that he did it, and that this was completely wrong.  The fact she perceived them that way gives credence to it. **

[Y]ou may fool people for a time; you can fool a part of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

Abraham Lincoln. 

Following that, other women came forward, as universally seems to be the case in these instances. Were the accusations true?  I don't know.  I didn't follow them at the time, and it is, I'd note, seemingly universally the case that this occurs.  Having said that, in some of these instances, such as those involving Bill Cosby, some of them definitely are pretty believable.But should Franken have resigned? I didn't think so at the time.  Yes, that made him a cad of a sort, but 2018 was already two years after the election of an individual to the Presidency who had made a completely crass comment about grabbing women's genitals.  Franken wasn't accused of that, and a large percentage of the voters, although not a majority, voted for that candidate, Donald Trump.  Soon, Republicans accused of gross sexual misconduct would disregard it, as in the case of Matt Gaetz.  Franken may have done the honorable thing, but he may have in fact been more honorable in his resignation than he needed to be, or the times called for. 

He seems to have recognized that now. This past February, Franken commented that he regretted resigning from the U.S. Senate and noted that he might run for office once again.  He probably ought to. 

So why am I bringing this up? 

One of the things that propelled Franken into office was his disgust with "lying liars". That disgust doesn't seem to exist anymore either. I've noted this before, but as a Catholic, I'm in that branch of Christianity, which is the largest, whose theologians regard lying as so serious that some theologians hold that all lies are sins, no matter how trivial.  They further hold that some lies are mortal sins. And yet one of my co-religious based his campaign for high office in the state on lies. 

You can't judge the state of another person's soul, but you can hold contempt for his conduct.  One person has already held such contempt for the conduct that she has resigned rather than serve under him.  Maybe he doesn't believe they're lies.  But that says something about the season of lies we're now in, in that case.  You can't blind yourself to lies, and you can't willfully disregard the truth in order to opt to believe in them as you want them to be true.

One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots.  Ten thousand idiots are a poltiical party.

Kafka.

Unintentional Irony: 

A recent headline:

"Cards Against Humanity” Game Creator To Send Wyomingites’ Money To Pro-Abortion Group

The killers, in the movie, The Killers, played by Charles McGraw and William Conrad.

No kidding.  An inventor of something "against humanity" is for killing infants.

Makes sense.

Recently, the news has been just thick with irony, and ironic headlines, including additional ones in this area.

The violent complaining about violence.

An abortion clinic, which was not yet in operation, was hit by a while back by a female arsonist in Casper recently.

Now, I don't condone arson, but I don't condone being dense either.  Here's the headline that appeared after the clinic was burned.

Abortion clinic founder after fire: This world seems to be encased in violence

Really?

Abortion is the epitome of violence.  You can't cite the world getting violent as a defense to your own violence. It'd be like the Germans complaining about a concentration camp being bombed on the basis that bombing is violent.

"My goodness, Fritz, the Americans dropped a bomb inside the camp wire. . . the world sure is getting violent".

Men:  Shut up, speak up, now shut up.

Here's another abortion related headline:

Abortion Rights Advocates Say They Need More Men's Voices

For decades men have been told that abortion is none of their business and that indeed, once they withdraw, so to speak, nothing that happens is their business.  Indeed, men who are opposed to abortion are told to butt out.

You can't have it both ways.

If men have a say in the issue of abortion, they also have a say, indeed a coequal one, in whether a baby is to be aborted.  That is, the mother ought to inform the father, and he ought to get a veto over the abortion.  

That would actual recognize that this is at least a two person affair, or rather three.

That probably isn't the male voice they're seeking to elicit.

Some things never change.

In the further unintentional irony category:

Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost

@USTRANSCOM_CDR

·

1h

The character of war is changing. We won’t have the luxury of operating under the same conditions as yesterday.

A statement that's true about every single war fought since the first war was fought.  

D'uh.

We love the high price of petroleum, but hate the high price of gas. . . They aren't connected, are they?

And speaking of trying to have things both ways, a local politician was posting stuff like this nearly every day on Twitter:

Americans woke up today to a double whammy of record inflation and record gas prices. Gas tanks and wallets are running on empty.

@POTUS

owns this record inflation, and American families can’t afford his spin.

I've noted this before, but in Wyoming, high prices mean lots of oil field jobs.  Low prices mean no oilfield jobs.  If we want oilfield jobs, we need high prices.

With the price dropping, by the way, the same fellow hasn't congratulated President Biden on dropping the price.

Weird.

Speaking of politics. . .

Politicians need fun

Under-fire Finnish PM Sanna Marin says even politicians need fun

I'm sure that's true.

She probably actually said:

Jopa poliitikot tarvitsevat hauskaa

Marin is 36 years old, and surely at that age even politicians deserve to have fun.  

And, we would note, unlike less youthful politicians in the US she isn't spouting slop form Twitter or Twitter alternatives all the time.

Well, this year, why not?

Newly Released Sasquatch Data Shows More Wyoming People Are Bigfoot Believers

Sure, in a year in which a slight majority of Wyoming Republicans think an out of stater who has been in the state for only a decade, and who seems to have never really had to struggle independently for his place in the world would make a good Secretary of State, why not Big Foot?

On this:

Over the last 50 years or so, there have been 28 reported sightings in Wyoming of a tall, muscular creature, covered in dark hair, with long arms, leaving behind huge footprints. 

That would not be our presumptive Secretary of State.  He's only been in the state about a decade , as noted, and does not appear to be hirsute.

I've already noted an effort by the outgoing legislature to remove election responsibilities from the incoming election questioner.  It won't happen.

Elected officials, by the way, in Wyoming take this oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, obey and defend the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Wyoming; that I have not knowingly violated any law related to my election or appointment, or caused it to be done by others; and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.

This would require said incoming individual not to be screwing around with elections, however, as a former legislature that was already his duty.

Which raises the amusing question of whether the Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court can refuse to swear in an oath breaker.  I.e, if we know that somebody is facially breaking the oath, thereby breaking that fidelity they've sworn to uphold, can the office be denied.

That won't happen, but it's an interesting thought.

"Am I blue. .  "

Lady Gaga says she hopes 'purple' Texas turns blue at Arlington concert

M'eh, who cares what she thinks?

Gaga, one Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is just another yapping voice following the Madonna route of getting a good Catholic education and then forgetting what it taught so that she can get a career based on her presentation of her image, and then asking to be taken seriously.

Serious people are to be taken seriously.  You can't build up a career on silly fluff and then demand to be taken seriously, even if you are by that time actually serious.

Speaking of the serious. . . 

As she really is.

Melisa Raouf became the first woman to advance to the finals of the Miss England contest to abstain during the pageant from wearing makeup.

Good for her.  Makeup is stupid. Women should eschew it.

Poor Karen's

I think I've known two women named Karen.  One was the wife of a former partner of mine.  The couple divorced.  I don't know why, but I never knew her that well.

The other is a young Mexican American woman whose family owns a restaurant.  She's not superficial or entitled.  She's probably too serious to be insulted by the current misuse of the name Karen, an example of which is presented below.

Lauren Boebert: “Joe Biden is robbing hard working Americans to pay for Karen’s daughter’s degree in lesbian dance theory.”

What?

Boebert somehow manages to reduce serious issues to absolute nonsense. 

Why do people vote for her?

So here we have the issues of societal debt, student debt, and its impact on American society and education, a set of issues that are complicated and serious.  We also have the issue of, I guess, homosexuality, maybe, which is an issue that's never really been sorted out at the existential level  And what is Boebert saying about these heavy issues?

Who knows, but it sounds dim.

Slacker Baristas?

Delia Kane, age 14.  The Exchange Luncheon, Boston.  January 31, 1917.  Slacker?

If you are that slacker barista who wasted seven years in college studying completely useless things, now has loans, and can’t get a job, Joe Biden just gave you 20 grand . . . Maybe you weren’t gonna vote in November and suddenly you just got 20 grand,. . . if you can get off the bong for a minute … it could drive up turnout.

So stated Ted Cruz on a videoblog of his own.

Frankly Ted tends to be an asshole.

Being a barista is a job that strikes me as being hard.  All jobs like that, waitresses, bar maids, bar tenders, servers, are hard jobs.  Usually insulting one or making life difficult for one is a sign that you've never had to do a job like that.

Indeed, people who have done jobs like that are usually very polite to others who have done jobs of that type.  My father, who hardly drank at all, had been a bar tender in college and was just such an example.  In contrast, I once worked with somebody who gave wait staff a terrible time quite frequently.  He'd never done such a job.

I wonder if Cruz has?

Anyhow, Cruz's comment is insulting to working people.

It also displays a blistering lack of knowledge on the current state of education in the U.S. A few years ago, I read of a recent law school grad working as a barista. That was during a period in which new law school grads were having a hard time finding work, which has since changed.  People taking those jobs aren't slackers, they need a job.

Cruz also went after the FBI recently.

Ted Cruz says FBI needs 'complete housecleaning' due to its 'horrific' abuse of power

We'll quote again Cicero, "Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad fīnem sesw effrenata iactabit audacia?"

One person whose patience with Cruz has apparently reached its limit is Liz Cheney, or at least she is now liberated from any restraints by the results of the primary election. She tweeted:

Liz Cheney

@Liz_Cheney

Understanding

@tedcruz

isn’t difficult. He lacks principle and has always been a chameleon who will say anything, anytime. He thinks he’s so smart no one can see through him. Ted, we can. All of us can.

Ms. Cheney's optimism on everyone being able to see through Cruz are no doubt optimistic.  Cruz actually has fans, and he's positioning himself to run against Ron DeSantis in 2024, assuming that Trump, whom Cruz once publically scorned but now supposedly admires, doesn't run.  DeSantis, I suspect, is running no matter what.

I've never liked Cruz and when he ran for President in 2016 I was disgusted by his comments about the Federal land going to the states, "like Texas".

This isn't Texas, and we don't want it to be.

Regarding Cruz, how is it that Barrack Obama's right to run for President was questioned on the myth he was born in Kenya, while nobody seems to be ready to suggest that Cruz, who was born in Canada, isn't qualified?  Granted, I think he is, legally, but given the wacky interpretation things have been getting recently by people who seem prepared to question a normal readying of the Constitution, why not?Anyhow, he's really not qualified to run as a he's a robot.

I bet that is rare.

In Rare Move, Duke Law Professor Leaves Academia to Return to Big Law

Having said that, one of my really good law school professors did the same thing. And one of my not so good ones did as well, although I understand he was very successful in private practice.

Headline Typo

A headline in the Tribune reads:

AG Opposes holding penitentiary hearing in abortion ban case.

Penitentarily hearing?

No, the Attorney General opposed an evidentiarly hearing, not a penitentiarly hearing.

Seriously?

Nikki Haley

@NikkiHaley

·

8h

Biden is the most condescending president of my lifetime. He’s done nothing to unite the nation. Nothing to bring healing. Nothing to alleviate the pain millions of Americans feel everyday. He’s been a divider in chief and come November he must hear from all of us.

I don't know who they are, and I don't care.

My Twitter feed constantly suggest that I check on the latest doings of certain celebrities.

One of them is Megan Thee Stallion.  I guess she's a singer.  I'm sure her last name isn't "Stallion"

Up until recently, as I don't know who she really is and my mind was just filling in the blanks, I thought that last name was "Three Stallions".  I only noticed very recently that I was wrong.  Perhaps that shows a mindset inclined towards Native American names.

Another one is Harry Styles.  I don't know who Harry Styles is or why anyone cares what he's doing.  I could probably look that up, but I'm not going to.

Another link noted that Billie Eilish is wearing baggy shorts, having experimented briefly with appearing as an actual adult woman, her having returned to appearing like a toddler.

I don't have a really appropriate song for this topic, so this'll have to do.

Footnotes:

*The opening lines of Cicero's first speech against Cataline.  Translated, they state:

When, Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?