1.
Young Farmers, also known as Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance, is a black and white photograph taken by August Sander in 1914. The Getty Museum describes it thusly: "Perhaps most striking about this portrait of three farmers walking along a country road on their way to a dance is their formal dress: each wears a hat and suit and carries a walking stick", "This formal appearance removes them from the reality of their occupations. Each man is seen from the side, glancing over his shoulder at the photographer; they stop only for a moment before continuing on their journey."
John Green, in his book The Anthropocene Reviewed, writes that And so, for me, it’s a picture about knowing and not knowing. You know you’re on your way to a dance, but don’t know you’re on your way to a war. The picture is a reminder that you never know what will happen to you, to your friends, to your nation. Philip Roth called history “the relentless unforeseen.” He said that history is where “everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable.” In the faces of these young farmers, we glimpse how profoundly unexpected the coming horror was. (WW I) And that reminds us there is also a horizon we cannot see past.
We are always at this juncture with the unknowing of what’s around the corner for each of us personally and for us as a society collectively.
We are all farmers walking along minding our own business but all signs indicate there will be an upheaval of the way our government has been functioning as a system of rules and laws. The next president is not following previous norms of civil behavior, and his nominations for the five most important government agencies—health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence—along with several others, are all meant to upset the status quo and to take a chainsaw to the U.S. government, and all its bureaucracy. I’d be the first to say that reforms are needed in most government departments but not in this manner.
Timothy Snyder, A Yale Professor of History and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, writes Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government. In historical context we can see this. There is a history of the modern democratic state. There is also a history of engineered regime change and deliberate state destruction. In both histories, five key zones are health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. These people, with power over these areas of life, can make America impossible to sustain.
About the dreaded bureaucracies, he writes, The United States of America exists not only because laws are passed, but because we can expect that these laws will be implemented by civil servants. We might find bureaucracy annoying; its absence, though, is deadly. We cannot take the pollution out of the air ourselves, or build the highways ourselves, our write our Social Security checks ourselves. Without a civil service, the law becomes mere paper, and all that works is the personal connection to the government, which the oligarchs will have, and which the rest of us will not. This is the engineered helplessness promised by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are to head a black hole named after a cryptocurrency. There are already oversight instruments in government. DOGE is something entirely different: an agency of destruction, run by people who believe that government should exist for the wealthy or not at all.
I will add that party boy Pete "I Won’t Drink Anymore If That’s What It Takes To Be SecDef!" Hegseth, a known drunk and sexual predator, nominated by Fuckleroy for Secretary of Defense is still trying to get the 50 votes needed from the Senate. But even Hegseth’s own mother knows he’s bad news: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
Even many of the Republicans in the Senate know that the secretary of defense's position of command and authority over the military is second only to that of the president of the United States, who is the commander-in-chief, and putting ‘lampshade head’ Pete in charge may not be the best idea. From the New Yorker: A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team.
The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.” In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club. In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”
2.
“Let me be the first to congratulate the president. At the end of the day, we know that we have a 34-count convicted felon that is about to walk into the White House. For anyone that wants to clutch their pearls now because Biden decided that he was going to pardon his son, I would say take a look in the mirror because we also know that … this cabinet has more people accused of sexual assault than any incoming cabinet probably in the history of America.” —“Firebrand” Jasmine Crockett, a Texas member of the House of Representatives
And I say amen to that. Many Democrats, and some my leftie friends, feel that J should not have pardoned H. And the media. This story is a nothingburger with no condiments…dry and tasteless. Heaven forbid we mention the pardons of Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Fuckle’s promise from the beginning of his campaign to pardon all of the January 6 prisoners. And the pardoned Charles Kushner who did a couple years in the hoosegow for tax evasion and hiring a prostitute to target and record his own brother-in-law, is now tasked to be the Ambassador to France. Oy.
But with the possibility of Kash Patel, a known conspiracy theorist, lunatic, and man out to fulfill Fuckle’s retribution desires, to head up the FBI, it’s no wonder that Joe pardoned Hunter. HCR points out that Patel is obsessed with Hunter Biden, especially the story of his laptop, which Patel insists shows that Hunter and Joe Biden engaged in crimes with Ukraine and China. House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) spent two years investigating these allegations and turned up nothing—although Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia used the opportunity to display pictures of Hunter Biden naked on national media—yet Patel insists that the Department of Justice should focus on Hunter Biden as soon as a Trump loyalist is back in charge.
As legal commentator Asha Rangappa noted: “People criticizing the Hunter Biden pardon need to recognize: For the 1st time, the FBI and Justice Department could literally fabricate evidence, or collaborate with a foreign government to ‘find’ evidence of a ‘crime,’ with zero accountability. That’s why the pardon goes back to 2014.”
This ain’t gone be yo mama’s FBI.
Most of us are unaware of just how many pardons presidents give during their tenure. One of the most profound given by Uncle Joe was the pardon of an 80 year-old woman, Beverly Ann Ibn-Tamas. Her crime? Killing her abusive husband who beat her, verbally abused her, and threatened her. She told jurors that she shot him moments after he had assaulted her, while she was pregnant. The judge refused to allow expert testimony on battered woman syndrome, a psychological condition that can develop among victims of domestic violence. Ibn-Tamas got one to five years of incarceration with credit for time served. Her appeal was among the first by someone with battered woman syndrome, and her case has been studied by academics.
Go here for a complete list of pardons granted by Joseph Biden.
And as a footnote, the fat lady has possibly not finished her bellowing as the Washington Post reports that Biden and his top staffers are discussing whether to grant preemptive pardons to figures who might face the hostility of the incoming Trump administration, concerned that President-elect Donald Trump and others in his circle have threatened to go after their political adversaries. Names tossed about are Liz Cheney (an outspoken GOP critic of Trump), Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, and Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-California), who led the first impeachment effort against the Fuckle.
3.
An interesting development in transgender rights as posted by Erin Reed. She writes that Justice Amy Coney Barrett may be a wild card in the support of transgender rights.
She reported that Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing in United States v. Skrmetti was historic, featuring Chase Strangio as the first openly transgender attorney to present arguments before the Court. Strangio's advocacy was both impactful and insightful, addressing justices who hold the future of equal protection for transgender individuals in their hands.
Reactions to the oral arguments have been mixed, with some expressing pessimism about the prospects for transgender rights. However, a notable moment occurred when Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared surprised to learn about the historical de jure discrimination against transgender individuals through anti-crossdressing laws, suggesting she could be a potential wild card in the eventual ruling.
Read more in the link if interested…stranger bedfellows…
4.
If you didn’t catch the 36 Hours In Tucson article in the New York Times here’s a link that I’m sharing as a subscriber.
Author Abbie Kozolchyk grew up here in Tucson and she devotes a paragraph to the work of Es Teran, the man who has taken Borderlands Brewing Company to the next level. I wrote about this company having the first female head brewer, Ayla Kapahi, back in April of 2023. Borderlands downtown is where the now infamous Sunday Sessions are still going strong after almost a decade headed up by bandleader Kevin Pakulis.
Most of the standard tourist spots are mentioned but not listing San Xavier del Bac Mission nor Sonoran hot dogs ‘borders’ on sacrilege.
5.
Back home today after a checking in on Connie’s mom Jean in Prescott, Arizona this week. Yesterday we took her to Suzie’s Skyway Restaurant (more of a diner really) inside Prescott Regional Airport. Connie’s father George (RIP) was responsible for crafting several of the model planes still hanging from the ceiling, and Jean hadn’t been there for many years. Might’ve been a tear or two…
Fun fact: both my wife and my brother’s wife graduated from Derby High School, just outside of Wichita. Connie’s parents, Jean and George, moved to Prescott in 1974 after Connie graduated and George retired from the military.
6.
Medicare open enrollment ends at the end of the day tomorrow. If you’re thinking of switching, start jumping. Also, Thom Hartmann once again argues the case for original Medicare over Advantage Plans here. And Heather Cox Richardson reports that non-elected ‘official’ Elon Musk, Canadian citizen by way of South Africa BTW, has called for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and that Project 2025 has called for making Medicare Advantage—the privatized Medicare in which UnitedHealth specializes—the default enrollment option for Medicare. This would essentially privatize Medicare for the 66 million people who use it, but since Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers about 6% more than Medicare, this would not create the savings Musk is supposed to be finding.
Thank you uninformed and angry voters for electing people who will strip away anything that helps your miserable lives and once again pass more money up to the wealthy to make them even wealthier.
7.
And for the informed and well-adjusted people, don’t forget Dropped By Birds at the Tucson Hop Shop this Tuesday, December 10 from 6-8! That is all.
And now…
Love The Young Farmers. For some reason, I tend to be ever so slighty optimistic about my personal 'turn(ing) the corner', but that image just sears into the mind where we are and where we are headed. So devastatingly poignant.
Total agreement about the pardons.
"..more accused of sexual assault than probably any other cabinet in history.." Just chilling and makes me want to weep.
We have a Skyway Cafe here, too, with similar models hanging from the ceiling - love the photos. Wow - Jean looks pretty good!
Thank you, Gary. And hugs to Connie.
Soon we will all be full-fledged members of the loony bin. You can’t make this stuff up. On the lighter side, that skyway looked like quite the place! I remember a favorite in Shelbina, Missouri, the skyway restaurant, very similar, but without all the cool flyers overhead. Oh the meals you could get in a town of 700.