nytimes.com/2022/06/06/opi…

Was Trump aware that he was breaking the law? You usually need intent to be convicted of a crime. But if the defendant is crazy, bat-shit crazy, and cannot appreciate the nature and quality of his acts, he’s insane, and you need to incarcerate him in a rubber room.

This decision has nothing to do with stare decisis. It's a preemptory decision by an ultra-right-wing majority based on meanness. Meanness to the poor, to the disadvantaged, to African-Americans, to women. The new S.C. is now in competition with the Taliban.

How about Hitler? Was Hitler innocent because he truly believed the killing of the Jews was legally and morally justified? I don't think so. Trump should be charged. Let a jury decide whether he should be convicted of a crime or found not guilty by reason of insanity.

How come Thomas didn’t bring up Loving v. Virginia?

When I was growing up in the 60's, the Supreme Court was expanding the rights of all Americans. Now, they are taking them away. Originalism is just a smoke-screen for bigotry and misogyny.

The Amendments, as is the Constitution itself, are open to interpretation. How we interpret them is, alas, a function of politics. Hiding behind a narrow interpretation of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment is not jurisprudence, it's just narrow mindedness and meanness.

How would Clarence Thomas have voted on the Dred Scott Court? Doubtlessly, he would have voted to uphold slavery. There was no 13th or 14th Amendment.

It could come right out of film noir. "Yesterday is a hard word for me..." He is a poet after all.

Will no one notice that "American Dharma" predicted January 6th years before it happened? Sour grapes. You betcha.

Splendid piece, nybooks.com/articles/2022/…

Biden must not have been listening to the Jan. 6th Committee. It was not that Trump "lacked the courage to act," he actively conspired to overthrow the government. Peter Baker's article in the NYT, nytimes.com/2022/07/25/us/…

Danner is right. I don't want to dismiss Biden. but... Failure to declare a climate emergency, mischaracterization of January 6th, etc., etc... More than somewhat discouraging.

If it's not click-bait it doesn't exist. (The click-bait version of the cogito.)

Fred Wiseman's new film, Un Couple, becomes (indirectly) a splendid essay on the insanity of literature. From Beethoven to Tolstoy to Sofia Tolstoy to Nabokov to Wiseman. I wish I didn't have to finish movies, maybe I would have time to write.

Are Biden's addresses partisan? Is fighting against the attempted overthrow of the government partisan? I really don't think so. So why does the WSJ decline to publish an account of Biden's addresses on the front page. I guess it isn't news.

If we move the National Archives to Mar-a-Lago, then there will be no problem. All these (current) problems result from trying to make a distinction between Trump's personal property and the property of the U.S. government. Just do away with the distinction.

What happened to Twitter? I lost control.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy The Constant Gardener A Perfect Spy The final interview with John le Carré, The Pigeon Tunnel, in select theaters and streaming October 20.

Check out "Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (Suite), Op. 71a, TH. 35 - I. Miniature Overture" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on Amazon Music. music.amazon.com/albums/B0030GV…