Good morning everyone! Our Chloris is still off wandering about in the Great Elsewhere on holiday, so I’m sitting in today.
All complaints in writing to the Management, please.
The picture above is of the California Super Bloom in Central California earlier this year. But if you look closely in the center of the picture, there are foreign interlopers in our California landscape. To be more precise, Russian interlopers. More of that anon; first, some news!
Regular Scheduled Programming
[Ruthlessly plundered from Chloris’ column last Friday!]
No one here is naïve; we are aware of the very bad stuff that is happening. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, the chaos, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember:
💚 There are more of us than there are of them.
💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED!
💔 They want us to be demoralized. We have to keep demoralizing them. Name, blame and shame! IT IS WORKING! WE HAVE EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE DEMORALIZED!
💙 The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world.
He’s at it Again…
Trump: The Master of Dead-Catting:
From Politico:
“President Donald Trump on Thursday directed the intelligence community to cooperate with a Justice Department probe into "surveillance activities" during the 2016 presidential election, also granting Attorney General William Barr authority to declassify information related to the investigation into Russian meddling.
Trump "directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election," according to a White House press statement.
“The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information,” the statement said.”
This is another fine example of what is called “dead-catting.”
From the Urban Dictionary:
"Let us suppose you are losing an argument. The facts are overwhelmingly against you, and the more people focus on the reality the worse it is for you and your case. Your best bet in these circumstances is to perform a manoeuvre that a great campaigner describes as 'throwing a dead cat on the table, mate' There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the table ? and I don’t mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point is that everyone will shout, “Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!” In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat ? the thing you want them to talk about ? and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.’" (Boris Johnson, 'This Cap on Bankers’ Bonuses is Like a Dead Cat – Pure Distraction', The Telegraph, March 3, 2013)
Considering Barr’s credibility with the House and Senate these days, and Trump’s credibility with any sane person in this country, this deflection shouldn’t last too long, but will at least let the President leave on his trip to Japan thinking his rear is safe.
It isn’t.
OUCH! That had to sting!
From the Washington Post:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) claimed Thursday that President Trump wants to be impeached and is upset that House Democrats are not rushing in that direction now, as tensions continued to mount between the White House and her party.
“The White House is just crying out for impeachment,” Pelosi said at a news conference. “That’s why he flipped yesterday.” She referred to Trump’s abrupt exit from a White House meeting Wednesday with Democratic leaders on the nation’s infrastructure.
“I think what really got to him was these court cases and the fact that the House Democratic caucus is not on a path to impeachment, and that’s where he wants us to be,” Pelosi said at her news conference.
Further goading Trump, she added, “I wish that his family or his staff or his administration would have an intervention, for the good of the country.”
The Death of a Thousand Paper Cuts Continues:
In the Courts: First DC; Then Next Stop: the Courts of Appeal!
From Lawfareblog:
“On May 20, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued his decision in Trump v. Committee on Oversight and Reform, ruling that President Trump cannot block the committee’s subpoena to Trump’s accountant, Mazars. The judge found that the committee had demonstrated a facially valid legislative purpose for its investigation and the issuance of the subpoena. As of this morning, Trump has already filed his appeal.
The 41-page opinion is lengthy, thorough and detailed, given the relative simplicity of the issues. It was also issued astonishingly swiftly—the complaint was filed on April 22, oral arguments occurred less than a week ago and the record was closed only two days prior to the judge’s ruling. Judge Mehta’s opinion provides a clear rejection of Trump’s arguments that Congress lacks a legitimate legislative purpose—an argument Trump is making across the board in order to reject oversight attempts by House Democrats. The speed of consideration and the content of the opinion could provide a blueprint for similar cases that are already in court or likely will be soon.
It is difficult to predict how quickly the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will move to consider and decide the Mazars case. The legal reasoning in Mehta’s opinion is not surprising and breaks no new ground, so it is difficult to see the appeals court reversing the decision.”
The Appellate Court for the District of Columbia has set an accelerated briefing schedule with oral argument calendared for July.
Next, from New York!
And this from Reuters:
“NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization on Wednesday lost their bid to block Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp from providing financial records to Democratic lawmakers investigating Trump’s businesses.
In a decision read from the bench after hearing arguments, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in New York said Congress has the legal authority to demand the records, clearing the way for the banks to comply with subpoenas issued to them by two U.S. House of Representatives committees last month.
The committees have agreed not to enforce the subpoenas for seven days, the judge said. It was the second time in three days that a judge had ruled against the Republican president in his fight with Democrats and Trump’s lawyers were expected to appeal both decisions.”
And finally, Something Helpful from the I.R.S.!
From Bloomberg:
“A legal memo prepared by the IRS says tax returns must be turned over to Congress if requested, exposing disagreement within the Treasury Department, which has refused to comply with a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s returns, The Washington Post reported.
The memo said that the only way out of complying with the request from House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal is for the president to take the rare step of executive privilege.
The Post said in a report published Tuesday that it could not determine who wrote the memo or who reviewed it. The agency told the Post that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig and current chief counsel Michael Desmond were unfamiliar with it until the Post asked them about it. The Internal Revenue Service also said the memo was never forwarded to Treasury.”
Here’s a riddle on the last one: How can the President claim executive privilege on documents which existed before he became President?
Furthermore, now that the Secretary of the Treasury has been apprised of this valuable info from the IRS, will he obey the law?
Investigations take on a life of their own.
These investigations may dominate the news well into our next election cycle. And Trump will, in all likelihood,lose and lose badly, witness by witness, subpoena by subpoena, and court case by court case.
There is a scent of weakness and despair in the air wafting from the White House enhanced by Trump’s whirling about, and the searchers will grow more emboldened by each success.
Trump’s minions are rapidly coming to a decision point: who wants to go to jail for this guy? I’m not one for predictions, but something, somewhere, is going to break soon.
In short, Trump has had a powerhouse turned on against him!
(The part you might remember starts at 1.12.)
Trump in Japan: Dinner with the Emperor, Sumo Wrestling, and Schmoozing With Shinzo.
From Business Insider:
“US President Donald Trump will award a one-of-a-kind "Trump Cup" to the winner of Japan's Sumo championships during his state visit to Tokyo this weekend.
Trump said he developed a special trophy to give to Sunday's winner. "I've always found that [Sumo] fascinating. So, in fact, we're having a trophy made in this country," he said on April 26.
"We're going to give the trophy to the winner of the championship."
Trump will watch the final three rounds of the tournament at the Ryogoku Kokugikan hall, Tokyo, and then clamber onto the ring, called a Dyojo, to award the winner the custom trophy, the Japanese Sumo Association (JSA) told Reuters.
The president will, however, break Japanese custom by watching the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament from a chair instead of sitting on the floor on a traditional cushion.
Trump will be the first foreign Head of State to personally visit the Emperor Naruhito following his accession to the throne. Trump will also hold talks with Prime Minister Abe on trade, and visit the new Japanese helicopter carrier Kaga.
Interesting Polling Data!
From the Hill:
“President Trump faces a steep uphill climb to a second term, even if it’s far too early to count him out.
In four separate polls over the past month, more than 50 percent of respondents said they would not vote for him again or were unlikely to do so. The percentage who said they would vote for him never rose higher than 38.
The most recent of those polls, from Fox News, found 54 percent of respondents saying they would probably not or definitely not vote for Trump.
In a Quinnipiac University Poll, 52 percent of respondents said they would definitely not vote for the president, while 33 percent said they definitely would. Only 13 percent were in the middle ground, saying they would “consider” backing Trump.
It will be hard to overcome negative perceptions of the president that look to have become fixed. Some of the voters who backed Trump as an anti-establishment disruptor in 2016 appear to have peeled away.
538 currently reports the President at a 41.2% approval rating, while Real Clear Politics puts him at a 42.9% approval. Trump has never had an approval rating higher than 47%, and that was at the very beginning of his term in 2017.
While polls are a a useful snapshot of where we are at this precise moment in time, Trump’s appeal among Americans seems to be right up there with serving a steaming bowlful of boiled weasels for breakfast.
Classic Art Appreciation Time:
One of my favorite books growing up was “The Wind in the Willows.”
The copy I had was the 1960 edition, illustrated by Ernest Shepard in about 1933, and my favorite illustration of all was from the chapter “The Return of Ulysses,” where the Badger, the Water Rat, the Mole and the Toad took Toad Hall back from the weasels and stoats.
It’s also illustrative of what we can do in 2020 to keep the House, clear the Senate, and evict the current tenant of the White House.
I particularly like the reaction of the usurpers.
We are now 530 days from the General Election on November 3, 2020.
And now, the lighter side of the News!
Beer Monks!
From the Guardian:
“It has taken more than 220 years but an order of monks at Grimbergen Abbey, producers of a fabled medieval beer whose brand was adopted by mass producers in the 1950s, have started to brew again after rediscovering the original ingredients and methods in their archives.
Uncasking the first glass, Stautemas said the development was the culmination of four years of research into the methods of monks that brewed beer in the Norbertine monastery before it was burned down by French revolutionaries in 1798. The monastery was later reinstated but the brewery and its recipes were thought to be lost.
“We had the books with the old recipes, but nobody could read them,” Stautemas said. “It was all in old Latin and old Dutch. So we brought in volunteers. We’ve spent hours leafing through the books and have discovered ingredient lists for beers brewed in previous centuries, the hops used, the types of barrels and bottles, and even a list of the actual beers produced centuries ago.”
The Grimbergen monastery was founded in 1128 but burned down three times in all, giving it its symbol of a phoenix and the motto ardet nec consumitur – burned but not destroyed.”
This beer, by the way, is 10.8% alcohol by volume. By way of contrast, Budweiser has an alcohol content of about 5%. Go easy!
Nixon, 1, Trump, 0.
To date, President Trump has not attempted to alter the uniforms of the White House Guards. President Nixon re-designed their uniforms in 1970, but public derision soon had the new uniforms discarded and forgotten.
Largest Plastic Whale Ever!
From United Press International:
May 21 (UPI) -- A life-size whale sculpture, located at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in San Francisco, has been deemed the largest recycled plastic sculpture by Guinness World Records.
The sculpture, which was made to highlight the issue of ocean pollution and the amount of plastic that gets dumped into the sea, is made up of recycled materials such as plastic bottles, re-used toys and milk jugs, among other items.
The whale has measurements of 84 feet, 11.6 inches long; 26 feet, 5.8 inches wide and reaches a height of 13 feet, 9.6 inches tall.
Local artists Joel Dean Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova designed the whale and attempted to make it as life-like as possible. Guinness World Records released a video on YouTube of the whale's construction and the process of using recycled plastic.
"Every nine minutes 300,000 pounds of plastic-- the weight of a blue whale -- makes its way into the ocean," an aquarium spokesperson said.
"To draw attention to this enormous problem, we built this life-sized installation to get the word out and educate people. It allows people to interact with the sculpture and experience the issue to scale."
Here’s a video!
Today in History!
1543: Nicolaus Copernicus publishes proof of a heliocentric (sun-centered) solar system. This is still disputed in certain parts of the United States.
1607: Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers found the colony of Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the coast of Virginia. First undocumented English aliens in North America.
Local authorities do nothing to stop the influx.
1764: Boston lawyer James Otis denounces "taxation without representation," in the Massachusetts Bay Assembly, calling for the colonies to unite in opposition to Britain's new tax measures. Otis was later killed by a lightning bolt while standing on his front porch during a thunderstorm. He called down the lightning twice.
1816: Emanuel Leutze born. He painted Washington Crossing the Delaware.
1844: Samuel Morse taps out the first telegraph message from Washington, DC to Baltimore. The message was “What hath God Wrought.” Receiver in Baltimore thinks “Where did I leave the code book?”
1883: The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. Has been sold to various people ever since.
1930: Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, flying 11,000 miles from May 5th to May 24th.
1941: The British battlecruiser HMS Hood is sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. There are only three survivors. The Bismarck will be sunk by the Royal Navy on May 27th.
1941: Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, artist, writer, and producer; Nobel Prize laureate born.
1951: Racial segregation in Washington D.C. restaurants ruled illegal.
1961: American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
1976: 1st commercial SST flight to North America (Concorde to Washington D.C.).
2011: The Tokyo Electric Power Company claims three Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant reactors partially melted down during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
Sources: Wikipedia, BrainyHistory and HistoryNet.com. Editorial comments are my own.
Uplifting Goat News!
From CBS News:
Two dozen goats arrived Tuesday to start eating their way through New York City's Riverside Park. The goats will spend the next three months clearing a two-acre stretch of overgrown vegetation in the park, gobbling up invasive plants, including poison ivy and mugwort.
Riverside Park Conservancy arranged for the goats to be brought to the park in Manhattan from Green Goats farm, about 100 miles away in Rhinebeck, New York. Goat handler Larry Cihanek was excited about the goats' new project. "The goats actually help bring back a bigger variety of plants," he told CBS News.
They were greeted by dozens of volunteers and community members. Riverside Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that works with the city to support the park, named the event "Goatham" — a play on "Gotham," a word derived from Old English meaning "goat town."
And Finally, Your Tumbleweed Story!
The Russian Thistle, or Salsola Tragus, was introduced by accident into the United States in the 1870s, when a sack of contaminated flax seed imported from Tsarist Russia was opened in South Dakota.
The plant spread rapidly throughout the western United States and is considered an invasive species.
A large tumbleweed can carry up to 200,000 seeds, which spread while the dried weed blows about on the wind. Tumbleweeds also thrive in arid regions which are inhospitable to other types of vegetation.
On April 18, 2018, the city of Victorville, California was the victim of a storm of tumbleweeds which were blown into backyards and piled up against about 100 to 150 houses blocking off access to the homes.
From Wikipedia, that font of useful knowledge!
The tumbleweed's association with the Western film genre has led to a highly symbolic meaning in visual media. It has come to represent locations that are desolate, dry, and often humorless, with few or no occupants. A common use is when characters encounter a long abandoned or dismal-looking place: a tumbleweed will be seen rolling past, often accompanied by the sound of a dry, hollow wind. This is sometimes used for comic effect in locations where tumbleweeds are not expected, but the emptiness is obvious. Tumbleweed blowing between two theatrical characters can also be used to emphasize tension in a western style duel or standoff.
As with the sound of crickets, tumbleweeds can also be shown to emphasize an awkward silence after a bad joke or a character otherwise making an absurd declaration, with the aforementioned sound of wind and the plant rolling past in the background.
During my bucket-list drive across the United States in the fall of 2013, I happened to be heading south on the I-25 on the leg between Cheyenne, Wyoming and Trinidad, Colorado on a pretty windy day in November. The tumbleweeds were out in force. The larger ones caught on the barbed wire fences on either side of the interstate, but the smaller ones scuttled like crabs across the lanes of the road.
I nailed one, and part of a stem traveled with me across New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi until I got the car washed in Daphne, Alabama six days later. The attendant kept it as a curiosity.
It should be noted, however, that the Russian Thistle is not all bad. During the Dust Bowl period in the 1930s, cattlemen saved their livestock by feeding them the weed, which is surprisingly nutritious!
And, in a sense, the tumbleweed is truly symbolic of the United States, an undistinguished arrival taking root and thriving in a new country.
For instance, my father’s side of the family immigrated to America from Ireland in 1881 and settled in Iowa. After the death of my grandfather in Denver in 1936, my grandmother and my father moved to Los Angeles. In 1969, our family moved from LA to the Central Valley, and in 2011 the northern branch of our family moved from California up to Washington State.
To a lesser or greater degree we’re all tumbleweeds.
Here are the Sons of the Pioneers to take us out today— enjoy!
Have a great day and keep a-tumblin’!
“The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.”
― Samuel Johnson
P.S. Yermo Stands!