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One of wonderful facets of the Substack platform is that when I target a Monday morning drop and work on that through the day on Saturday, the Sunday morning papers always offer the possibility of moving what was the central focus of the piece down at least one notch. That is what happened this morning (Sunday, 6 March), as this post was originally built around my perception of COVID’s petering out, and mistrust of my own feelings on the subject.
This is because disgraced ex-President Donald Trump decided to give a speech in New Orleans last night, not before some random group of mouth-breathing supporters, but before an “elite” group of GOP donors, and the tweet above gives one an indication of the quality of oration. Remember folks, this isn’t some nutjob talk show host. This was the President of the United States, who did in fact have his finger on the nuclear trigger, and who would have it again if the current state of the GOP is to be believed.
If your 12 year old said what Trump said above at the dinner table, you would dismiss it out of hand. But plenty of people read that dreck and cheer it on. This is a man who when the Ukraine invasion started, praised Putin and denigrated Ukraine. A few days later, after it seemed that a good bit of the GOP was decidedly against the invasion, he began singing a new tune, and pointed to the fact that Putin did not make such an incursion when he was President.
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has a theory about why Putin waited, and I think it is a good one. Why invade, when Trump would almost certainly have tried to pull the U.S. out of NATO in a second term? Destroying NATO would have been Putin’s most sought after goal, and he was happy to have his old friend Donald make it happen.
The bottom line here folks, is that Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to U.S. national security. He was in 2016 when he was running for office, he was while he occupied the office, and he remains one as long as he sits atop one of the two major political parties in the U.S. Every single GOP Member of Congress, would-be Member of Congress, or Presidential hopeful should be relentlessly hounded with the quote in the Tweet above and asked whether they supported the former President’s position. This is not the same as forcing politicians to defend the rantings of fringe elements. This is the former President, a man who is the favorite to win the GOP nomination, and he said it to a group of donors.
And for those who served in Trump’s Administration and who seek to distance themselves from the shame of that stain, now would be a good time to get on record the view that he is unfit.
Nearing COVID’s End? Maybe.
The picture above is taken in my backyard. Well, not MY backyard, really. The Lady of the Manor’s backyard. Her transcendent kindness and patience allow me to bunk here, which I have enthusiastically done for nigh on 15 years. I share this with you not only as a means of expressing my bottomless gratitude, but to invite your attention to the carpet of purplish flowers in the foreground. These (I am told) are “crocus”, and there is a reason I invite your attention thereto. Sometime in February of 2008—my first February in this abode—up popped just such a scene, and not being much of a floral expert (or man of the country for that matter), I pointed out to The Lady (Catherine) that we must be in line for an early spring, based on all of those flowers popping out. An early spring would be just another of the spectacular advantages of moving 75 miles east (driving miles from Arlington to Easton), and I was ready to break out my shorts and flip-flops. I don’t recall exactly her reaction, but it involved at least a chuckle and a “don’t bet on it”. She was of course, correct. These suckers head-fake me EVERY YEAR into thinking that winter is over, and then the cosmically crappy March weather hits including at least a few more freezes and generally another dusting of snow. The crocus—having done their job of bamboozling me—disappear, as we await the first blossoms of spring at the approved time.
I lay this all out to you right now because I am concerned that the declining death rates and hospitalization rates, along with the increasing number of logical and reasonable relaxations of COVID mitigation measures that our local, state, and federal overlords are approving—are just COVID crocus. Why, I walked into the Pentagon just the other day and there were people NOT WEARING MASKS there, all of whom could do so without fear of the gendarme. Here in my Eastern Shore Shangri-la, fewer and fewer people bother to wear masks indoors, and I am okay with that. I imagine that I am like most of you, looking forward to COVID becoming something that we talk about, rather than something that we do much about. It seems we are getting closer to that. Fingers crossed.
I sent Catherine an “upcoming travel” run-down for the next four months, and it resembles the pace of the before days, when there was no COVID and I gobbled up United miles. Things would really improve if among the new relaxations, masks on planes and in airports could become optional. It is kind of a drag to put a mask on when one parks at the airport, and then take it off (for other than eating/drinking) eight hours later. But you know the routine. We’ve all done it together.
Digital Minimalism SITREP
So, I’ve been on this Digital Minimalism thing for about seven weeks now, and progress has generally been good, with a little backsliding here and there.
On the side of the good: Twitter and Facebook remain stricken from my phone, which causes me to look at the New York Times, CNN, and Washington Post more than I used to. But I’m still nose down in the phone a hell of a lot less than I used to be. Silence in the car—sticking to it religiously for trips under an hour (no radio or podcasts). Running errands yesterday (four grocery stores and the dry cleaner, don’t ask) was done in silence, and I mostly kicked around what I was gonna write in this piece. I’ve cut way down on my Tweeting and Facebook, mostly avoiding both after six pm and on eShabbat.
On the side of the bad: I’m finding the restrictions I set for myself on binging streaming television more difficult to abide by than I thought. Also, while I continue to ask myself “Does the world really need to read this?” before I tweet or post, some crap has made it past this filter.
All in all though, I’m reading more, thinking more, and staring at screens less. Winning.
UVA Basketball
I’m sorry, but we have to go there. Virginia beat a troubled Louisville team yesterday, and now it is time to turn to the ACC Tournament and March Madness. I really do like this time of year. But it must be said, UVA’s performance this year left a good bit to be desired, and the only real chance left of us making “The Big Dance” is to win the ACC Tournament and its automatic bid. I put this chance at less than 5 in 100.
I find myself wondering about the long-term prospects of my love of college basketball, as changes to the sport leave me thinking that what we are seeing is the development of what is going to essentially be the Single A and Double A equivalent of baseball’s minor league, while the “G-League” acts as AAA. In the olden days, there was college basketball and the pros. Very, very few college players made it to the pros, and while players were in college, their mobility was restricted by NCAA rules designed to keep them where they were, and there was nothing they could do legally to supplement the benefits of their athletic scholarships. All that has changed. Players can pick up and leave a program without sitting out a year, and this is happening with frightening regularity as scores of entitled snowflakes who have been told that they were NBA stars in the making grow frustrated with less playing time than they had in their AAU teams and high school. They are permitted to make money from contracts protecting their “Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL)” while they are in college (essentially bringing above the table what the SEC has been doing beneath the table for decades. Did I say that out loud? Sorry). The best among them split after a year in college for the first two rounds of the NCAA draft, the leavings alight soon thereafter in vainglorious hope of getting “picked up” from the G-League, and college basketball increasingly will subsist of what is left over. This doesn’t even count the few who look at even a year in college as inconvenient and head straight for the G-League or international teams.
I suppose we’ll see how this all shakes out and how it impacts the quality of play. Will it decline slowly over time, so slowly that we are unable to see the difference from year to year even as we accept more turnovers, lower shooting percentages, and less athleticism? Or will we recognize it as it is happening and slowly lose interest in a lower quality product? Or will there be no difference whatsoever? I don’t know. But I do know I’ll be in Las Vegas in November 2022 to watch my Hoos play in an early season tournament (Tix, flight, and room already booked, natch). Hope springs eternal.
Etc.
Polish mothers left strollers at a train station for Ukrainian mothers with small children who escaped without them. God bless everyone involved.
Chef Jose Andres is one of those guys who walks the walk. Americans are generously opening up their hearts and wallets to Ukraine—this isn’t a bad place for some of that cash.