Thanks especially for Wendell Berry. I had a patient who was dying of cancer who loved and memorised Berry's poems and relied on them to help carry her.
Wendell Berry and I were born in the same year. Yes, I am that old and completely surprised that I outlasted Berry. I've long admired his poetry, but my favorite poem of his remains the two liner, "Seventy Years".
Wendell Berry was in the air we breathed and the water we drank and bathed in and splashed through. He was in the oceans and the lakes and the streams and the branches. He was most definitely in the land we lived in and on, he was in the mountains and the forests and the woods and the copses. He was in the prairies and the fields, the gardens and the parks. He was in the trees and the flowers, the weeds and the fungi. But the place he was the most was in the soil, the very dirt beneath our feet, the gravel, sand, silt and clay that holds us up and grows our crops and in the end welcomes us home. "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust."
But there is still another place he inhabited, he lived in our community, our conviviality. He was in the welcoming of strangers to our table for joyous feasting and intense conversation with rapt attention about diverse subjects. He was in the acceptance of varying viewpoints and beliefs with vigorous debate. He was in the reliance upon and support of our neighbors and their reliance on and support of us, not despite of, but because of, our differences. He was in the skepticism of technologies and organizations that seek to divide us or anonymize us. He was in the direct, face to face scale of community.
He was in everything that is under attack in our country and has been since the beginning and will be until the end.
Standing is one of the means by which it arbitrarily and capriciously keeps cases and parties out of court. (Note to the legal profession: The terms arbitrarily and capriciously were used deliberately.)
So, if Donny decides to run in 2028 and someone seeks to have 22A applied to block him, the Roberts junta will likely find that no one has standing. Maybe another candidate. Maybe.
Then again, as I occasionally say, nearly no Democrat runs as strongly against Donny as himself. For the past year, he likely made his entire party repellant. (Yes, I know, 2024. But that’s complicated.)
As for Comey, well, he got himself a lot of bad karma in 2016. I’d like to think this will all end well for him (as we all suffer from what he did) but the journey will be rough.
The little that one is able to read in front of the paywall in the Atlantic article about ex-SecArmy Dan Driscoll's meeting with trump shortly before resigning indicated that trump "showed surprise" at the number of sackings of top Army officers by Kegsbreath...which is curious, as these actions have been reported for months, but apparently the "human printer" deemed such news articles beneath trump's attention, and he never was made aware of the purges until Driscoll told him point-blank.
Thanks especially for Wendell Berry. I had a patient who was dying of cancer who loved and memorised Berry's poems and relied on them to help carry her.
Wendell Berry and I were born in the same year. Yes, I am that old and completely surprised that I outlasted Berry. I've long admired his poetry, but my favorite poem of his remains the two liner, "Seventy Years".
"Well, anyhow, I am
Not going to die young."
Wendell Berry was in the air we breathed and the water we drank and bathed in and splashed through. He was in the oceans and the lakes and the streams and the branches. He was most definitely in the land we lived in and on, he was in the mountains and the forests and the woods and the copses. He was in the prairies and the fields, the gardens and the parks. He was in the trees and the flowers, the weeds and the fungi. But the place he was the most was in the soil, the very dirt beneath our feet, the gravel, sand, silt and clay that holds us up and grows our crops and in the end welcomes us home. "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust."
But there is still another place he inhabited, he lived in our community, our conviviality. He was in the welcoming of strangers to our table for joyous feasting and intense conversation with rapt attention about diverse subjects. He was in the acceptance of varying viewpoints and beliefs with vigorous debate. He was in the reliance upon and support of our neighbors and their reliance on and support of us, not despite of, but because of, our differences. He was in the skepticism of technologies and organizations that seek to divide us or anonymize us. He was in the direct, face to face scale of community.
He was in everything that is under attack in our country and has been since the beginning and will be until the end.
Thank you for your work, it is vital in these times.
Re the Roberts junta and the ballroom:
Standing is one of the means by which it arbitrarily and capriciously keeps cases and parties out of court. (Note to the legal profession: The terms arbitrarily and capriciously were used deliberately.)
So, if Donny decides to run in 2028 and someone seeks to have 22A applied to block him, the Roberts junta will likely find that no one has standing. Maybe another candidate. Maybe.
Then again, as I occasionally say, nearly no Democrat runs as strongly against Donny as himself. For the past year, he likely made his entire party repellant. (Yes, I know, 2024. But that’s complicated.)
As for Comey, well, he got himself a lot of bad karma in 2016. I’d like to think this will all end well for him (as we all suffer from what he did) but the journey will be rough.
The little that one is able to read in front of the paywall in the Atlantic article about ex-SecArmy Dan Driscoll's meeting with trump shortly before resigning indicated that trump "showed surprise" at the number of sackings of top Army officers by Kegsbreath...which is curious, as these actions have been reported for months, but apparently the "human printer" deemed such news articles beneath trump's attention, and he never was made aware of the purges until Driscoll told him point-blank.
"Natalie, why didn't I see those reports?"
Thanks again for all your introductions to people and music I have not known!