Monday Morning Smile

 

Tom on the Washington Follies

 So Speaker McCathy has been toppled and the problem is now one of who will replace him.  McCarthy's overthrow is no great loss.  He was  a weak Speaker who played a weak hand in a weak manner.  His words and promises couldn't be trusted.  He lied to members of his own caucus and he lied to the Democrats. In an institution based upon personal relationships, a liar is soon marginalized. 

The House can't properly function without a Speaker, and the Republican caucus is deeply conflicted. Because they are conflicted, they've decided to take the week off and contemplate the mockery that they've made of the US in the eyes of the world, not that any of them care too much.  As many of them see it, their job is to obstruct.  And to raise money.  And to build their brand. 

Some 'moderate' Republicans. (moderate only when compared to the 8 nihilists in the GOP caucus when consigned McCarthy's speakership to the swill bucket).   At this point, nothing that happens would surprise me.  While there are 20 or so members of the intransigent right, who have been behind much of the recent discord in the party, there are also 18 current GOP reps who were elected from districts that went for  Mr. Biden in the 2020 presidential race, who are fearing an early political death, who might be interested in voting with the Democrats for the purpose of organizing the House. 

Matt Gaetz, (theme song: "Sweet 16", by Neil Sedaka), has pissed off enough of these moderate and at-risk Republicans that he's in danger of being expelled from the Republican Caucus. Mr. Gaetz is wildly unpopular, even among the GOP caucus. 

The Republican caucus reminds me of the old Irish tale about the Kilkenny cats, who battled each other so fiercely that all that was left over when all was said and done were a couple of tails.  If I had to guess, I'd guess that Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise will emerge as Speaker and Jiim Jordan has tossed his hat into the ring.  Some people believe that the Democrats were the big winners as a result of this week's chaos, but the truth is that there were no winners. The American people are the big losers.

In the meantime, since we're speaking of losers, the judge in the fraud trial involving Donald Trump has apparently had enough of Donald Trump's shenanigans.  Yesterday, the judge imposed a gag order on Trump for referring to his clerk, a woman named Meg Greenfield, as "Chuck Shumer's Girlfriend" in a TruthSocial post that included that caption along with a photo of the two together. 

The fact that a picture of Sen Schumer and Ms. Greenfield exists is unremarkable, since politicians are forever having folks they've never met ask to have their pictures taken with The Great Man, (or woman).  Sometimes people pay actual cash money for the opportunity to be photographed with a prominent solon.  The politician gets cash, which is the "...mother's milk of politics...", and the supplicant gets a picture to hang on their office wall.  This gives the supplicant the opportunity to kickstart a conversation with the line: "When I was talking to my old friend Chuck the other day [(pointing to a clearly dated photo of Sen. Shumer)...". 

I'd rather have my picture taken with a crack whore or a drag queen, for that would make for a far more interesting anecdote. But I digress. 

The judge ordered all parties to refrain from commenting on any member of his staff, and promised sanctions if his order is violated. 

These events show how stupid Mr. Trump is, because it's this very same judge who will rule on the remaining facts in dispute, and assess damages at the end of the day..  His indulgence of his personal resentments could end up costing him tens of millions of dollars in fines and damages and cost him control of his New York properties. 

Every judge in every jurisdiction in the country, from a traffic court in Upstate New York, to the hallowed chambers of SCOTUS, is the king or queen of their domain and like all monarchs, they do not take kindly to being disrespected.  As the Red Queen said in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland":  "Off with their heads" .  

Apropos of nothing, I should have attributed the quotation: "Money is the mother's milk of politics", to the late Speaker of the California State Assembly Jesse, (Big Daddy), Unruh.  My favorite 'Unruhism' is his comment on lobbyists: "If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women, and then vote against them, you've got no business being up here...".  Such candor is refreshing, if nothing else:)

Tom on Autumn in New England

 One of the things most associated with Autumn are apples  and apples are representative of this time of year,not just because apples and autumn began with the same letter. Some say the ubiquitous Pumpkin Lattes that are the butt of so many jokes and snarky comments, (including some made by yours truly), are more representative of the season than apples.  But these are the same people who believe that the world began at the moment of their birth.  Happily, most of us know better...

 Fall is when families take their young children to local orchids where they can gather a bushel or a peck of the majestic fruit.  Apples often find their way into children's Halloween bags and wise moms and grandmas gather them and put them aside for fall snacks and tasty baked goods.  I recall one afternoon when my wife and a co-worker named Linda Frost spent an afternoon re-creating a recipe for an apple bread with a streusel topping.  As I recall, the recipe was one that was in Linda's grandmother's repertoire and was, like many such recipes, not written down, and died when she did.  So the ladies spent the afternoon playing cook while Ben and I took a long walk outdoors, because Autumn is the best time for walking.  The quest for the classic apple bread turned out to be a resounding success.  Either Diane or I would. make it several times each fall.  A warm slice of the stuff, slathered with butter was a treat beyond compare.  I still have a copy of the recipe, but it's in the small cabinet above my icebox, a place that I found easily accessible until I lost my feet

Apples are only a part of Autumn's particular charms.  High school football games on  crisp Friday evenings sometimes engage entire communities, especially in the small towns of the South and the Midwest. Many of the town's adults either played in such important games in their own salad days, or were the willowy girls who cheered them on with the grace and athleticism every bit as impressive as that exhibited by the young gladiators on the playing field. Sometimes you can pick them out because they still have their varsity jackets.  Now they watch their own children and grandchildren reprising their roles from so many years ago, and they are well pleased.

Another Autumn ritual is the hayride.  A trailer heaped with hay is pulled along a country lane behind an ancient tractor or, if you're lucky, a team of actual horses who provide the characteristic aroma of horse that makes the experience so memorable.  The hay helps battle the October chill, and some of the bolder lads will steal a kiss from a red cheeked classmate who has manipulated the situation to that the feckless lad believes that the idea of the kiss was his all along, but the fresh-kissed lass knows better...and so do her girlfriends. . Sometimes a seasonal party would follow, and the kids would drink cider and bob for apples.   Those were simpler times, and some would say that they were better times...

  A historical footnote.  I happen to share my surname with American Apple missionary John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed.  Legend depicts him as something of an eccentric who spread apple seeds hither or yon from a sack worn over his shoulder, like some biblical farmer.  In fact, Chapman didn't randomly sow apple seeds: he actually established apple orchards and fenced them in before leaving those orchards in the care of local nurserymen and farmers.  Sometimes he'd actually buy the land that has orchards sat on.  He operated in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, as well as the Canadian  Province of Ontario.  You could call him something of a conservationist, but I prefer to think of him as a simple nurseryman.

Tom on Israel

   Today, we are all Jewish, for Judaism represents the light of civilization, while Hamas and its international apologists and enablers represent the forces of evil in its most fundamental form.  

The Israelis seem to be intent on taking their revenge on the nest of vipers that is Gaza, and who can blame them?  While everybody knows that the average Gazan is innocent of taking up arms against Israel and her citizens, most have been infected with the virus of hate that their masters in Hamas have inculcated in them.  They cheer when Israeli blood is shed, they dance when they take the life of a beloved bubbie or a child too young to speak. They demand warning before Israeli forces take action against them, yet slaughter residents of the  kibbutzim in their beds.  Should we shed crocodile tears when the bell tolls for them?  I think not.

Now Israel is imposing a siege on Gaza and the usual subjects shout slogans like: "Collective punishment", "Apartheid", and "proportionate response", yet they blame every Jew, be thay from America or France, or one of the many places where the Jews of the diaspora have found themselves, for the depredations of settler youth in the West Bank.  Is that not collective blame?

Tom on the Middle East

 I fell asleep for a nap last evening to a normal world, well, as normal as the world ever seems these days), and awakened a couple of hours later to a conflagration in the always fraught Middle East.  It seems that the forces affiliated with the militant group, Hamas, have initiated hostilities against the State of Israel.  While this is far from the first time that the two entities have crossed swords, the scope and effrontery of the current Hamas offensive is reminiscent of past conflicts like the so-called "6 Day War", in 1967, or the "Yom Kippur War", in 1973.  The current conflict has a couple of things in common with the Yom Kippur war, notably the fact that Israel seems to have been caught by surprise, and the fact that today'a assault is taking place on the last day of Sukkot and will certainly continue into Simchat Torah.  There will be no dancing in Israel tonight, although I suspect that the dancing among the diaspora will take on a defiant tone.

There will be condemnation from those who believe that Israel has no right to defend herself, unlike the case for any other nation on earth.  Nations always have the right to resist hostilities from outside their borders, but there are some who would deny Israel, alone among nations, the same right to self-defense that every other nation enjoys.  

Some have pointed to recent tensions between the Government of Binyamin Netenyahu and his Haredi supporters, and the secular Israelis who make up a large proportion of the Israeli population as providing cover for today's events.  All families squabble, but when faced with an existential threat they come together and exclaim "Never Again '', their differences forgotten.  Were our own United States similarly threatened today, I'm certain the Republicans and Democrats would stand together against our common foe, points of contention forgotten for the moment, resolute in our determination to repel our common foe.

The elephant in the room in this matter is the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Hamas is incapable of mounting such a sophisticated offensive by themselves.  It's often been said of the Palestinians that they have an almost preternatural ability to "...snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...".  The discipline evident among today's assailants is not commonly associated with the Palestinians, as is the training so clearly a part of today's offensive. 

The fear among observers is that Hezbollah will invade Israel  from their strongholds in South Lebanon.  The possibility that this is the opening salvo between Israel and its would be allies in the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and Iran and its many proxies on the otherr One can never really know these things will evolve....

The thing that troubles me is that the fingerprints of Russia and Iran are all over today's events, and while these links will be important roles in the intermediate term, Israel must gather it's courage and proclaim, as Cato the Elder proclaimed at the onset of the Third Punic War, (149-146 BCE): "Carthago delenda est", or: ' Carthage must be destroyed'.  Hamas must be destroyed, and destroyed in such a way that Israel's enemies take notice.  This fire needs to be damped before it turns into a wider regional conflagration and the only way to do that is to make the price of moving against Israel prohibitive. 

Monday Morning Smile

 

Tom on Poitical Shenanigans

  The foolishness in the House of Representatives continues, with no end in sight.  The Speaker's chair is vacant and the two leading contenders to replace the hapless Kevin McCarthy are Jim Jordan, the current chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who once described himself as like: "...David Duke, but without the baggage...".  David Duke is an avowed racist who once served as the Grand Wizard of the notorious Ku Klux Klan and unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Louisiana.  Back in the early 200s, Scalise was a featured speaker before a White Supremacist group headed by Mr. Duke.  He later claimed that he had no idea that Mr. Duke was actually the repulsive character that everyone knew him to be, which makes him, perhaps, as either the stupidest man in congress or the biggest liar.  No other explanation makes sense.   I knew who David Duke was and what he stood for, and I've never been within 1,500 miles of Louisiana.  

Mr. Scalise's opponent for the Speaker's gavel is the aforementioned Rep. Jordan.  Mr. Jordan is a bomb thrower and provocateur who specializes in pointless and unfounded 'investigations' of his Democratic enemies, such as the notorious Benghazi 'investigation' of then Sec. of State Clinton, as well as the  endless investigation into the affairs of Hunter Biden, (5 years and counting, including 2 years under the Trump Administration), as well as the nascent investigation into Mr. Biden himself. The man is a walking punchline, so it should come as no great surprise that Mr. Trump endorsed Rep. Jordan at 12:13 this morning.   While I find Mr. Scalise deplorable, at least he has the virtue of being an institutionalist, which is what the House needs at present.  

Meanwhile, I think that none of the current Republican candidates for President, with the notable exception of former NJ Gov. Chris Christie, has condemned Mr. Trump's veiled death threats against newly retired Joint Chief Chair, Gen. Mark Milley.  Admittedly, Mr Trump didn't make these threats directly, but he let it be known that Gen. Milley's execution would be a good thing, and some of Mr. Trump's more unhinged supporters are always alert for secret instructions from 'The Boss'.  If you think I'm making this stuff up, just consider the number of Jan. 6 insurrectionists who testified that they believed that they were following the Orange One's orders when they defecated in the hallowed halls of the nation's capital.  

And what of the ABC news report about Mr. Trump revealing secret information about the operation of America's nuclear submarine force to an Australian billionaire, who then shared this sensitive information with a few dozen other people, many of them foreign nationals. All because he wants to play the role of the 'Big Man' .

I've got to close this before my freaking head blows right off my shoulders.  I've followed politics closely for 60 years, (Jesus, am I really that old?), and I'm familiar with the broad arc of American history as it relates to political tomfoolery, and I've never seen anything like the clown show that the current House Republicans are putting on.

Tom on Autumn and Boston Memories

 I don't know where that came from, but I recognize the reference.  "Nuf Ced" was a saying coined by Boston bar owner Michael, (Nuf Ced), McGreevy'. He ran an establishment called the 'Third Base Saloon', because third base was "...the last stop before home...".  McGreevy was a rabid fan of the Boston Americans baseball team, (now the woeful Boston Red Sox), and because the Third Base Saloon was Boston's first sports bar, fans of the crosstown Boston Braves, (now the Powerful Atlanta Braves), would often make an appearance.  Sometimes arguments about the drinker's respective teams would break out, and when McGreevey thought that things were in danger of getting out of hand, he'd shout "Nuf Ced", hence the name.

McGreevy was one of those characters that define cities.  He was the founder of the 'Royal Rooters', a club made up of rabid Boston Americans fans, whose theme song was "Tessie", later covered by the Punk Band "Dropkick Murphys' '.  McGreevy accumulated a trove of memorabilia and ephemera over the years, and when Prohibition finally shuttered the Third Base Saloon in 1918, McGreevy donated the collection to the Boston Public Library, where it exists to this day/  

One of the things most associated with Autumn are apples  and apples are representative of this time of year,not just because apples and autumn began with the same letter. Some say the ubiquitous Pumpkin Lattes that are the butt of so many jokes and snarky comments, (including some made by yours truly), are more representative of the season than apples.  But these are the same people who believe that the world began at the moment of their birth.  Happily, most of us know better...

 Fall is when families take their young children to local orchids where they can gather a bushel or a peck of the majestic fruit.  Apples often find their way into children's Halloween bags and wise moms and grandmas gather them and put them aside for fall snacks and tasty baked goods.  I recall one afternoon when my wife and a co-worker named Linda Frost spent an afternoon re-creating a recipe for an apple bread with a streusel topping.  As I recall, the recipe was one that was in Linda's grandmother's repertoire and was, like many such recipes, not written down, and died when she did.  So the ladies spent the afternoon playing cook while Ben and I took a long walk outdoors, because Autumn is the best time for walking.  The quest for the classic apple bread turned out to be a resounding success.  Either Diane or I would. make it several times each fall.  A warm slice of the stuff, slathered with butter was a treat beyond compare.  I still have a copy of the recipe, but it's in the small cabinet above my icebox, a place that I found easily accessible until I lost my feet

Apples are only a part of Autumn's particular charms.  High school football games on  crisp Friday evenings sometimes engage entire communities, especially in the small towns of the South and the Midwest. Many of the town's adults either played in such important games in their own salad days, or were the willowy girls who cheered them on with the grace and athleticism every bit as impressive as that exhibited by the young gladiators on the playing field. Sometimes you can pick them out because they still have their varsity jackets.  Now they watch their own children and grandchildren reprising their roles from so many years ago, and they are well pleased.

Another Autumn ritual is the hayride.  A trailer heaped with hay is pulled along a country lane behind an ancient tractor or, if you're lucky, a team of actual horses who provide the characteristic aroma of horse that makes the experience so memorable.  The hay helps battle the October chill, and some of the bolder lads will steal a kiss from a red cheeked classmate who has manipulated the situation to that the feckless lad believes that the idea of the kiss was his all along, but the fresh-kissed lass knows better...and so do her girlfriends. . Sometimes a seasonal party would follow, and the kids would drink cider and bob for apples.   Those were simpler times, and some would say that they were better times...

  A historical footnote.  I happen to share my surname with American Apple missionary John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed.  Legend depicts him as something of an eccentric who spread apple seeds hither or yon from a sack worn over his shoulder, like some biblical farmer.  In fact, Chapman didn't randomly sow apple seeds: he actually established apple orchards and fenced them in before leaving those orchards in the care of local nurserymen and farmers.  Sometimes he'd actually buy the land that has orchards sat on.  He operated in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, as well as the Canadian  Province of Ontario.  You could call him something of a conservationist, but I prefer to think of him as a simple nurseryman.

RIP Russell Batiste Jr.

New Orleans drummer Russell Batiste Jr. died at age 57 on September 30, 2023 at his home in LaPlace, Louisiana.

His brother Damon Batiste said the cause of death was a heart attack.

Batiste was a member of the Funky Meters, Vida Blue, and Papa Grows Funk. He also contributed to many other projects.

He was a member of the Funky Meters for over two decades. He collaborated with many New Orleans musicians, leaving a lasting impact on the community.

Batiste is survived by his wife, children, and grandchildren. He comes from a family of musicians, including his cousin Jon Batiste, who posted a tribute on social media.

The Resiliance of Queen Bess Island

Monday Morning Smile