unraveling

30.Sept.2025

DOPUS & Hegadeath started a War Department

Today's the big day at Quantico. On the eve of a government shutdown which may the last gasp of resistance, and the coup de grâce of federal government sabotage at the same time,

"President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned more than 800 of the country’s top brass to a military base in Virginia on Tuesday to voice a familiar litany of culture war talking points and criticize a military that they complained had become distracted by political correctness."

The way I remember the news, "WarSecPete" did the summoning, but then Dear Leader said I WANT TO GO TOO to keep himself the headliner. More than eight hundred top officers flying in from all over the world, to get a load of "a rambling address that including familiar talking points and critiques," and?

“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”

American cities, he's talking about. That was after "Pete" told the assembled officers that "he was tightening standards for fitness and grooming, cracking down even more rigorously against “woke garbage” and getting rid of attacks on “toxic” leadership that he said had gone too far."

Toxic (and poorly groomed) leadership gone too far. Yes. You're soaking in it. In the NYT's "Updates" feed, Helene Cooper, reporting from Washington, with a positive note:

Already, the remarks by the president and his defense secretary are drawing criticism from former military officials. “I couldn’t be prouder of our highest ranking leaders for maintaining an apolitical face under immense pressure,” said retired Army Maj. General Paul D. Eaton. But, he added, “Pete Hegseth spent millions to fly in all of our generals and admirals to rant about facial hair and brag about how many pull-ups he can do, and have Donald Trump sleepwalk through a list of partisan gripes.”

And from White House reporter Shawn McCreesh:

"There does not seem to be a clear point or purpose in President Trump’s address to military generals today. It’s a garden variety tear; he’s talking about tariffs, Joe Biden and the autopen, the southern border, CNN, his personal feelings about President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his anxieties that he won’t be given a Nobel Peace Prize he feels he deserves. These are things he talks about almost every day regardless of audience or setting. Every so often he throws in a statistic or observation he has about the military.

“I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships by the way,” he said at one point, pausing a riff about tariffs to bring up a 1950s documentary series about naval warfare. “I used to watch ‘Victory at Sea.’ I love ‘Victory at Sea.’”

That after his opening salvo about how he'd "never walked into a room so silent before," and trying to get a laugh out of the audience, even though "you're not allowed to do that."

"You know, just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do... anything you want, you can do anything you want. And if you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. Of course there goes your rank, there goes your future."

That got a laugh from the captive audience. I'm guessing there wasn't a Q&A session, with anyone raising a hand to ask, Sir, isn't a war crime to just shoot a boat full of fishermen out of the water off the cost of Venezuela?

Update: I missed the subtext to Pete's pushback on "woke garbage" and attacks on "toxic" leadership, until I read through Rebecca Solnit's "Notes on a crime scene" post on Facebook. Including Will Stancil:

"The headline here is “Hegseth announces changes that will protect domestic abusers in the military.” Even though this is incontestably true, no news organization will use this headline, because telling the truth is deemed impermissible if the truth hurts the right too much"

above his repost of Aaron Rupar quoting Hegseth:

"We are overhauling an inspector general process that has been weaponized, putting complainers and poor performers in the driver seat. We are doing the same with the equal opportunity policies. No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complains ... no more walking on eggshells."

With the direct punch line from Jamelle Bouie:

"pete hegseth, who you will recall has been accused of domestic abuse and sexual assault, has announced a new policy by which you cannot file anonymous complaints of mistreatment. sex criminal solidarity."

Last, but not least:

Judging by their speeches, neither Trump nor Hegseth has paid the slightest attention to how actual wars are being fought in the actual world. The “war fighting” and “lethality” they plan is inside their own country and comes from conflicts inside their own minds.

— Timothy Snyder (@timothysnyder.bsky.social) September 30, 2025 at 9:49 AM

29.Sept.2025

Deep breaths

Not sure what three words I'd choose for my dek, but Robert B. Hubbell's three make a good one: "Citizen. Optimist. Realist." His lastest post (and substack blog) was recommended by Rebecca Solnit, who has never steered me wrong. Be the anchor in the storm.

"Monday marks the start of a week of planned chaos. Trump is panicking, running from the Epstein files and his cratering approval ratings. His answer is to incite chaos, sow confusion, and offer distraction to the easily distracted press. We must be the anchor in the storm. Look past the noise and confusion. See the arc of history bending to our will. Slowly, painfully, fitfully, but bending, nonetheless....

"We must remain steadfast. We must not amplify the chaos. Do not credit speculation or hearsay designed to generate fear-based revenue for tech giants and social media billionaires. Maintain perspective. With our hard work, America will emerge from this challenging period and return to the rule of law and the constitutional republic that has endured for over two centuries."

Oh, and there were four mass shootings over the weekend. I read about two of them scrolling through news yesterday. A church in Michigan. A waterfront bar in Southport, North Carolina. On Bourbon Street in New Orleans. At the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, in Eagle Pass, Texas. "Guns are a plague upon America’s soul."

Government Shutdown Theater 3000 will be playing at the White House, with the leading members of Congress (not to be confused with "Congressional leaders") in bit roles.

"[Trump] cancelled the last meeting because he said Democratic demands (obey the Constitution, reduce healthcare premiums) were “ridiculous.” The demands by Democrats haven’t changed, so it is unclear why Trump wants to meet."

While the Mexican standoff finger-pointing goes on,

"The real story is that Trump is violating the Constitution every day by refusing to spend funds appropriated by Congress—a course of conduct that makes any proposed budget meaningless."

The president plans to crash SecWar Hegadeath's military convocation tomorrow, of course, because there can only be one Center Of Attention, right? And last, but not least, our cuckolded Supreme Court in inexplicable surrender, seemingly led by Clarence Thomas' as-yet incomplete airing of grievances.

"The Roberts Court has completely surrendered to Trump. Will the Court overrule Obergefell? The answer to that question depends on what Trump wants—because whatever he wants, the odds are 90%+ that the Court will grant Trump the relief he seeks."

25.Sept.25

Barking mad

It's just an expression, but now that I mention it, our current president does have a lot in common with the neighbor's obnoxious dog, barking at anything and everything in the 'hood. Somebody walking another dog out in the street? Bark bark bark. A siren? Bark bark bark. A roofing crew? Lawn maintenance? The mailman? Bark bark bark. People are starting to notice. Marc Elias, for example:

"Donald Trump’s rambling, hour-long speech before the assembly left world leaders wavering between boredom, disbelief and secondhand embarrassment. It should leave Americans not just embarrassed, but terrified.

"Allotted 15 minutes of speaking time, Trump spoke for nearly an hour. He quickly abandoned diplomacy in favor of grievance and improvisation."

Ultimately, "a classic Trump speech: a mix of lies, threats, and meandering stories that led nowhere." Grievance and improvisation are +rump's wheelhouse.

"When Trump bragged that in less than two years he had “accomplished almost more than any other administration in the history of our country,” the audience responded with laughter. A senior diplomat texted reporter Ishaan Tharoor in real time: “This man is stark, raving mad. Do Americans not see how embarrassing this is?”

We see it. And we see abnormality being normalized by the mainstream press, weirdly reluctant to question +rump's mental competence the way they hammered Joe Biden's, day in and day out.

"[O]ur enemies laugh at our weakness — plotting how they can take advantage of the doddering old fool in the White House.

"It is long past time for our own leaders to respond with equal seriousness and urgency. The world is watching."

Heather Cox Richardson called the UN speech "delusional and offensive," which is also true. There's lots more in her daily about our government spinning in weird circles while its helmsman is baying at the moon and all his enemies.

He's leaving no norm unbroken. At the Turning Point USA stadium send-off in honor of Charlie Kirk, his wife Erika did the most Christian thing possible, expressing forgiveness for her husband's assassin.

“My husband, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life,” she began. “That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and it is what Charlie would do.

“The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love, love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”

Sadly, our mad king has no such love to give. Headlining (?!) Kirk's memorial, trying to outshoot the shower of sparks machines, +rump spoke for the dead man. From The Independent (UK)'s coverage:

“He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said of Kirk. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry,” Trump added. “I am sorry, Erika.”

“Charlie’s angry... he’s angry at me,” Trump added.

During the president’s tribute to Charlie Kirk, he also segued into claiming that his administration has “found an answer to autism,” and went off on tangents about his trade tariffs.

As unhinged and inappropriate as that was, it pales in comparison to +rump's archetypal sycophant, Wormtongue, Stephen Miller, whose speech at the memorial is now being analyzed for how much of it was inspired by Nazi Germany's progaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels. (Fun fact from Wikipedia: Goebbels succeeded Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, for one day, before he and his wife murdered their six children and committed suicide.)

Miller operatically claimed all good and virtue for his "us" and all evil for his "them," and yes, even invoked "the dragon you have awakened." Too bad it wasn't an opera.

"They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble. And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are envy. You are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity....

Be still my heart.

"To our enemies, you have nothing to give, you have nothing to offer, you have nothing to share but bitterness. We have beauty, we have light, we have goodness, we have determination, we have vision, we have strength. We built the world that we inhabit now."

If that's not creepy enough for you on its face, Michael Sellers' deeper look will get it.

“We are the storm.” “The dragon you have awakened.” These are not metaphors of civic debate. They are mythic, apocalyptic, elemental. They conjure destruction, purification, rebirth....

"[Miller] has clearly studied how fascist rhetoric works: how it turns loss into mobilization, how it strips opponents of humanity, how it frames the in-group as heirs to civilization, and how it deploys mythic imagery to sanctify political struggle. Miller wasn’t quoting Goebbels line by line, but he was working from the same template."

21.Sept.2025

Equinox (almost)

Today's the last day of summer on the top half of the earth, and interested to know just when our autumnal equinox is this year, I put the one word in the widget, and was served up AI-mediated blather about what-it-is without the when-it-is information I wanted. Here on, you know, close to the moment. Funny how search fails sometimes.

Eventually, I saw a reputable source (space.com) in the list, with the answer I wanted: 12:19 MDT tomorrow. So, enjoy the day. And when tomorrow comes, keep looking up, as Jack Horkheimer liked to say.

Along the way, as ever, the web served up interesting things I didn't ask for, including a breezy article about Earth's inner core. "Nobody knows exactly what it's made of," the headline teases, before claiming "now we've started to uncover the truth." Because "now our scientific inferences have more detail" doesn't grab you the same way. It's made of mostly iron, we can infer. 90-some percent. The big reveal about the other stuff from Alfred Wilson-Spencer, research fellow of Mineral Physics at the University of Leeds is carbon. And at least one more element. Maybe "a bit of oxygen and possibly silicon as well." The percent of carbon is still in the SWAG realm, but he tosses off 2.4% and 3.8% as (weirdly specific) possibilities. Those percentages are on the high side for good old steel, but I liked the first approximation that our "iron rich" core is steely. And the cover art is fun all by itself.

19.Sept.2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needs to be fired

Fired C.D.C. Director Describes Clashes With Kennedy and Turmoil at Agency. "At a Senate health committee hearing, Dr. Susan Monarez painted a picture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a man wedded to his own ideology and uninterested in government scientists."

Monarez "told a Senate panel on Wednesday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called C.D.C. employees “corrupt” and accused them of “killing children” during a tense private meeting with her the week before she was fired."

And, "she refused Mr. Kennedy’s demands to fire top C.D.C. scientists and to sign off on vaccine recommendations issued by his handpicked advisory panel without seeing the data or science underlying them."

The wrong person was fired, to be sure. One of Kennedy's talking points (under oath!) is that the US is “the sickest country in the world." Claimed without evidence, I suspect. The World Population Review's data, and CEOWorld Magazine put the US in the broad middle of the distribution. Kennedy likes to point fingers at others and claim "no science or evidence" for established views that don't align with his buzzing conspiracy theories and unfounded claims. Without something fact-based, his testimony that "that’s why we have to fire people at C.D.C. They did not do their job. This was their job, to keep us healthy” reflects an unwellness on his part. What Sen. Bernie Sanders said:

“How did Dr. Monarez go from being a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials who had the full confidence of Secretary Kennedy into being a liar and untrustworthy in less than a month?” he asked, adding: “I think the answer is fairly obvious. Dr. Monarez was fired because she refused to act as a rubber stamp to implement Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous agenda.”

One word of truth outweighs the world

Updated headline, after I made it most of the way through Marc Elias' 46 minutes video, weighted with bad news out of current events. It's a quote from Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. This Is Trump's Latest Attack On Free Speech. Six minutes in, I felt compelled to pull some of the truth Elias has to share:

"DOGE was never about saving money. DOGE was never about efficiency. The whole idea that this was a department of government efficiency was a lie that [Trump] was trying to make the pillar of the state.

"It was about breaking the internal checks and balances, firing the watchdogs, getting rid of the experts, the people who know how to deliver government services. It was about getting them out of the way so that Donald Trump could weaponize the federal government more efficiently.

"If you want to misuse data collected by the federal government, what do you have to do? You have to get rid of the people whose job is to safeguard the data. And what did we see? We saw these DOGE contractors going from agency to agency to agency, firing the people who were telling them 'no, you cannot access everybody's social security information. No, you cannot access all the Treasury Department's information. We saw this systematic effort to gut from the federal government the people whose jobs were to protect you and the American people from government excess. They were there to prevent the government from becoming a tool of oppression against the citizenry; those were the first people to go...."

18.Sept.2025

Unamerican activities

Heather Cox Richardson's latest history lesson starts with current events, the new cancel culture, led by you-know-who and his toadies, including FCC chair Brendan Carr, platformed on Benny Johnson's podcast. If you're in the "Benny who?" demographic (like me), the shorter:

"Benny Johnson, the podcaster on whose show Carr threatened Kimmel, was one of the influencers Russian state media funded to spread propaganda before the 2024 election."

Oh. Then we go back 238 years (and a day), to the genesis of our Constitution, to fix the decade-old Articles of Confederation that "could not protect property of either the poor or the rich and thus faced the threat of landless mobs. The nation seemed on the verge of tearing itself apart..." In 1789, Congress passed the first ten amendments, our Bill of Rights. Emphasis added, and the Pew link brought in-line:

"The first of those amendments prohibits the government from intruding on the basic liberties that enable individuals to challenge it. It prohibits the government from establishing a state religion or infringing on the right of individuals to publish whatever they wish, to assemble peacefully, or to ask the government to remedy unfair situations.

"It prohibits the government from infringing on the right of individuals to speak freely, without fear of government retaliation.

"Americans take their First Amendment rights seriously. In April 2025, a Pew Research Center poll showed that 92% of Americans thought it was important “that the media can report the news without state/government censorship.”

146 non-profits are pushing back on the current administration's casual, fact-free slander and plans for attack on all opposition. The organizations making a Statement on Political Violence and the Fundamental Freedom of Speech include the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, which we have long supported.

“Our country is built on the premise that everyone has the right to express themselves, even when others don’t agree with or like what they say. No one should fear for their safety simply for expressing their views. We must all forcefully condemn these heinous acts as affronts to the fundamental principles and health of our nation — and as charitable giving organizations, including those working in communities impacted by these tragedies, we do....

“Organizations should not be attacked for carrying out their missions or expressing their values in support of the communities they serve. We reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms, like freedom of speech and the freedom to give. Attempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans.”

17.Sept.2025

Passing the torch

Writing in the mid-1950s, when the "Iron Curtain" was dividing humanity into two halves (as he put it), Carl Jung wrote:

"What will become of our civilizations, and of man himself, if the hydrogen bombs begin to go off, or if the spiritual and moral darkness of State absoution should spread over Europe?"

Or, indeed, beyond Europe.

"We have no reason to take this threat lightly. Everywhere in the West there are subversive minorities who, sheltered by our humanitarianism and our sense of justice, hold the incendiary torches ready, with nothing to stop the spread of their ideas except the critical reason of a single, fairly intelligent, mentally stable stratum of the population....

[T]he gift of reason and critical reflection is not one of man's outstanding pecularities, and even where it exsits it proves to be wavering and inconstant, the more so, as a rule, the bigger the political groups are. The mass crushes out the insight and reflectionthat are still possible with the individual, and this necessarily leads to doctrinaire and authoritarian tyranny if ever the constitutional State should succumb to a fit of weakness."

That insight is about as dated as I am, from The Undiscovered Self, 1957; even as it speaks eerily to our present Zeitgeist. The old book popped up to attention the same morning as James B. Greenberg's latest blog post. In Beyond Facts: The Identity Politics of MAGA, "how ritual, grievance, and survival bind Trump’s movement together," Greenberg writes:

"For a long time, I labored under the illusion that Republicans—once confronted with the true scope of Trump’s authoritarian ambitions and the depth of his betrayal—would come to their senses. I imagined a reckoning. I expected disillusionment. What I failed to grasp was that while I became disillusioned, they did not.

"My mistake stemmed from a misplaced faith in rationality. I underestimated the degree to which the MAGA movement had metastasized into something more than politics: a cult, a brand, an identity. It is no longer about policy or governance. It is about who they are—and, more importantly, who they are not...."

"The community reinforces itself by marking who is inside and who is outside, who is pure and who is profane. Once politics takes on the rhythm of liturgy, it no longer depends on persuasion. It depends on repetition....

"Trump captured this dynamic with unsettling clarity: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” That wasn’t a boast tossed off at a rally. It was recognition that once belief fuses with identity, loyalty is no longer conditional. It survives contradiction. It outlasts betrayal.

"In this sense, loyalty to Trump mirrors the logic of domestic abuse. The victim internalizes blame, rationalizes harm, and defends the abuser. Even when the evidence is plain—Trump has not made America great again. He has re-engineered the economy to benefit the wealthy at the expense of his base—they persist in the belief that prosperity is just around the corner."

How do we break the spell of "belief, once weaponized, becomes a fortress," resisting contradiction, metabolizing betrayal, and punishing dissent? His post maps an answer, which I won't spoil for you.

Heather Cox Richardson's Sept. 16, 2025 Letter from an American offers hope in regard to our spiraling descent into political violence, citing G. Elliott Morris's Strength in Numbers blog. “Most Americans reject political violence in all circumstances, especially when you measure it carefully.”

Still, "most" is not "all," and the small fraction "responds to signals from political leaders and influencers." "The evidence from academic literature suggests that one of the biggest factors in the probability of political violence is elite rhetoric."

It's not breaking news (it is news about breaking) after you read some of the early right-wing responses to last week's assassination, that Trump’s remarks increase the risk of future violence. He's been driving that train for a decade now, his whole "career" in politics. We're not shocked, shocked that he's "not taking the higher road, instead veering onto the path towards demagoguery and affective polarization," "fanning the flames of revenge and retribution." We turn to Proverbs, 15:1-2:

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise man dispenses knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly."

16.Sept.2025

That Left vs. Right research you were looking for

The National Institute of Justice "is the research, evaluation, and technology agency of the U.S. Department of Justice and is dedicated to improving knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through science. The mission of the Institute is to foster and disseminate knowledge and tools derived from objective and rigorous scientific research to inform efforts that promote safety and advance justice."

Its stated principles (there on its "About" page) are to be Relevant; Responsive; Rigorous; Collaborative; Fair and Open; and Ethical, so you can imagine they're an uneasy fit these days.

Last June, NIJ published a paper from Steven Chermak et al., “What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism.” (NIJ Journal 285, June 2024) That link citation now redirects to the NIJ homepage without notice, because the current adminstration REMOVED THE REPORT FROM THE WEBSITE, and someone noticed.

The Wayback Machine's archive still has it, as do I, after downloading it, and reading it today. It's important research right now. What the subhead says:

"NIJ-funded research projects have led to a better understanding of the processes that result in violent action, factors that increase the risk of radicalizing to violence, and how best to prevent and respond to violent extremism."

The current DOJ apparently was not keen on the research-based conclusion in the introduction, given that it contradicts the fake "statistical fact" talking point about right vs. left that lying Stephen Miller and Veep Vance have dictated. (ICYMI, in a "Charlie Kirk memorial podcast" hosted from the White House, our Vice President claimed "it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics on American politics today are proud members of the far left.")

But no, that's a lie. What the NIJ studies say:

"Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives. In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives."

Looking at the NIJ home page again, it occurred to me to wonder what they'd take down next. Perhaps this current front-page feature, 30 Years of the Violence Against Women Act: Endurance, Expansion, and the Next Era. I printed the summary of a plenary panel from the 2024 NIJ Research Conference for my archive, too.

15.Sept.2025

Forward

We belong to each other.

We belong to the earth.

We are in this together.

I believe in the inherent worthy and dignity of every person.

We are all connected, we Earthlings. Authentic faith calls us beyond ourselves.

And from a Sufi wisdom tail about water crossing a desert:
Trust the wind. Accept transformation; accept the invitation.

12.Sept.2025

Touch grass and jump start

You've probably heard the first expression? I guess it means step away from phone, get outside, and, you know, literally. Now that I'm no longer working (and SEVENTY, thankyouverymuch), I'm spending a lot less time tapping keyboards and a lot more time tapping pedals. If we're friends, or Facebook friends, you know, because I share a lot of photos of my time outside. Most times I ride from my house to wherever I feel like going, but sometimes I'll drive to a place. Today, I drove up the hill with the intent to ride the "Around the Mountain" trail at Bogus Basin, and unlike my first waifish go, I knew where to start, and where to go (counterclockwise), and that Bogus being "not open" did not mean you couldn't go for a happy trail ride. On a morning with the temperature on the low side of mid-fifties at 6,000', with the promise of sunshine into the day.

I had a lovely ride, one small shindig when I hoisted my bike clear of the trail to let a faster rider go by and touched my pedal to my leg just below the knee, was schooled on what "technical skills required" means (there are some rocks, and roots to navigate over). Most of the way Around the Mountain, at the bottom of the Bitterroot Chair (#5), I lost the trail. I looked for signs, but the only one I saw was a hand-letter orange circle that said "A.T.M." with an arrow. I was not in need of an ATM (and it seemed like a really strange place to have one), but after I proceeded via the Sapper's Return nordic trail I know from skiing, it occurred to me that that was the sign to the Around The Mountain trail, duh. Something for next time.

The wide path back to the main parking was occupied in one spot by a group of about 40 schoolchildren and two teachers, none of whom seemed the least bit prepared for me to go through on the trail, so with good cheer, I stopped and dismounted, and threaded my way through the group in the one rivulet of space that was not occupied. As I hopped back on, one of the outlying boys said "are you going to go downhill now?" and I said I was and he said "that's the best," and I said "actually, they're both good," and he acknowledged my nugget of wisdom. I was thinking about what a great day at "school" it was to be in the forest.

We all touched grass, forbs, ceanothus, Ponderosa, Doug Fir, mint, sunflowers, rabbitbrush, and lots more. I avoided touching nettles. Some fresh cow dung I wasn't able to dodge on the trail touched me, flung up from my tires. The "herd" of two cows and two calves had themselves parked square in the trail, but moved out of the way to let me through, then reluctantly posed for a family photo.

It's a fun trail, not too technical, not too long, mostly pleasant traverses, and no particularly grinding climbs. The Ridge to Rivers interactive map doesn't have it going all the way around in a tidy loop; that and the shortage of signage where I went astray could be done better. I got 10.4 miles and 1,211 ft. climbing out of it today, was thinking about going for "more" somewhere on the way down, but a little twinge in my knee (too much hard climbing this week, I think) prompted me to call it enough.

Loaded up and driving down the road, at the little pullout/parking spot at the top of Windy Ridge, two young women were standing outside their parked car, one waving... for help? My first thought was, is this some kind of weird scam? but it seemed innocent, and upon pulling in, the ask was straightforward. "Can you help us start our car?" They said they'd been out for a four hour hike (impresive!) and they came back to find the car no go. One of them held up a set of disturbingly cheap jumper cable, the kind you might use for a Halloween Frankenstein's monster get-up. It's possible I laughed at it, but not in a mean way.

Another gal had returned from her hike too, walking the dog, and I'd blocked her exit, so I asked if she'd like me to let her out before we did this thing. How long would it take? she wondered. I guessed 5 minutes, widely missing the mark. "That's ok," she said; she'd get her dog settled down and it would be fine.

I dug under my back seat for my good jumper cable, which is black and blue, and long, and heavy gauge, and asked if they knew about Crocodile Dundee. Sadly, they had no idea. So I explained the "This is a knife" scene, and then revealed my cables, saying, "These are jumper cables" in my best (not very good) Aussie accent.

I knew what I was doing, obvs, until I popped my hood to examine the glory of the 2022 Highlander hybrid engine compartment, which has no "battery" nor battery terminals in obvious sight. I broke out the owner's manual, found instructions in section 7, "When Trouble Arises." There are instructions for where to hook up and how to jump start the Highlander when its battery is flat, on pages 382-384, but not for helping someone else.

There are important warnings (how not to have a battery fire or explosion, which I'm conversant in), and at the very end, a NOTICE on page 386:

To prevent damaging the vehicle
The exclusive jump starting terminal is to be used when charging the 12-volt battery from another vehicle in an emergency. It cannot be used to jump start another vehicle.

"Exclusive" is a strange word to have in there, but now I guess I know what they mean. I hadn't read through the whole section to the NOTICE, and it was the women looking up a YouTube video that allowed me to figure out the hookup for jumping the Highlander. (It's not obvious!) I assumed I could just hook it up the same way, and... wait, when you start the hybrid system, the engine doesn't run.

Good thing I hadn't moved my car to let the other gal out get on her way; we now asked her if she would use her vehicle for the jump. A good old (new) Jeep with a conventional engine setup, but her first time to do anything like this. It also did not have an obvious 12V battery with obvious terminals, but look there, an orange plastic cover above the right fender with "+" on it. Underneath, there's a lovely metal post to clamp a jumper cable on, and a discreet distance away another post for the negative side.

Clamps hooked up, start the engine and run a bit, then start the downer car, and... it works! Easy-peasy. I unhooked my great big, black and blue cable, smiles and thanks all around, and we were all on our way. (I'm just sorry I didn't get a selfie of the four of us.)

I was last in, first out of the tiny parking area and blithely drove off without making sure they were all good to go. I decided to stop and wait further down the road, and in just a minute or two, both cars went by, the troubled one last, and we exchanged a friendly wave before I pulled in behind them and followed them down to the bottom.

Rewards for my attempted good deed: I now know where the relay/fuse box is, and where to hook up a cable for someone else to jump my car. (I took the time to read the 10-step procedure, with a couple of completely unintuitive steps.) And I know the next time some asks "can you jump start my car?" the correct answer is "no, I'm sorry, I can't." Criminey. Nice of me to carry that heavy duty cable around, though. Maybe someone else can use it.

A three-year old thread on reddit has the way forward, from someone who says they're a Toyota dealership tech:

"In a dire emergency (i.e. side of the road and no help for hours/miles around) you can pull the battery access cover in the trunk and hook directly to your battery."

(So that's where the battery is!) And, a bit of final advice: "Invest in a jump start box."

11.Sept.2025

Political violence

Not exactly a new subject; as a child of the 60s, that day in grade school when our teacher told us the president had been shot, and sent us home in the middle of the day is etched on my mind. My teen years were ushered in with the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. (In walloping irony, RFK's son claimed "We had lots of guns when we were kids. Kids brought guns to school and were encouraged to do so.")

I don't remember hearing about the Glenville shootout in Cleveland that summer; in the context of 6 years of "race riots," it didn't stand out to me, two states away. Nor did any of my Civics, History, or Government education include a whisper about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, nor the history of lynching.

People shooting from towers was a thing, with the University of Texas tower shooting in 1966, but we took heart that maybe it was the brain tumor. (Maybe not.) More likely, the shooter's physically and emotionally abusive father set the stage. There's been a lot of that going around.

After yesterday's assassination of Charlie Kirk (and oh, another school shooting in Colorado), there was an outpouring of sentiment, shocked lamentation, and escalating rhetoric, including from our president, who has not shown himself troubled by any attacks on his political opponents. (He's become the reactor core of America's escalating political violence as Jason Sattler put it.) In the Times:

Matt Forney, a right-wing journalist known for racist and misogynistic content, called Mr. Kirk’s assassination “the American Reichstag fire,” alluding to the 1933 fire at the German Parliament building that was used by the Nazi party as a pretext to suspend constitutional protections and arrest political opponents.

“It is time for a complete crackdown on the left. Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned,” Mr. Forney wrote on X.

Of course, the far-right has active amnesia about the MAGA who have killed, attacked, and threatened both prominent Democrats and opponents of this president in recent years. (Without getting into the shit show of Jan. 6, 2021.) Mehdi Hasan compiled a helpful list for them.

Now that we've refocused most federal law enforcement to "immigration crime," it seems, and in defiance of the Posse Comitatus Act, +rump has been sending masked shock troops into American cities to terrorize anyone not white enough for Stephen Miller's taste. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh added his opinion to the shadow docket ruling that racial profiling is now great, with a fabulation about "brief investigative stops" and "promptly let[ting] individuals go," if they are lawfully in the United States. So genteel. Shrrilyn Ifill:

"What we have seen repeatedly are not “stops.” They are grabs and kidnapping. Most often, no questions are asked. Even when colleagues have insisted that the person targeted by ICE agents are here legally, or that they are citizens, ICE agents proceed to tackle, beat, cuff, and spirit away individuals they have targeted. And we have seen migrants detained and forcibly taken into custody as often in courthouses after immigration hearings, or in neighborhoods cutting lawns as at Home Depot.

Kavanaugh’s claim that if ICE officers learn that you are in the country legally the officials “promptly let the individual go”? Really? Is three months “prompt”? [iii] Two months? [WGBH and KING5, iv] One month? [v] Does he care at all what ICE detention is like? Does he know what 24 hours in those facilities are like?

The Department formerly known as Defense is now willing to exercise its de facto license to kill with abandon. Never mind evidence, or due process, how quaint. That boat with 11 people in international waters off the coast of Venezuela had had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the US military blew it out of the water. ("Smoked a drug boat" as our chief psychopath's Major Warmanchild put it.)

"Legal specialists who have called it a crime to summarily kill suspected low-level smugglers as if they were wartime combatants said the revelations further undercut the administration’s claim that the strike was legally justified as self-defense."

The SCOTUS gave the president presumptive immunity from crimes, which now is imagined to extend to everyone in the administration, apparently. "[A]n apparently illegal order was passed down through the military chain of command and carried out."

Oh, and "None of the 11 people killed in a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean last week were members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua" according to Venezuela's interior minister.

6.Sept.2025

Last train to crazy town

There is a sickness upon the land, and its name is Donald J. Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, Mike Johnson and on and on. But mostly Donald J. Trump. He draws us all in to look at him. Look at him!

Look at him done up Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore from Apocalypse Now, reveling in yet another war crime, this one promised on an American city. Just look.

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.

[image or embed]

— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) September 6, 2025 at 10:37 AM

Marc Elias's post for Democracy Docket, Trump Threatens 'WAR' on Chicago, has an uncaptioned photograph from the oval office with a bust of Lincoln, the would-be King (covering his creepy right hand, not to get all Strangelovian or anything), Major Pete Hegseth who maybe thinks he's a Lieutenant Colonel now, a rather sad-looking 4-star guy, and a framed Maxfield Parrish does Ronald Reagan. The only bloody thing missing is a green apple with a bowler on it in place of Reagan's head.

Update:
Heather Cox Richardson had at the declaration of War on Chicago too, for her September 6, 2025 Letter from an American, with the decency not to include the cocked-up image. I liked this part, and added emphasis:

"Trump’s threats against American citizens are outrageous, but they also feel desperate. Trump’s popularity is tanking, the economy is faltering, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing a chorus of calls to resign or be fired, and the American people are taking to the streets. Thousands of people turned out today in Washington, D.C., for the “We Are All D.C.” march to protest the presence of troops in the city, and in Chicago for the “Chicago Says No Trump No Troops” protest. The protests are notable for the seas of signs the peaceful protesters carry.

"And then, with Congress back in session, there is the resurgence of the issue of Trump’s appearance in the Epstein files...."

Joyce Vance did share the troothed image in her piece, The American Dictator, and examined the legal angle (as usual), which is to say the not legal angle. (As if we were still a nation of laws.) And that image subtext:

"Apocalypse Now is about a man driven insane by war, a movie about how hollow war can make people."

Not that Cadet Bonespurs has been close enough to war to be driven insane, but age and a lifetime of crookedness seem to have done the job well enough. And still the Republicans follow him into battle.

My subscription renewal came up just now; it's been a year since I became a paying subscriber to Vance's substack blog, Civil Discourse. It's a good value.

That's a firing offense now

Scientific American reported late last month that the Environmental Protection Agency "fired five agency employees who signed a June declaration decrying moves that contradict science and undermine public health."

Hundreds of EPA employees had supported the declaration; most anonymously, fearing the retribution that was indeed visited on those who signed their names. Given that "the agency moved to cancel employee bargaining and grievance rights agreements earlier in August," it wasn't hard to read the room.

The known signers had been placed on leave and investigated to see if they had prepared the declaration during work hours, as if it weren't a reasonable part of their job to, you know, protect the environment.

“The Administration is blatantly lying about the sourced facts of our dissent letter, and are now blatantly retaliating and infringing on our constitutional rights,” says Michael Pasqua, an EPA employee who helps manage the safety of drinking water in Wisconsin and a signatory of the declaration.

raveling

Tom von Alten