“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” — Text of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment
For a thought provoking read on this matter, check out Noah Millman’s short essay posted Wednesday.
1.
The University of Arizona is home to the incredible Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (LTRR) which houses the world's largest and most diverse collection of tree-ring specimens. It now has its own building but when I was doing virtual reality photography for the University in another lifetime, the collection was stuffed under the entire west side of the football stadium, under the bleachers. In my role on campus, I photographed most of the collection, which was quite overwhelming and awesome.
Now the collection is housed in the dedicated Tree-Ring Archive Building adjoining the Bryant Bannister Tree-Ring Building. The repository has two environmentally controlled floors containing 4.4km of shelving as well as a separate curation work area. The repository is the only federally recognized facility for the storage of tree-ring specimens, and contains many samples from federally protected lands.
I give you this background as the Washington Post published an article this week discussing the unprecedented heat of 2023 and how it’s been tracked and etched into a tree known as Bigelow 224. On Mount Bigelow, July temperatures were a stunning 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal. Scorched by relentless heat and parched by a delayed monsoon, it appeared to stop growing midway through the season. The ring for this year is barely a dozen cells wide. It is a silent distress signal sent by one of Earth’s most enduring organisms. A warning written in wood.
“If there’s any lesson to be learned from trees by us, by people, by societies … it’s this. That’s how we’re going to survive. That’s how the trees survive,” said Kiyomi Morino, a tree ring scientist at the University of Arizona. “The power of tree rings … is they have the context of what we’re experiencing now, they can give us some perspective.”
2.
Love those double standards. Hunter Biden has probably committed some semi-shady deals but the guy that’s been hammering his ass, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, loves a shell company as well. According to the AP News, Rep. James Comer, a multimillionaire farmer, boasts of being one of the largest landholders near his rural Kentucky hometown, and he has meticulously documented nearly all of his landholdings on congressional financial disclosure documents – roughly 1,600 acres (645 hectares) in all…The AP found that Farm Team Properties functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens, masking his stake in the land that he co-owns with the donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms. Those records describe Farm Team Properties as his wife’s “land management and real estate speculation” company without providing further details.
It’s not clear why Comer decided to put those six acres in a shell company, or what other assets Farm Team Properties may hold. On his most recent financial disclosure forms, Comer lists its value as being as much as $1 million, a substantial sum but a fraction of his overall wealth.
One other hypocritical stance of note is Gym Jordan threatening to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena when Jordan refused to show up when subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee for a deposition.
3.
Jim Wright, as usual, has written a fine rebuttal to all the polls that scream BIDEN IS LOSING!
Don't listen to the polls, they're trying to manipulate you, trying to make you confidently hopeful so you'll stay home because you believe the job is done, or trying to make you depressed and defeated so you'll stay home because the job isn't worth doing.
Don't listen. Don't listen to the talking heads, their only interest is rage, fear, and anger because that's what sells advertising copy. That's what makes them rich. The more terrible the world, the richer they get, so they have an interest in making the world seem a worse place.
Show up and you'll win. You want a better nation, be a better citizen.
4.
I claim zero expertise of the ongoing conflicts between the Israeli government and various Arab forces, although it’s well known there have been military confrontations beginning in 1948 (Israel’s War of Independence and the Palestinian Nabka), and then again in 1956 (Suez Crisis), 1967 (Six-Day War), 1973 (Yom Kippur War), 1982 (Lebanon War), and 2006 (Second Lebanon War).
And now.
Slavoj Žižek, philosopher, author, and cultural theorist who currently holds academic positions at the University of London, New York University and University of Ljubljana, penned an essay in the New Statesman in October that addresses issues from various angles. A thankless and near impossible task, as both sides have legitimate claims to make.
Jeffrey Sachs also penned an essay in November, A Framework for Peace in Israel and Palestine, that lays out specifics about moving forward and avoiding more bloodshed.
And here in the U.S. we’ve got a problem. Our country has been backing Israel since the Truman administration as both are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests. The U.S. does not ‘recognize’ the State of Palestine, but does recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative entity for the Palestinian people. This week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and discussed their shared commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The Secretary also expressed gratitude for Egypt’s essential role in increasing the volume of humanitarian aid and commercial products reaching Palestinians in Gaza, the release of hostages, and facilitating the safe cross-border exit of U.S. and other foreign nationals via Rafah.
Heather Cox Richardson suggested in one of her Facebook political discussions this week that one of the giant balls the Biden administration is juggling is, if the money train to Israel were to cease, Iran could see it as an opportunity to step in more boldly, as they are supporters of Hamas. A war between Israel and Iran could well pull the U.S. in to action, which has been avoided so far.
Here’s a letter sent to the Office of the President on December 18th by signed by six members of Congress expressing concern over Netanyahu’s military strategy that the civilian death toll is unacceptable and NOT in line with American interests. Make of it what you will.
As usual, a succinct friend of mine in Los Angles penned this on Facebook which seems to get to the heart of the matter: The US is apparently finally starting to question Netanyahu’s strategy of “kill every motherfucker with a pulse” in Gaza. Pretty challenging for any American president to continue to offer unconditional support for our #1 ally in the Middle East when its current leader is an unscrupulous, merciless gangster who has the same regard for civilian casualties as Putin. Show total fealty to Bibi the Hammer, and piss off huge swaths of your own supporters. Show anything less, and our own right wing opportunists will use it to purge “woke” presidents of universities. Israel … the gift that keeps on giving.
5.
We tend to be invisible to most of our younger neighbors who, when attempting to strike up a conversation, give back the bare minimum, making it obvious they’d rather not engage with elderly people such as us. I originally thought my invisibility super-power was due to playing the accordion. Hmmmm. Or maybe we Boomers are just booooring.
6.
Dense with colour and intricate detailing, Danielle Jacqui's house is a masterpiece where every inch is adorned with paintings, mosaics, shells, and embroideries. The original architectural substructure is almost obscured by the vibrant tapestry of her art. In a unique fusion of art and life, she signs her discrete works not with her name but with the moniker "she who paints." If you ever find yourself in Roquevaire, France…
7.
And I leave with two more Winterhaven Folk Art sightings.
And now…
Danielle Jacqui's house = 🤯
F and I had neighbors who looked very much like the couple in your post. We were not keen on speaking with them.