Rick Kinnaird

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Yesterday, I was looking at my monthly newsletter from Far Horizons, the travel company I have used for many of my trips. I was shocked to read that Damian Evans had died. He was a young man. (Late 30s – early 40s? Cancer.)

I first learned of Damian from a National Geographic special on Angkor Wat. Damian had done the LIDAR work in Angkor. In that special he showed a canopied forest in Cambodia. Then he showed it with all the trees and vegitation stripped away. You could see where the old canals and roads were, where the huts and temples were. He then put little images of huts on each square and temples on the larger ones. “This,” he said, “is how Angkor looked when it was the largest city in the world.” It was mind blowing.

I wanted to use those images in a talk I was giving. Damian was a subject matter expert and group leader for Far Horizons. They were kind enough to put me in touch with him. I only needed a few images. He sent me his whole slide deck! Not only that but he sent me a link to a talk he gave using those slides. So I had a much better idea what was what. We chatted by email on a few things. I was going back to Angkor and I told him I had hoped to meet him. He said he had moved on to Laos, but he told me whom to get hold of – Kim Po Thai. Wow, Thai has a resume that reads like the who’s who of archaeology/adventure filming: Nat Geo, History Channel, Smithsonian, Travel Channel, etc. My wife upon seeing that asked, “Are you worthy?”

No, I said, but my thoughts exactly. What was I doing hanging with these people? 

The last time I heard from Damian was July 2022. I had just procurred the 1960s tome that is the classic mapping and images of Angkor. 

He wrote back:

Very nice, those can be a little hard to get ahold of these days…

He did a trip for Far Horizons. I considered going, but time did not permit. I’d catch him next time.

There will be no next time.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Yesterday a judge ruled that one of the counts against the Trump Organization in New York was so clear and so compelling that there was no need for a trial and ordered the licenses of The Trump Organization to do business in New York to be pulled. The NY AG wants a fine of $250,000,000.00. This order said that neither Trump nor his two eldest sons could do business in New York for five or ten years. (I’ve heard both.)

This kind of action, where a judge rules without even having to go to trial is called summary judgement. (If I understand correctly.) It is rarely granted, but often asked for. However, the evidence was so strong the judge felt there was no need to go to trial. There are another seven charges that will be tried in connection with this case.

The assets of the Trump Organization will go into receivership and be sold off. Maybe, he can get bailed out by say a rich Saudi? I don’t know. Apparently, the Trump Organization’s primary wealth is in five building in New York. 

Trump tried to transfer his holdings to Delaware, but this was blocked by the AG.

Now what? 

I’m sure Donald is cranking up the nasty woman epitets. But the case is so clear he won’t have much to go on.

Oh well.

Moving on. As I read Cassidy Huthinson’s book I can hear her calm patient voice. I knew about the incident with Matt Gaetz at Camp David, but her recounting in the book makes it worse than what was said in one of her TV interviews. 

Cassidy and a bunch of others went back to Kevin McCarthy’s cabin to drink. There was a knock on the door. Kevin opened it. There was Matt, who was surprised to see Kevin. Matt straghtened up a bit and said he was looking for Cassidy because he noticed her golf cart out front.(He must have thought this was Cassidy’s cabin and that he might get lucky.) Cassidy came to the doorway and asked what he wanted. He said he saw her golf cart and was a little lost, could she walk him back to his cabin? No said Cassidy, just follow the circle around you’ll find it. Matt persisted a bit and Kevin said to Gaetz, “Get a life, Matt,” and slammed the door in his face.

Two things: I now understand why Matt is always disparaging Kevin and I guess this was Matt’s idea of a date with Cassidy.

Kevin btw comes out pretty well (so far, being one third of the way through the book).

At one point Cassidy relays what Mark Meadows told her to say to Kevin, which she did. Kevin told Cassidy that Mark was playing her (ie lying to her), and that she should call him when she realized that. He hung up. Cassidy called him a few days later.

UPDATE:

Thursday, September 28, 2023

I am 2/3 of the way through Cassidy Huchinson’s book “Enough.” I am surpised that Kevin McCarthy comes out quite well – so far. Liz Cheney does too. The rest? Not so well. You’ll be surprised to hear the Matt Gaetz is a sleaze who repeatedly tries to get close to Cassidy. Ted Cruz is a jerk. Ron DeSantis a whiner whom Cassidy had to tell that he needed to understand boundaries. Remember she’s 23 or 24 at this point in her life. Mark Meadows is a bit more compicated. He seems to be a coward and sneaky. Not necessarily towards Cassidy, although he lied to her one time that set her up to take a fall, whcih Kevin pointed out to her. She descried a normal day at the Trump Whitehouse as chaos. That’s a big change from “no drama Obama.”

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Cassidy Hutchinson. Wow. Such grace and poise.

She says Rudy put his hand up her skirt on Jan 6th. Matt Gaetz said they dated for awhile.

I don’t think Rudy has commented. She said she and Matt never dated, and implied she had higher standards. Maybe, he thought dating meant pretending to be lost at Camp David and trying to wheedle his way into her cabin?

Who are you going to believe? 

She speaks quietly with little or no emotion when she is recounting events. She broke into a smile and laughed when she talked about adding blond highlights to her hair because Trump suggested it. (Then changed back.) But other than that one show of girl talk like behavior her inverview with Rachel was quiet and calm.

Mark Meadows comes across as a nothing-burger, who will do anything to avoid conflict and to please “the boss.” In other words, a spineless lying coward. 

So if it comes down to him or Cassidy – who are you going to believe?

Or for that matter any of the Republican men or women?

Hutchinson said she was a Romney or Reagan Republican, I wonder what she means by that? What is it that either of the two men said or did that someone like her would want to associate with?

Ah me. Well, I’ve wondered that question, in general, for a long time.

The Republican party has been a party of grievance, unreality, and hypocracy for decades. I’m just surprised that more people have not caught on.

Saturday, September 23, 2023

Finally, we are seeing some people calling out the Margorie Taylor-Greenes and the Lauren Boeberts of the world for what they are – performers. Nihilistic performers to be more accurate. Who have no intention of governing, or solving problems, or protecting democracy or the Constitution. It’s a start.

Meanwhile, I keep wondering if there isn’t a way to get around Tubberville’s blockade of military appointments. I keep hearing people tell us how dangerous this is. Yeah? So What? Three got through because Tommy let them through. Many say that was a mistake. It should have been all 400 or nothing. I don’t know. Why not let one person plug up the works? Like the old joke about who should be in charge of the body (this is an anatomy joke – btw). The rectum thought it should be the leader and tightened up until every other organ was about to fail so they let him be in charge.

Mitch is silent about this. He seems barely able to walk, forget talking. some say he could threaten Tubberville with stripping him of his assignments, etc. But what if he keeps the sphincter tight?

In other news, (not news really – more confirmation) Senator Menedez has been charged with taking bribes. Like gold bars and cash. I know the right will go crazy saying, “See they do it too!” But he pales in comparison to those on the right. Speaking of which Clarence Thomas has been revealed as having taken more lavish gifts. This time from the Koch brothers. Is it fair to say brothers, now that one is dead? Thomas was at a political event and fund raiser. A big no-no for other judges below the level of Supreme Court. Koch Industries stated that he was only at the dinner, not the part where they asked for money. See? No problem. 

Koch also was caught saying that for donors to meet a high level official was a big deal. So what? Do they (Koch) have any business before the Court? Well, yeah. They’ve got a case that could destroy government regulation as we know it. See, instead of having people who devote their lives to studying and making recommendations and regulations we could have a judge who knows nothing decide if whatever the regulation that is established is a good idea. In other words, this would destroy government regulation as we know it. It would destroy our government. Something the Kochs have been pushing for decades under the guise of Liberarianism. I wonder if the common folk show up at their door with pitchforks (now upgrades to AR-15s) that they cry, “Freedom!”)

Oh yes, and Clarence for having shown up at several Koch fund raisers and taken private jets to get there says that well, shucks, it was just oversight on his part. Well, not on this one, but that’s what he has said in the past. What makes this especially rich (heinous?) is that he has let innocent people go to their death because they didn’t file the paper paperwork in time or they had minor clerical errors. Maybe, that’s what we need – more death penalties for such things?

Great twitter thingee. Or should I call it X and Xer? (Doesn’t have the same ring.) There’s a picture of Boebert in the House chamber. She’s at the speaker’s lecturn. Behind her is sitting a guy with a thought bubble saying, “I wonder if she wants to go to a movie?” Ha ha. Get it?

BTW – Can’t anyone start a business called “X” and not worry about being sued for copyright or trademark infringement? Remember IBM and their operating system “2”? Or Intel and the 486 chip? Intel called the next one “Pentium,” to avoid these problems. See, you can’t sue someone for using the number 2. What about X? What about capital X with a long right bottom leg like Xfinity uses? I dunno.

Watch for my new company X-ercise. A legal fight for your rights, diet and exercise and trademark and patent infringement solutions company. “We X-terminate the competition” (or fat, or what ever.)

Meanwhile, Kevin is pushing forward an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Why not? No facts? No problem? Great theater. Would someone arrest Matt Gaez for child sexual assault and get it over with?

David Brooke actually apologized. He tweeted or X’ed that he paid $78 for a hamburger at Newark Airport. the restaurant came back and said the burger was $17 and the rest was liquor. There has been no end to the grief he has taken. On PBS he actually apologized, said he was trying to be funny and he shouldn’t have done that X. (tweet? Sweet? Whatever.)

Friday, September 22, 2023

I read in Time Magazine the story of the 12 year old child that was impregnated by a stranger. She didn’t know what to call it. She was playing in her front yard and a man came down the street forced her around the side of the house and raped her. He went on his way. She didn’t go out to play again. She didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t know what to say. She knew it hurt. She thought it was bad. A cloud descended on her, but that was it. She was getting sick. She threw up. She didn’t know why. Finally, her mother took her to the ER and they learned she was pregnant. This was Mississippi. She was way past any chance of getting an abortion in that state. The closest palce was Chicago, 600 miles away. Her mother didn’t have the means so they did nothing. The girl turned 13. She had the baby. 

In this part of Mississippi there is one person who can take care of preganant mothers. She’d like to leave, but she feels she can’t. Northern Mississippi has become an ob/gyn desert. Interns don’t want to come here. They don’t want to become pregnant here either. Who wants to go to a place where you are threatened with prision for doing what you know is best for a patient?  The area is bracing for 4,000 more babies being born than before the abortion ban was put in place.

In 18 years look for crime to go up in that area and I’m sure the Republican politicians in that state will wonder why.

Combine this with what Dr. Hotez said about Covid and the anti-vax movement. Areas of the deep south were especially hard hit because people there did not get vaccinated at the same rate as other parts of the country. It is estimated that 200,000 people died needlessly.

And let’s look at “No Child Left Behind,” W’s plan to improve education. The idea was to give schools mandatory tests for students and if the schools flunked they’d defund the school and if would have to shut down. How does this help a school district that is struggling? It doesn’t. Say there are seven schools in a district and they are all struggling. Then one fails the test and is shut down. Where do those students go? To the remaining six schools, which are all ready overburdened. The possibility then exists that those six schools will all fail. Great. Maybe, a better solution would be to go into the seven schools and help them? Just a thought.

Immigration. Why do people keep coming here by the thousands? Because their homes are not safe and there is little opportunity for them. Hey. I got an idea, why not help them in their homeland? Why wait for them to show up at our borders? Just another thought.

Ron DeSantis keeps sinking in the polls. The more people get to know him the more distasteful they find him. Huh. Eat pudding with your fingers, kick the dog, tell a kid eating a popsicle it’s bad for them and he wonders how to revive his campaign? Go to ettiquette school and learn some manners. That’s a start, then go away.

Rudy tried to grope Kassidy Hutchinson on Jan 6th. So she says. I’ll bet Rudy will deny it. Who ya gonna believe?

Fox has got a new chairman, just as bad or worse that the last one.

Just as Fox was never about news so Prager was never a university, but it didn’t stop them from getting over $200M and pretending to be one.

The problem is The Simpsons. Not the show itself, but the fact that so many have taken their cues as to how to act from that show – not realizing it is supposed to be satire, not reality. Fox and Prager are both posers, fore flushers, cons and like Trump are dangerous in that people believe them to be truth and reality.

We are watching what happens MAGA world runs into reality. It’s called prison.