Here’s hoping

Harry Litman of the Los Angeles Times, on MSNBC just now: “Trump is going to be a criminal defendant, a civil defendant, or a prisoner for the rest of his life.”

0 for 2

I gave up watching the proceedings this morning and am learning only now that Donald Trump** has been acquitted in his second impeachment. I’m disappointed but not surprised.

I suspect that Joe Biden may have offered the House managers his perspective on whether to call witnesses. To call them, and thereby give Trump**’s attorneys the chance to turn the proceedings into an endless Fox/Newsmax/OAN spectacle, would serve only to derail Biden’s agenda in Congress and keep Trump** front and center in the public imagination. Even if witnesses were called, the spine-shortage in the Senate would still make acquittal the inevitable outcome. As it is, forty-three Republicans voted to acquit even with the report of Trump**’s “Well, Kevin” conversation in the record.

Damn those forty-three. Their moral compass points south, to Mar-a-Largo. And kudos to the seven who did the right thing.

Mutts ’n’ Miles

[Mutts, February 13, 2021.]

[Mutts, revised by me, February 13, 2021. Click either image for a larger view.]

Mooch has been at it all week, revising and revising again. When I saw today’s Mutts, I had to do some revising too. Don’t look too closely; I did the best I could to match the font. Listen to Miles Davis instead.

Related reading
All OCA Mutts posts (Pinboard) : No Kindle for me : Three records

Today’s Newsday Saturday

Today’s Newsday  Saturday crossword is by Matthew Sewell. It’s not a Stumper, but it has challenges (10-A, ten letters, “Heaven help me!”), cleverness (57-A, nine letters, “Twist entreaty”), novelty (17-A, nine letters, “Top for telemeetings”), and a fun fact (27-A, three letters, “Fighter who created the ‘Me? / Whee!’ poem (1975)”). Truly, this was a puzzle to 25-A, five letters, “Spend time relishing.”

Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:

16-A, five letters, “Beat guy now a Sir.” And a friend of a friend.

24-D, five letters, “Something checked in a case.” BANJO? VIOLA? Nah.

32-A, nine letters, “Box set holders.” I like box sets.

38-D, seven letters, “Creepy one?” There are so many possibilities these days.

40-A, four letters, “Plum kin.” Gentle misdirection. And a clue rhymes with another fruit.

46-D, four letters, “Works at home.” 17-A made me think for a moment that this answer was supposed to have something to do with telework.

My favorite clue in this puzzle is 57-A, “Twist entreaty.” My first thought: COMEONBABY, but that’s ten letters, and I’m no great shakes on the dance floor anyway.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Stacey Plaskett again

Representative Stacey Plaskett (D, Virgin Islands), a House impeachment manager, this afternoon:

“The defense counsels put a lot of videos out in their defense, playing clip after clip of Black women talking about fighting for a cause, or an issue, or a policy. It was not lost on me that so many of them were people of color and women, Black women, Black women like myself who are sick and tired of being sick and tired for our children, your children, our children. This summer things happened that were violent, but there were also things that gave some of Black women great comfort. Seeing Amish people from Pennsylvania standing up with us, members of Congress fighting up with us. And so I thought we were past that. I think maybe we’re not.

“There are longstanding consequences, decisions like this, that will define who we are as a people, who America is. We have in this room made monumental decisions. You all have made monumental decisions. We’ve declared wars, passed civil-rights acts, ensured that no one in this country is a slave. Every American has the right to vote — unless you live in a territory. At this time some of these decisions are even controversial. But history has shown that they define us as a country and as a people. Today is one of those moments, and history will wait for our decision.”

The racism and misogyny of that defense presentation weren’t lost on me either. The presentation was made for “the base,” and it was base. The veil was exceedingly thin. Transparent, really.

A related post
It doesn’t get much plainer (Also Stacey Plaskett)

[My transcription, punctuation, paragraphing, and spelling (ensured ), from Aaron Rupar’s video tweeting of the trial.]

Danny Ray in the Times

The New York Times now has an obituary for Danny Ray, James Brown’s long-serving emcee and cape man.

A related post
Danny Ray (1935–2021)

Crooks and lawyers

It’s grimly hilarious to hear Donald Trump**’s lawyer Michael van der Veen accuse the House managers of “total intellectual dishonesty.” He’s the same Michael van der Veen who is widely reported to have called Trump** in 2019 “a fucking crook.”

[Of course, he denies it.]

Weather

A one-sentence paragraph:

Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way, trans. Mark Treharne (New York: Penguin, 2002).

Here are some samples of Gallé glass. And here’s a Gallé vase with a winter scene.

Related reading
All OCA Proust posts (Pinboard)

Chick Corea (1941–2021)

The pianist and composer was seventy-nine. From the New York Times obituary:

Mr. Corea’s best-known band was Return to Forever, a collective with a rotating membership that nudged the genre of fusion into greater contact with Brazilian, Spanish and other global influences. It also provided Mr. Corea with a palette on which to experiment with a growing arsenal of new technologies.

But throughout his career he never abandoned his first love, the acoustic piano, on which his punctilious touch and crisp sense of harmony made his playing immediately distinctive.

Here’s a sample, with Corea putting Mozart and Gershwin together.

Citing Voltaire

Representative Jamie Raskin (D, Maryland-8) and his fellow House managers continue to do a great job in presenting the case against Donald Trump**. In arguing against the First Amendment defense Trump**’s lawyers are expected to present, Raskin today cited Voltaire:

“You know, Voltaire said, famously, and our Founders knew it, ‘I may disagree with everything you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it.’ President Trump says, ‘Because I disagree with everything you say, I will overturn your popular election and incite insurrection against the government.’ And we might take a moment to consider another Voltaire insight, which a high-school teacher of mine told me when a student asked, ‘When was the beginning of the Enlightenement?’ And she said, ‘I think it was when Voltaire said, “Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”’”

Did Voltaire really say (write) those things? Yes, at least roughly. Someone has already done the work of figuring it out, and did so back in December. Read Walter Olson’s “The Origins of a Warning from Voltaire” for the details.

You can watch Rep. Raskin cite Voltaire in this C-SPAN clip, beginning at 15:26.

A related post
Voltaire on intolerance

[My transcription and punctuation. How great to have been a law student in a class with Professor Raskin, eh?]