Better

Is the United States “better than this”? If it were, it wouldn’t be “this.”

Can the United States be “better than this”? It has to be.

Elizabeth Warren speaks

“A democracy in which the elected leaders do not bend to the will of the voters is no democracy. It is a totalitarian state. And those who pursue this effort are supporting a coup.”

The objectors included Mary Miller

The New York Times this morning lists the members of Congress who objected to certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Only two members of the Illinois House delegation signed on to the effort. “My” representative, Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) was one of them.

With her objection, Rep. Miller continues to distinguish herself as a new member of the House. Yesterday she made the news for saying, to a pro-Trump* gathering, that “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

I hope that Mary Miller’s career in Congress is a short one. There’s already a petition calling for her resignation.

A valediction?

These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021

Sounds like a valediction from a bunker.

[More: Twitter has required the removal of this Trump* tweet and two others, and has locked Trump*’s account for twelve hours.]

Impeach and remove

Bill Kristol and Ilhan Omar agree: impeach and remove him. Good.

But I haven’t forgotten Kristol’s role in the rise of a Trump* precursor.

January 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller

“This is Trump’s legacy”: Jake Tapper on the madness finding expression in Washington, D.C. today.

“My” new representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) pledged in December to object to what she called “tainted election results” and to fight against what she called “the greatest heist of the 21st century.” Like so many older hands, she too is complicit.

Miller made the news for saying yesterday that “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’” Here, watch.

Mary Miller, you’re off to a great start.

Lee Breuer (1937–2021)

The theater director Lee Breuer has died at the age of eighty-three. Among his accomplishments: The Gospel at Colonus, an adaptation of Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonus. The New York Times has an obituary.

“Georgia Blue”

I’ve had this Julius Hemphill composition in mind for some time now.

[“Georgia Blue” (Julius Hemphill). The Julius Hemphill Sextet: Marty Ehrlich, alto solo; Sam Furnace, Andy Laster, alto; Aaron Stewart, Andrew White, tenor; Alex Harding, baritone. From The Hard Blues: Live in Lisbon (Clean Feed, 2004.]

Decluttering, continued

In 2007 I bought a copy of Peter Walsh’s book It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff. As I wrote in a blog post then, the book had, for me, significant psychotropic power.

But it’s been sitting on a bookshelf ever since. An easy plan for living a richer life with less stuff, or at least the same life with less stuff: put this book in the box for donations.

Mystery actor

[Click for a larger view.]

Do you recognize him? Leave your answer in the comments. I’ll add a hint if needed.

Here’s a hint: he’s best known as a summer visitor.

One more: he's best known as a summer visitor spending two weeks next door with his aunt.

Oh well. I’ve added the answer in the comments.

More mystery actors (Collect them all!)
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