Yearly Archives: 2018

Our historical obsession with hating other people, at least here in Western Civ, can be fascinating. Archaeology has a very short article on a recent find illustrating the practice:

A thin lead curse tablet dating to the fifth century A.D. that was folded and nailed shut to intensify its power has recently been opened, some 80 years after it was discovered beneath the hippodrome in Antioch, in modern-day Turkey. Curse tablets from the period are generally in Greek or Latin, but this one, although difficult to make out with the naked eye, turns out to have been written in a Jewish dialect of Aramaic using Hebrew lettering. “This means it was written by a Jewish scribe,” says Rivka Elitzur-Leiman of Tel Aviv University, “if not a Jewish magician.”

I’ll omit the pic, since they are using it with permission from the researchers, but you can see it at the above link. It makes our era a little less unusually cut-throat, doesn’t it? It turns out the message had something to do with a chariot race, so venality seems to be a universal constant.

It’s cousin saving time. Too bad he’s a barbaric wretch.

Once again, the Japanese are plagued with monsters in War Of the Gargantuas (1966), and, given the aplomb with which the Japanese defense officials face these situations, you’d think they’d have developed better strategies for dealing with creatures standing more than 100 feet tall. Perhaps they should hide all their cities underground?

Note stuff coming out of neck. Reeks aesthetically.

But this time around there’s a Western element, as some of the biological cells of … (wait for it) … Frankenstein … not Frankenstein’s Monster, which is different … are to blame for the eponymous characters. (I’m visualizing the costume crew working on labcoats for 100 foot tall scientists.) Why? Uh, it had something to do with cell replication, and, oh, I don’t know. The scientific team, lead by the American doctor (Russ Tamblyn) and including the attractive Japanese lady, were remarkably casual about the whole thing. It’s been maybe 30 years since I’ve read Frankenstein, and I don’t recall Shelley’s genesis of the Monster, except he was an amazing physical specimen, not the riveted together hunk of junk of the cinematic versions.

Let’s count up the monsters, shall we? First, there’s the giant octopus that has the cargo ship in its tentacles during the opening storm. Then there’s Gargantua #1, a big, hairy humanoid, which takes exception to the giant octopus harassing the ship, and chases it away. Hurrah for the ship’s crew, yes!

Oh, wait, this is more of a tantrum over a toy, isn’t it? And, not only does the ship go down, most of the crew becomes … dinner.

An intervening moment while the scientific team puzzles over what appears to be their “Frankenstein,” which is now huge and fond of human meat, as #1 ventures on land and ravages an airport, including a fairly shocking consumption of one of the would-be passengers. The Frankenstein they had been studying was peaceful and friendly, goldarnit!

But when the Japanese trap the Gargantua in an electrified river, all seems to be coming to a happy ending, until #2 Gargantua appears (that would be 3 outsized critters) and rescues #1. Equally huge, and in fact identical to #1 except in coloration, the two hide out in the forest and river, and during this Gargantua Golden Era one of the search teams ventures too near a cliff and the aforementioned Japanese lady scientist nearly tumbles to her death, only to be saved by #2, which, interestingly enough, hurts himself doing so. She is returned to the American scientist, but when #2 returns to tend to wounded #1, he (honestly, they appear to be sexless) discovers … chewed up human clothing. Extended pantomime suggests a line has been crossed, and soon enough the two are rolling (#2 with a limp) across Tokyo in a Gargantua death match, and eventually into Tokyo Bay they tumble, all the while the Japanese worrying about them shedding more skin cells that might turn into more Gargantua Frankensteins, which has comedic possibility written all over it in purple ink.

In a fittingly huge bit of deus ex machina, an underwater volcano in Tokyo Bay chooses this moment to erupt and build itself into an island, allegedly consuming the battling Gargantua in the process. Yep, there was a nudge-nudge wink-wink from the cast on not finding any corpses to, ah, study.

Yeah, just why did I waste all these bytes on this review, anyways? If there’s a thematic exploration in here, I missed it. Maybe it had something to do with titanic mistakes requiring titanic acts of God to cover up? Seems unlikely.

Make up your own. And, remember, having read this review, you needn’t actually watch the movie. Unless you enjoy watching models of military vehicles and cities being destroyed. Although I must admit to chortling when the Gargantua were running through various towns and cities. You’d expect each step to be its own earthquake, local humans jolting up and down in rhythm to their footsteps….

I personally found this paragraph from a WaPo report on Trump’s situation following the Cohen and Manafort disasters dismaying, if unsurprising:

Trump and his legal woes are unlikely to recede into the background. Republicans face 77 days of midterm campaigning that could be jolted by unwelcome legal surprises. Still, the president remains overwhelmingly popular in his own party — with an almost 90 percent approval rating. And supporters like [Trump supporter Dan] Eberhart still support much of the president’s agenda.

90% is where I start shaking my head. Granted, there’s not been much in the way of polling since Tuesday, so perhaps the Republican base might be losing its faith in a tainted President – but there’s little reason to make such an assumption, outside of a hopeful heart.

But I fear there’s two factors working against such an outcome. First, there’s the allegiance to conservative media which feeds them partial facts, dubious assertions, and then emotional appeals. Even on an ostensibly NeverTrump site such as The Resurgent, I ran across this ugly post from Marc Giller:

So far, the only one of that bunch serving any jail time is Anthony Weiner—and that’s because of his proclivity to sext with underage girls, not because he had a ton of Cilton’s emails, many of them classified, on his personal laptop. Even after an Inspector General investigation determined serious irregularities in the way that the FBI and the DOJ handled the probe into Clinton’s homebrew email server, not a single person in her orbit had been indicted, charged or tried for a crime.

Reading the first couple of responses was interesting^[1], which I’ll leave to the footnote.  Giller then commits the cardinal sin – he claims that none of this excuses Trump. The problem is he just spent a couple of paragraphs proclaiming that Trump is not being treated fairly, that the Democrats were just as bad – despite the obvious fact that Federal Prosecutors appointed BY Trump are also those ripping his former team members into shreds for their chronically illegal ways.

Does Giller really think these Federal Prosecutors, appointed by Trump, are just going to ignore these alleged crimes committed by Obama, Clinton, Holder, and anyone else from the previous Administration? Prosecutors don’t make their career by refraining from red meat prosecutions; taking down the high ‘n mighty can lead to even greater things for the ambitious, such as Guiliani, who went from a Federal prosecutor taking down Mob dons to the Mayor’s seat of New York City. On the other hand, pursuing a false prosecution could gain them a janitorial position at, say, the Barack Obama Elementary School in St. Paul (which is right across the street from my fencing club). Absent personal knowledge of ill-doing by members of the previous Administration, I think the sober citizen must take their cue from their fellow Americans who happen to be these Federal prosecutors and assume that whatever illegalities may have occurred in the previous Administration were exceedingly trivial and quite probably accidental.

But, ironically, Giller may be correct on his primary thesis – the GOP base will not be swayed by these legal hand grenades that Trump’s own Prosecutors are tossing into Trump’s backyard, because of the lies that people like Giller have decided to believe in. I’d be completely unsurprised if Giller said he really believed what he said, I just think it’s misinformation motivated by a mistrust of the evil liberals^[2] and the belief that conservatives, as a brand, cannot possibly be worse than conservatives, even if they ally themselves with Trump. It’s a strong emotional motivation for those who have committed themselves to the position that liberals are bad and conservatives are good.

Which is why I stay an independent and a strong believer that those folks who are within, say, a standard deviation of the political mean of this country have much to contribute – I’m more than willing to consider suggestions from both sides within that parameter. The problem for the GOP? They’re now mostly 2, 3, or more standard deviations out there, and heading further out because they’ve closed off their information intake. That is, they believe the mass media, which tries so hard to bring the truth to their customers because of the free market practices, is really fake news – despite a century long pedigree in many cases – while upstarts like Fox News, documented as not serving up all the information for its viewers that it should by Bartlett, and allied organizations continue to spoon feed them information which feeds into their sensibilities.

Giller is almost certainly right in his prediction – because of perceived unfair treatment, which is untrue in itself, but still rings true to me. His base will go off in a huff and “how about Clinton and Obama” with no idea that if there was something there, career-hungry prosecutors would be all over them like maggots on a bunny carcass.

So the problem isn’t Trump – it’s the tendency of the conservatives to believe the worst of their opponents without due consideration that maybe they’re wrong – maybe they’re being lead around by the nose.

And that second factor I mentioned? Sorry, I forget what it was. Maybe I worked it into the above. I suppose I could go back and rework that paragraph so I didn’t have to admit to this mental goof on my part, but what of it? My reader might as well know that I can be forgetful from time to time.

¹First came a fist pump for Trump, with a list of his accomplishments. The first one was truthful, if troubling for those who want a quality judiciary, the second, not an accomplishment but a failure, the other twelve mistakenly attributing to Trump what Obama had already accomplished – or just another mistake committed by Trump. That was followed by someone noting that, no, Clinton had not committed any crimes, so please stop fucking saying that. An honorable but, I fear, futile paean to truth.

²Which makes any reverence for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, or other leading, but ancient, liberals a bit of a conundrum. I classify them as liberal using my simple, yet fair, definitions of liberal and conservative.

The conservative is someone terrified of what the future might bring and bent on conserving that which has gotten them, or us, this far. This is a fair definition in that it recognizes that many cultural and legal practices are of value.

The liberal is someone who is horrified at certain events in the past and seeks to improve those aforementioned practices as a way to eliminate the horrors of the past. Sometimes they have foolish ideas, but at least they recognize there have been problems which can be addressed.

There is no doubt that Washington, et al, were liberals, as they were horrified at the abuses of the English monarchy, and sought to replace it with something new.

Equitation:

The art and practice of horsemanship and horse riding. [Oxford English Dictionaries]

Noted at the Minnesota State Fair today.

Regarding the indictment of two Trump supporters in Congress, a reader writes:

Since Citizens United allowed corporate money to buy politicians, and the Republicans accepted the most morally corrupt donations, (looking at you, NRA) it increasingly seems as if the only people left in the party are senile, crazy, or utterly corrupt. Fox “News” can broadcast what they want forever, but it won’t change the facts in an actual trial.

Incidentally, while Hunter has denied the charges, which Amber Phillips of The Fix has detailed here, it occurred to me that Hunter may be persuaded to step aside by his Party, and very soon. In both Collins’ and Hunter’s cases, the governor of their states are and/or will be Democrats. If these two alleged law-breakers succumb in criminal proceedings, they will be forced to give up their seats, meaning those governors can then appoint replacements, who would be Democrats. Appointing a moderate Democrat could crack open the grip the GOP has on these two seats, because voters are notorious for liking their elected officials on a personal basis, and then re-electing him.

But if they bow out in favor of another Republican candidate, then no doubt the Republicans will think they can retain the seat. It certainly makes sense out of context.

But within the context of a country in which the independents appear to be sick of the general incompetency of the GOP? I’m not sure their strategy will work.

Maybe Collins and Hunter should have tried to be a bit more law-abiding.

Back when I was reading REASON Magazine of libertarian fame, I ran across the concept (I forget the name) of “regulatory capture.” The basic idea is that regulatory agencies are supposed to regulate the behavior of their subject entities, but the entities will then maneuver to “capture” the agency and thus obviate the agencies’ goals and efficacy. The libertarians seemed to think that was as good a reason as any to not have regulations.

While reading the first part of Andrew Sullivan’s weekly tri-partite column concerning the recent Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse in six dioceses in the Catholic Church, and how the senior members of the hierarchy were either directly responsible, or at least covered for those who were, it suddenly occurred to me:

The unrepentant sinners have captured the Catholic Church.

Oh, maybe not the Pope himself, at least not this one. But unrepentant, yes:

One afternoon, the priest invited George, who was around 14 at the time, to a rectory 25 minutes south of Pittsburgh, where he met several other priests: “During a conversation about religious statues, the priests told George to get onto a bed and remove his shirt, and strike a pose like Jesus on the cross. Then they instructed him to strip off his pants and underwear,” writes the Philadelphia Inquirer. “In the unnerving moments that followed, George claimed that [the priests] began taking photos of him on a Polaroid camera. All of the priests giggled — and then added the photos of George to a collection of photos of other teen boys.” This was a grooming gang.

Yeow!

The Church is the regulator, the agency that lays down the rules, such as no rape or murder or theft or venerating other Gods. The regulated entities? Anyone else who has sinned. And, yet, here we see conscience-less sinners in the dress of priests, taking advantage of a child.

So, what of it? It’s a fair question. I’m not sure that anyone’s formally studied methods for rebuffing attempts to capture regulatory agencies, and if those attempts would be any different than understand that regulation is in place to protect the public from the negative side effects of those entities in their operations of existence, if you take my meaning.

And would those methods have general applicability, or not? Beats the hell out of me.

But I thought I’d mention it. It’s better than talking about the ultimate capture that took place a couple of years ago.

… and will the embankment be high enough to keep him on the track? I speak, of course, of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, whose own lawyer had this to say:

Asked on NPR whether Cohen would accept a pardon from Trump for his admitted crimes, Davis gave an emphatic “no.”

“I know that Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man that he considers to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the Oval Office, and he has flatly authorized me to say under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump,” Davis said.

He went on to criticize Trump as someone “who uses the pardon power in a way that no president in American history has ever used a pardon, to relieve people who have committed crimes who are political cronies of his.”

“Mr. Cohen is not interested in being dirtied by a pardon from such a man,” Davis said. [WaPo]

Tastes to me like someone who has suddenly realized he’s been drinking poison and it’s time to take the cure, no matter how noxious. Such as telling your former boss you’d rather be in prison than be pardoned by him.

He’s trying to make right with everyone who will be judging him in the future. Will it work? Hard to say. Someone’ll probably cut him a break when he gets out of prison.

I know I voted for the right guy 10 years ago when he faces the following on Facebook:

One of my favorite parts of summer is deciding what to read when things slow down just a bit, whether it’s on a vacation with family or just a quiet afternoon. This summer I’ve been absorbed by new novels, revisited an old classic, and reaffirmed my faith in our ability to move forward together when we seek the truth.

Not only does he read, but he cares about the truth to the extent that he brings it out, dusts it off, and doesn’t let the fact that it’s an old thought stop him from posting it. Long time readers know that I’ve brought this sort of thing up before, but it’s worth reiterating: reality, truth if you will, is far more important than ideology, religious zealotry, or any other illusion we care to foster, because reality is what we must live with, while all the others are merely fanciful – and often damaging – thoughts on how things ought to be.

Which is why I, with many, many others, have so little use for Fox News.

Poor Stephen Colbert of The Late Show. He goes on a two week vacation and misses out on former Campaign Manager Manafort’s multitudinous convictions and President Trump’s personal lawyer pleading guilty to multiple counts, including admitting to paying off to two former mistresses of President Trump’s, as reported by The New York Times:

Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.

He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,” implicating the president in a federal crime.

“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.

For my older readers, do you remember the commercial for the number of licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? I think we’re seeing that here, the gradual dissolution of a Presidency through his own mis-deeds. Manafort may be a bit of a sideshow, as the President merely employed a crook in that case. But Cohen deservedly occupies center-stage, as his admission of guilt directly implicates the President in a campaign finance crime.

And that last bit may be the one saving grace for the President. A lot of folks look at campaign finance as an arcane part of the law, perhaps not as important as, say, instigating the robbery of the opposition political party. In particular, the base of the Trump Party won’t, for the most part, care, and that’s the key to why I’m not entirely excited or shocked by this revelation, because the Trump Party base remains the key to the actions of the GOP members of Congress, and they, in turn, are the key to impeaching the President. They are second- and third- raters, for the most part, devoted to Party over Country, and ignoring their paramount responsibilities of monitoring the Executive, producing quality legislative work, and protecting the United States’ various resources, from environmental to human. So long as the Trump Party base prates about their President in the most glowing of terms, the GOP won’t take seriously the idea of ousting him for what they’ll deem a minor crime.

So we should speculate as to the excuses now to be put forth. Cohen lies! is easy enough. No one was hurt! is obvious as well. More odious, and destructive to the reputation of the Trumpists, is But Gorsuch and other conservative judges!

Feel free to come up with more and send them to me. And if you think this is no chortling matter, remember that sometimes the best way to highlight the seriousness of an issue is to dribble sarcasm all over it in such a way as to clarify the foolishness of those on the other side.

And for those of you puzzled over the commercial reference, or nostalgic, here’s one of those commercials:

Looking at the 3 Day Novel Contest, it’s not clear to me that they’re running it this year. The rules page mentions dates in 2017. Heck, their Wikipedia page doesn’t even mention a 2017 winner.

Hope they’re just being dilatory. Outre experiences such as this one are an important part of today’s society. They do seem to have an active Twitter feed. I hope they haven’t switched over to one of the more repulsive forms of communication available on the Web….

And I don’t plan to participate this year. My Arts Editor has frowned on it and I’m in the middle of a short story in any case.

This is actually a week ago, at least, maybe more. It appears the west side of the garage is premium ground for the tomato plants.

A couple of weeks ago, Representative Chris Collins (R-NY) was indicted on insider trading charges. Today, Representative Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA) and his wife were indicted on federal charges of misusing campaign funds. Is it a trend?

Normally, for 538 or so people, you’d expect a few to be bad apples, or for one or two to trip over the laws that can sometimes have special application to members of Congress, and I’m more than willing to accept that these two fall into this category, particularly as Duncan appears to have served honorably in the recent wars with the Marine Corp.

But its not hard to consider the possibility that they are representative of the general run of Republicans in Congress, given recent behaviors over the last 4-6 years, and the general drift of the party to the extremist right.

So it’s worth keeping an eye on this situation. As Federal prosecutors were selected by Trump, there’s no reason to think Collins or Duncan was setup, unless it’s a particularly vicious intra-party feud. However, Collins was an early supporter of President Trump and almost certainly hasn’t earned a trump-up charge (sorry) to clear him out of the House. Hunter appears to be in a similar position.

Will we be seeing a wave of such indictments? I’d like to believe not, but given how the party has drifted away from its law and order fundamental tenet, I will not be surprised if more sitting Representative and Senators of the Republican persuasion find themselves staring at a judge.

Might not hurt to put in a supply of popcorn. Collins occupies one of the reddest seats on the East Coast, but his indictment and subsequent decision to drop his re-election bid may put it firmly in play, especially if district independents are sick and tired of Republican shenanigans. Duncan’s seat in California’s 50th district has been solidly Republican for years, judging from Ballotpedia, so, again, it’s a little difficult to assume the Democrats might seriously challenge for Hunter’s seat, even if district voters are repulsed by the charges.

… and, by the same token, it’s not really wise to pay attention to a person proclaiming on the activities of their spouse. In both situations, they may be inclined to stretch the truth – and they’re also likely a second-hand source. So what to make of Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, whose husband plead guilty and is to be sentenced for lying to FBI Agents concerning his work on the Trump Campaign? Lawfare’s Quinta Jurecic, and Benjamin Wittes are on the case:

Anyone who has been paying attention to the Russia investigation has probably seen Papadopoulos’s wife appearing on television over the past couple of months to declare her husband blameless and request a presidential pardon. It seems that Mueller’s team has as well. In a lengthy footnote, the sentencing memo documents and rebuts Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos’s protestations. The repudiation of her claims—specifically, that her husband “voluntarily reported” his interactions with Mifsud to the FBI and was subsequently entrapped by the bureau—is fairly damning. [Mueller’s footnote rebutting her claims omitted for brevity – HAW] …

These lies are the sort of thing the FBI prosecutes routinely. In fact, they are the sort of lies the FBI doesn’t tend to overlook.

The bottom line is that the George Papadopoulos story should be neither blithely dismissed nor inflated into more than it likely is. It appears to have been the trigger for the Russia investigation. It does not appear to hold the key to what we don’t yet know about L’Affaire Russe.

Papadopoulos’ stubbornness on the matter, evident in the footnote I omitted, is most curious, because he must know that digging in your heals will make prosecutors less likely to suggest to the judge that leniency might be appropriate. Is he so certain that, having plead guilty, he’ll get the leniency regardless? Is he certain he’ll be receiving a Presidential pardon despite having plead guilty? Is he so far gone in the party-before-country rathole that he can’t envision coming clean? In a way, he may be emblematic of much of the conservative side of the political spectrum these days, grimly clinging to what the Leader says is right without regard to how much damage the country may be sustaining.

Perhaps the War of 1812 was too long ago, and we need reminding that the United States is not an invulnerable institution. Existential threats tend to shake people lose from comforting, yet damnable, delusions.

Or pound the nails home in their coffins.

Vedette:

A vedette is the main female artist of a show derived from cabaret and its genres (revue, vaudeville, music hall or burlesque).

The purpose of the vedette in a cabaret or nightclub show is to entertain the public. The vedette has to know how to sing, dance and act on stage. [Wikipedia]

Noted in the Wikipedia entry for Gypsy Rose Lee:

Gypsy Rose Lee (born Rose Louise Hovick, January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer and vedette famous for her striptease act. Also an actress, author, and playwright, her 1957 memoir was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy.

Some sort of Volvo. Noted in a parking lot nearby.

Seems to be in superb shape.

WaPo reports on one of the negative consequences of President Trump’s constraints on legal migrant Mexican workers:

Normally, the crabs would be steamed and hauled through double doors to a long, fluorescent-lit room, where dozens of employees at Russell Hall Seafood would extract the meat. But on this day, the steel tables inside that room sat empty.

“There’s nothing going on at all,” said owner Harry Phillips, “ ’cause we haven’t got our pickers.”

Changes to a foreign-worker visa program have left businesses like Russell Hall without the seasonal laborers — mostly from Mexico — who help drive Maryland’s signature industry.

About a third of picking jobs remain unfilled across the Eastern Shore this summer, as few Americans have responded to openings and Mexican laborers are stranded at home without permission to come here to work.

The situation illustrates a general unwillingness among U.S. workers to perform certain kinds of labor, some of the business owners here in Dorchester County say. It also demonstrates how President Trump’s “America First” policies have not necessarily helped those workers or small-business owners but instead have dealt them a new economic reality.

But it may be damn good for the crabs. No, not humor, just fact. A little less consumption means a few more crabs, doing there thing, out in the environment.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Michael Bars said his agency — which manages the H-2B program — is “focused on ensuring the integrity of the immigration system and protecting the interests of U.S. workers.”

“We are committed to reforming employment-based immigration programs so they benefit the American people to the greatest extent possible,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Bars and his boss, President Trump, may actually be accomplishing it – just not in quite the way envisioned. And, of course, at the expense of those running the crabbing business.

But, like the American farmer, some American workers have been sacrificed for the good of President Trump the rest of us.

At work, some of my colleagues periodically organize a fund and materials drive in order to donate to one of the local school districts. My first inclination is, like most folks, thinking of how to contribute.

Source: Flickr Hivemind

But I have second thoughts on this one. As a society, we should be adequately funding our schools, not because our students deserve it or some such empty phrase, but because, if society doesn’t make adequate investment in the education of our kids, we’ll become a pack of second-raters and the world will pass us by. Indeed, we might even be influenced by foreign powers in our corporations and our politics.

If that doesn’t make your skin crawl, you haven’t been paying enough attention to the outside world.

So I look at this drive and I wonder: Are we enabling the cheapskates who’ve not heard of TANSTAAFL^[1] in the Minnesota Legislature to continue to “hold taxes down” in a penny-wise, future-foolish manner? Does bridging the gap I presume exists through these informal, non-guaranteed way really make do, or are we doing unforeseen damage to an educational system already under attack by conservative forces which have convinced themselves that teachers’ unions and secular education are the Devil’s tools, rather than the light and the way to a brighter future.

Or, if I with hold a donation, am I condemning children to an inferior education?

¹TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

Over the weekend, WaPo reported the removal of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance was reportedly due as much to his criticisms of President Trump as for the activities of a fired aide:

[An unnamed] White House official acknowledged that the step against Brennan had been prepared in late July, when Sanders first said Trump was considering it. But the decision to take that step was made this week to divert attention from nonstop coverage of a critical book released by fired Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.

Consideration is being given to holding other prepared documents in reserve for similar opportunities in the future, the official said.

Deliciously, retired Navy Admiral McRaven wanted in to Director Brennan’s club:

I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.

As more wannabe members want to join the club, I can’t help but suggest a template for their letters:

Dear President Trump,

    Thank you for qualifying me for the finest club in the land. CIA Director Brennan has sent me a warm welcoming letter, which I have framed. You have truly made today a high point of my life.

    And now, back to the controversy du jour, wherein I haven’t the least doubt that your incompetent Presidency will be sunk by the rocks on which it finds itself.

Sincere regards, XYZ, latest member of the Patriot Club.

It’d at least tick him off.

Atelier:

noun, plural at·el·iers [at-l-yeyz, at-l-yeyz; French atuh–lyey] /ˈæt lˌyeɪz, ˌæt lˈyeɪz; French atəˈlyeɪ/.

1. a workshop or studio, especially of an artist, artisan, or designer. [Dictionary.com]

Noted in the movie McQueen (2018), wherein one of the tailors is noted to run an atelier.

This is your brain on narcotics.

The theme of Mutant Hunt (1987) is probably We wanted to make a movie showing off our skills! From Mr. Cleft Chin to Mr. Martial Artist to the ladies who also did a bit of kicking, each gets to show off in this clumsy movie about a genetic engineer who discovers that adding a contaminated narcotic to the hydraulics of cyborgs results in vastly increased strength and a desire to commit murder of humans – which apparently makes them mutants. From the awful synthesizer music to the terrible stage combat skills, this was a colossal waste of time and effort. OK, I liked the cyborgs during their meltdown phase.

But it’s a bit of a shame. Somewhere in this swamp, some sort of theme concerning the cyborgs, such as their resemblance to slavery and what that says about those who use cyborgs, might have been found and worked out.

But that didn’t happen.

Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!

In case you were wondering if only the United States experiences religious-based cultural wars, look no further than Egypt and the decision of a former actress who had decided to give up her career and wear the hijab has now reversed her decision. From AL Monitor:

… [Retired Egyptian actress Hala] Shiha created new Twitter and Instagram accounts, posting pictures of herself without the veil. In one caption, she tweeted “strong independent woman from the beginning.” Within hours of its creation, the Twitter account had gained thousands of followers, according to the BBC, but it was suspended by Shiha shortly afterward, when the pictures drew mixed reactions from supporters and critics. Liberals hailed Shiha’s decision to take off her veil while ultra-conservatives decried the move, exhorting her to reconsider her stance.

“We applaud her; hopefully other women will follow,” cheered an Alexandria resident on Twitter.

A critic, meanwhile, rebuked Shiha in a demeaning tweet on Aug. 10: “Who cares about an ‘uncovered apple’ except flies?”

Not only has Shiha been lambasted by hard-line critics, she has also been the target of a fierce campaign to pressure her into changing her mind, with some even offering cash.

“I’ll pay you 300,000 Egyptian pounds [$16,727] if you keep your veil on,” offered one Twitter user who claims to be a Saudi banker, on Aug. 10.

Osama Gaweesh, a London-based TV presenter with the privately owned Mekameleen Channel, which is often critical of Egyptian government policies, tweeted Aug. 8 that removing the headscarf was “a personal choice.” Nevertheless, he chided those hailing Shiha’s move as “stepping out of the abyss of darkness” and “a slap in the face of the Muslim Brotherhood,” warning that such rhetoric is “purely racist and a form of hate speech against all veiled women.”

The tug of war over culture is a universal phenomenon.

An outfit from Highland Rape.

The biography of late fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen in McQueen (2018) speaks to one man’s obsession for telling stories, vignettes if you will, with fashion as a central element of that story. That obsession is perhaps not called out as such, but as we saw runway couture show after runway couture show, up to fourteen a year in his own words, it was clear that these were stories with subplots, each model striding down the catwalk embodying an element of the story McQueen strove to tell without words. An example was his Highland Rape show that drew on his Scottish heritage, speaking to the English invasion of Scotland and the butchery of the Highland Clans. This was not a show to attract consumers to any specific item of clothing; it was, at least as presented, an ephemeral memorial to the victims of a long-ago and savage war of conquest.

As his shows evolved, the traditional runway changed to support his evolving notions of  narrative, a literal mutation of the medium itself, as he looked for ways to tell his stories more clearly. His presentations mirrored changes in his own life. Beginning as a lad from humble origins who happened to have a literal single-minded obsession with designing clothes, his obsession took him to the heights of Chief Designer at Givenchy and, later, Creative Director at Gucci. During the early parts of this journey, he appeared to be a humble, happy-go-lucky type, but as the pressures of his work molded him, his response wasn’t necessarily positive. The biography suggests he became somewhat abrasive and sometimes unwilling to share the results of his good fortune. Yet his team remained loyal, even during his unreasonable periods, suggesting that his personal genius and charisma remained constant.

But the curse of the truly single-minded is the instability of their lives; in McQueen’s case, possibly aggravated by sexual abuse when he was young. Such obsessions are often fueled by the positive feedback one receives, and I have to wonder if that blinded him to building the necessary supporting structure of his life. This is brought briefly into focus by McQueen himself in an informal interview, where he seems to express unease concerning his future, summoning the ennui many folks feel when it comes to understanding one’s place in the Universe. I know little of the fashion industry and how it affects those shooting stars working in it, but it strikes me that the end-point for a star designer within the industry is not necessarily a pleasant ending in a chair of dignified achievement.  The essence of fashion, even for a trail-blazing story-teller such as McQueen, seems to be analogous to the old phrase Flavor Of The Month. Granted, he lasted nearly two decades, but the journey appears to have been draining, even if he was highly respected.

The difficulty of his journey was, indeed, exemplified by his death. It’s not enough to note that he died of suicide, for, in my view, absent an underlying biological terminal condition, that is in itself a positive act that requires explanation. The darkness at the end of his life began earlier, as one of his team confides to the audience that McQueen spoke of committing a very public suicide: at the end of one of his shows, he’d make the traditional appearance to acknowledge the applause, and the put a gun in his mouth and end it. This suggests a deadly entanglement with the possibly pathological elements of the industry.

But he did not go out an as an accusatory finger pointing at his industry, but silently and alone.

The first deadly blow was the death of his mentor, stylist Isabella Blow, who died of suicide motivated by terminal cancer. She had bought the entire collection he constructed for his graduation from fashion school and became an important influence in his life. Already profoundly shaken by her death, the death of his mother soon followed, causing his support structure to crumble. His family had always been important to him, always attending his shows; they, in turn, often provided snacks for cast and crew. That he and his family were close is not, I think, in doubt.

At this juncture, his story is obscure, as tales of sudden death often are. I speculate, coming from some analogous observations from within the previous generation of my family, that the death of his mother, for him, presaged the ultimate and inevitable dissolution of the family. That is, the structure in his life had crumbled, and that, in combination with some hints that his own health was unstable, may have given the less stable portions of his mind dominance and ultimately led to his own decision to take his life. It was a fast decision, for he was dead before his mother was buried.

This is a movie rife with beautiful images, yet many are internally contradictory. Throughout the film, we see the motif of a damaged skull, beautifully gilded with gold, often with something equally lovely associating with it, such as a butterfly. In current Western culture, the skull symbolizes death, while gold is commonly associated with wealth and all the positive facets that go with wealth. Photographed luminously, that skull dominates a movie about a a genius fashion designer who nearly always appears in the most informal of aspects: jeans and sneakers and shirt half-tucked, goofy grin and Cockney accent. Maybe the silent, withdrawn, stereotypical genius was there, but I didn’t see it; just looking at him, I’d expect maybe he drove a truck for a living, or worked at the gas station.

Appearance vs. reality; the meat of high fashion.

Don’t go to this expecting to see a complete biography, for this is a depiction of his stories and himself, and how they were at the core of himself. There’s little mention of any mundane consumer work he might have done, for instance, and I see in other sources that he was also an avid scuba diver, a fact not mentioned in this movie. I don’t know what else is omitted, but I suspect that it’s just as well. This is a biography about a story-teller telling his own story in the only way he knew how.

Recommended.

Comity:

1. a : friendly social atmosphere : social harmony • group activities promoting comity • bipartisan comity in the Senate
   b : a loose widespread community based on common social institutions • the comity of civilization
   c : comity of nations • trans-Atlantic comity
   d : the informal and voluntary recognition by courts of one jurisdiction of the laws and judicial decisions of another
2. : avoidance of proselytizing members of another religious denomination [Merriam-Webster]

I tried to use the word comity while speaking to my Arts Editor yesterday, and we discovered that neither of us have a precise notion of its meaning.

Returning to a dormant thread, I can remember 20 years ago, when climate researchers speculated that the Gulf Current might be weakened by climate change, and, if that happened, it could have dire consequences for Europe. So perhaps this article by Michael Marshall in NewScientist (4 August 2018, paywall) shouldn’t come as a surprise:

THE northern hemisphere is roasting. Greece is battling lethal wildfires, and even the UK’s weather has been so hot and dry that record-breaking fires have broken out in its usually damp climes. In Oman on the Arabian peninsula, thermometers registered the hottest night on record anywhere on Earth on 28 June: the temperature never fell below 42.6°C.

Climatologists have been quick to point out that extremes are to be expected in a warming world. But there may be more to it than that. The ongoing European heatwave may have been made worse by a consequence of climate change rearing its head after decades of Cassandra-like warnings. For more than a century, the oceans have been changing right under our noses, as a powerful Atlantic current has weakened. The result, it seems increasingly likely, is more extremes of both heat and cold on both sides of the Atlantic – and the prospect of even more dramatic switches to come.

The object of concern is the Atlantic ocean conveyor belt, also known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation or AMOC. It is part of a global network of currents that push all the water in the oceans up and down the length, breadth and depth of the various interconnected basins. From the tropical Atlantic off the coast of South America, warm surface water flows north towards Greenland and western Europe, bringing with it an uncharacteristically warm climate, carried by the Gulf Stream.

And there’s more, much more. But the real point is that, yes, the predictions of climate change are being fulfilled. Humanity’s made some efforts, but they haven’t exactly been whole-hearted, have they? Speaking of, what are the latest measurements at the NOAA Mauna Loa CO₂ measurement site?

Well, I suspect Nature’s going to be making its own corrections for us. I hope they’re not too painful.