Archives for July 2022

Friday July 29, 2022

I’ve written several screeds this week and haven’t posted because they are unfinished.

From Josh Hawley trying to act like a tough guy selling a mug with his fist raised picture and then being informed it’s a copyrighted picture. To Ted Cruz walking out onto a platform with eight colored smoke machines and an announcer talking about Ted like he’s in wrestlemania. As Seth Myers so aptly put it, “talk about blowing smoke up your ass …”

Then there’s this little tidbit – since Reagan the tax cuts the Republicans have pushed through have enriched the super rich and cost the middle class fifty trillion dollars. That’s $50,000,000,000,000.00! Is that enough? Not for the super rich. They want more. Our kids are forced to take on huge debt to pay for their education. We have the worst care for women having babies of any industrialized country and yet there are these politicians who are pushing to reduce even more. Moving money from public schools into religious and other programs. We are boiling ourselves to death in an every heating world and yet there are now false claims about solar being bad. Then there’s the abortion ban stuff. 

OMG. Why are politicians getting involved with this? Leave people alone. Isn’t that what their supporters put on their license plates? “Don’t Tread on Me”? Yet, when it comes to a woman they are ready to step all over her body.

In Indians the right to kill a woman group who use the false term “right to life” say they are protecting the lives of the unborn who don’t have a voice. That’s horse pucky. They aren’t protecting the lives of unborn chickens are they? Some of these folks use pictures of little fetuses to try and suggest that’s the way the cells look at a few weeks old. They don’t look like a little baby; they look like a glob of cells. Similarly, they pass laws saying when you hear a heart beat, ignoring the fact that the sound that is heard is not a heart beat because at the time that biological sound is heard the heart hasn’t formed.

Leave people alone! My god. That’s something I would think people could agree on. Apparently, they do. However, politicians are set on trampling on people’s rights. 

Why is never clear to me.

Common sense and “working across the aisle” has been replaced with a scorched earth policy by the Republicans.  This by the way is the way it has been for decades. The difference now is that they won’t for anything. Meanwhile, our kids are uneducated and in debt. Our planet burns. Our people are massacred, Our population is sick and unhealthy but that’s okay because a few have rigged the system to give themselves a big bag of money.

It’s sad.

God, it’s even depressing writing about it.

Oh yes and then there’s the overthrow attempt by our former president. He is the odds on favorite to win the Republican nomination. Apparently, even if you are a declared candidate you could be arrested and thrown in jail. 

Monday, July 18, 2022

I have one last international trip planned for this year – Egypt in November.

I have been fortunate enough to meet and communicate with Egyptian scholars.

They have been kind enough to respond to my questions.

I feel, at times, like such a rube. 

I remember when my dad was working on Fermat’s Last Theorem (FLT) I learned later that math departments had created a form to send to people where they could point out the flaws in the thesis.

Fortunately, I have not suffered that fate – yet.

Dad solved Fermat’s Last Theorem several times, only to discover a small problem. 

I remember once he came skipping from the living room into the dining room, spiral notebook in hand. He had solved it! He said if it checked out he was “going to send it to Chandra.”

It wasn’t until years later when the Chandra X-Ray Telescope was launched into space that I realized whom Dad was referring to. He must have met the man who first theorized about Black Holes when Dad was working a Yerkes Observatory, the University of Chicago’s facility. Chandra proposed the idea of black holes while at Cambridge and his theories were not accepted, he left in 1937 to take a position at the University of Chicago, the same time my Dad was there. I wish I had asked Dad more about that time.

The problem with Fermat’s Last Theorem is that it is easy to understand. However, the solution is elusive. For four hundred years the best mathematicians in the world have worked on it, and every hack too, hence the form rejection letter by math departments.

Dad never quite solved it. Andrew Wiles did in the 90s. His solution ran to hundreds of pages and required teams of mathematicians of various disciplines to examine the thesis. I read both biographies that came out at the time. It was like reliving my childhood. Dad’s idea of a good time on a Sunday afternoon was to sit on the sofa in the living room with a one inch spiral notebook and a #2 pencil and speculate and theorize. The attic had boxes of those notebooks, filled with his mathematical musings.

One tidbit in one of the Wiles’ story of his solving the theorem was when a question was posed to him by one of the investigative teams. After several weeks they had received no answer. When they inquired Wiles reported that “he was thinking about it.” I remember those times – of Dad “thinking about it. “ He thought he had it, then there was this minor problem. Soon he was back to his musing in the living room.

Another anecdote was Wiles asking one of his daughters what she wanted for Christmas. She said for him to solve the problem. I remember that wish too!

When Wiles came to Washington he gave a lecture for the public at American University. I pulled my daughter out of grade school to listen. I think Katie was in the 4th or 5th grade. She was clearly the youngest person in the auditorium, We were sitting to the right of the slide projector. Professor Wiles was having difficulties with the machine. He was a slight unassuming man. I offered to assist. He was grateful and once I sorted out the problem, the lecture commenced. 

In that lecture he said yes he had solved Fermat’s Last Theorem but there were other problems out there waiting for solution. There were also solved theorems waiting for examples. I remember one example involved a triangle. The example found had figures on each of the three sides with numbers that ran to something like 20 places!.No wonder they had problems finding an example that fit the theorem!

Katie remembered how Wiles parried questions. Some people seemed to want to either trap him or show how smart they were. He handled all with ease and never made someone feel small.

My dad set up the system that is used today to identify the stars in the sky. He never wrote up his thesis on that system and was never recognized for his contribution. He never got his doctorate. ( He wasn’t a good writer. Like me, he thought stating the idea and substantiating facts, made it clear. I have painfully learned that it doesn’t. One needs to explain how the ideas and facts come together to support each other. Ah me. )

My daughter went on to Dartmouth where she did write up her thesis and became the first in our family to receive a doctorate. In mathematics, no less.

( I was planning to write about my preparations for my upcoming trip to Egypt. Somehow that didn’t happen. But that’s okay. Another day perhaps? )

Saturday July 16, 2022

A long time ago people used to go to the movies every Saturday and the show would start with a newsreel summing up what happened the previous week. That and newspapers were about the only source of what was happening. TV and radio had news as well. All that information was stale. Now we get it moments after it happened. Let’s return to yesteryear and review the week:

President Biden mentioned a ten year old girl in Ohio was raped and impregnated. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson called it a fake story. Jim Jordan of Ohio said the girl didn’t exist. The Republican Attorney General of Ohio said there was not a whisper in any law enforcement or prosecuting attorney office in the state about this. Because of the abortion ban law in Ohio the girl had to go to Indiana to get an abortion.

The media on the right then went after the doctor providing the abortion and the Republican AG in Indiana said they’d investigate the doctor who provided the abortion. Maybe she didn’t file the proper paperwork? He said that this was a radical abortionist, never said she was a doctor.

Then the rapist was found. He admitted to raping the girl twice. She wasn’t ten years old at the time. She was nine. 

What did Jim Jordan say? Nothing. He deleted his tweet. The Ohio AG? He put out a statement that they got a child rapist off the streets. The Indiana doctor’s lawyer sent a letter to the Indiana AG and told him to stop making false statement about her client to the press and the public or it would result in a defamation case.

Ya gotta wonder about the Ohio AG who claimed to have his finger on what is going on in his state if he hadn’t heard a whisper and the next day the police arrest a suspect who admits to the crime? Fortunately the suspect is an immigrant from Central America so Tucker has something he can rave on about.

Steve Bannon has tried to get his trial delayed. No deal. Steve Bannon has tried to get his trial dismissed. No deal. Steve Bannon shaved and combed his hair and appeared neatly dressed in a suit and said he’d talk to the Jan 6th Committee. Nice. Is Steve going on trial on Monday? Yes. Steve could get two years in jail. Maybe, if he keeps his hair combed and his face shaved and actually provides some truthful testimony to the Jan 6th Committee he could get a few months reduced on his sentence? But if he lies, maybe he’ll get more.

Joe Biden met with the Saudis. He fist bumped the man who ordered the murder of an American citizen and whose country recently executed some eighty people in one day. There is outrage, about gas prices. The President is doing what he can to bring them down. This includes dealing with a pretty unsavory man in charge in Saudi Arabia. The truth of the matter is that MBS will be in power for a long time and one can not ignore the biggest oil producer in the world. We can bring up human rights. We can try to curb that country’s cruelty, but one an only do so much at a time.

In Ukraine, new weapons are pushing back the Russians. Will it be enough? When will the war end? When Putin is gone from office.

Bob Woodward reported being at an event of Texas Republicans. He asked two question of those assembled. He wanted to see a show of hands as to how many in the room thought Trump had won the 2020 election. Not a hand went up. He then asked how many would vote for Trump in 2024? Every hand went up. That in a nutshell is the problem our country faces.

Meanwhile, the Jan 6th Committee’s Liz Cheney made two comments I thought very interesting in the last hearing: 

1 – Donald Trump is a 76 year old man, not a child.

2 – They have evidence that Donald Trump called a witness and tried to influence their testifying. The Committee has turned this information over to the Department of Justice.

Okay, three points I’d like to make:

1 – Donald Trump is 76 years old, but he is a child grown tall.

2 – Of course, he did it. Why not? He’s been getting away with committing crimes in the open his whole life, why stop now?

3 – Trump has exposed a huge weakness in our justice system both civil and criminal. That is if you refuse and stall and lie you’ve got a good chance of getting away with it. Especially, if it’s a big crime.

The Secret Service has said they deleted a bunch of text messages from January 5th and 6th. Nothing to see here. Standard service upgrade. Yeah? I call BS. We know there are a lot of people in the Service who were exceedingly loyal to the child president. They need to be rooted out.

Okay. Are we done here? Are we? I can’t wait for the next committee hearing because between now and then I’ll have to hear the constant rehashing. 

Gag me with a spoon.

Oh. And there’s this stupid Facebook thing going around about saying “Hi” and it only takes 2.5 seconds. If you can’t do that for me I don’t want to be your friend. 

I responded to this guy whom I don’t know and isn’t my friend with “Okay with me.”

He came back with, “Hi.”

Idiot.

Maybe I should spend another 3.5 seconds telling him I don’t want to be his friend?

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Hey, what’s the big deal?

The President of the United States was leading an armed insurrection against his own government.

He was okay with his Vice President being hanged.

He knew he lost. Everyone told him he lost. Yet, he ignored them all.

He knew the crowd on the 6th was armed, heavily armed.

He didn’t care.

His inner circle had people who. were linked with armed militas that showed up on the 6th.

These militias had planned to be violent and to breach the Capital.

The President planned for them to march to the Capital. It was kept secret so that his own government would not interfere. This was not a crowd that got out of control swept up in the moment. This was planned.

At the end of this hearing it was revealed that Trump specifically sent messages to a witness trying to get them to not testify. Well, to “do the right thing” and “to be loyal.” Hey Liz Cheney did not say specifically what Trump communicated. (I put in what she said at the previous hearing and what Michael Cohen said were the exact words and phrase that “Mr. Trump used” on him.) What she said was evidence of witness tampering from Donald Trump. This has been turned over to main Justice. Will they finally charge him?

He did nothing for 187 minutes. He never called anyone to help stop the mob. Yet when he finally sent a message for them to go home, they did. Why were they at the Capital? They were asked to come to DC by Trump and then told to go to the Capital by him.

They listened to Trump. They came to DC because he asked them to. They went to the Capital because he told them to go. They went home because he told them to go home. Trump caused it. He lied to his followers. He knew it was a lie. He didn’t care.

The more we hear the more bizarre it gets.

The willingness of people to throw away their reputation and their careers for this man is hard to understand. The desperation to be close to power is a drug that is hard to resist.

People are trying to wrap their heads around not only these things but also the repeated attempts to overthrow the election. Mark Meadows is particularly mystifying. Here’s a guy that was a North Carolina congressman. He was part of the Tea Party. He became Chief of Staff to the President. When he realized that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the election because of voter fraud he then looked for a way to cheat for trump to win. This was called “The Constitutional Loophole.” That loophole seemed to be the idea of not letting Biden get enough electoral ballots to win and to have it thrown into the House where the Republicans held a one vote (26 to 24) lead over the Democrats in election by the states. They could then theoretically elect Trump.

When that failed in December when the electoral votes were counted, then the option was to stop the ceremonial counting of ballots on January 6th.

Here’s one thing I don’t understand, “how was the Capital caught so flat footed?”

Here’s another, “How is main Justice seemingly so unaware of the developments that the House committee is showing to the American people?”

At the end of the hearing Liz Cheney said they have evidence of Donald Trump directly engaging in witness tampering and that this has been referred to The Justice Department.

Isn’t it time to go to Mir-a-Lago and arrest this guy?

Now, one might ask why does Trump do what he does? Well, it’s simple. He’s gotten away with this kind of stuff all his life, why stop now?

Where’s our Margret Chase Smith this time?

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

It 7:17 a.m. some five and three quarter hours before Bennie Thompson bangs down the gavel on the next public hearing about the events of January 6th. It’s extraordinary. I mean we had a president trying, at last count, seven different ways to stay in power ending with an armed insurrection. Not only that but there were at least four documentary film makers recording the crimes being committed. I think his (you know who I mean) defense will be either, “I didn’t know it was a crime,” or “if you do it out in the open with everybody watching is it still a crime?”

First up in the latter category is Steve Bannon. In a sweeping turn of conscience he has decided to testify to the Jan 6th Committee – NOT! His trial for ignoring a subpoena is next week. He was hoping to avoid two years in jail. He even shaved and tried to look decent. Too bad Steve. The judge said no delay in the trial. 

Now how about Michael Flynn? There are questions. Was he always this way? Was he somehow radicalized? Was it that in the Army he was kept in line until he got his last assignment and then his true nature came out? When he pleaded the Fifth on the question as to whether he believed in the peaceful transfer of power I have to wonder what crime he was worried about that by answering the question he might be incriminating himself.

So with Flynn it a kind of Chicken and Egg question. But if they you’re an anti-abortionist it wouldn’t matter because eggs are chickens. (Sorry, i had to stick that in somewhere.)

Today’s hearing will supposedly tie the Oathkeeprs to Donald Trump’s inner circle and possibly directly to him.

Aside from the four documentary film makers following these folks around and recording their commission of crimes there is also a recording of The Proud Boys on Zoom (or was it Facetime?) planning what they were going to do on Jan 6th.

The only thing that might keep the orange one out of an orange suit is: death, or so many crimes that they never stop investigating.

PS YO – the Brooklyn Art Museum’s take on Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture. 

And an Egyptian “Weighing of The Heart” ceremony. The Egyptians believed that the heart was the organ of control in the human body. They didn’t understand what the brain was for. After death you went on a journey where there were various trials and tribulations. One of them was the weighing of the heart, as pictured here. The heart was weighed on a scale opposite a feather. If the heart was not “light as a feather” it was thrown to that dog like creature who devoured it and you could not proceed to the afterlife. Bummer.