The Watergate Hotel burglary occurred in June 1972. From 1972 to October 1973 there were four unsuccessful resolutions to impeach Nixon (two were pre-Watergate). No traction could be found on the Nixon inquiry until the House Judiciary Committee took interest in late October 1973, after the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” in which Nixon’s order to…
Tag: politics
Lessig, Ito, and Pure Absolute Fury
In the 2000’s I had a short-lived legal enthusiast blog inspired in part by law professor and legal reform activist Larry Lessig. I moved on from it after a few months but Lessig continued to be of interest to me. While I didn’t agree with everything he put forward he remained a guidepost of someone…
Quick Hit: The Wrongness of 1984 Comparisons
In the midst of Trump not only lying to try to conceal a mistaken tweet about the hurricane forecast but NOAA issuing directives against weather scientists talking about the actual, for-real forecast and contradicting him the comparisons have intensified to George Orwell’s novel 1984 and in particular the hold that The Party insisted upon about…
Quick Hit: Flight Hour Cost
A reminder: Trump misappropriated military funds meant to more safely house our troops to spend on his border wall instead. Meanwhile Trump’s July 4 parade for himself featured 2 Abrams battle tanks, a B-2 stealth bomber, 2 F-35Cs, 2 Super Hornet F-18s, 4 Apache helicopters, 2 F-22 Raptors, H-60 and H-65 helos, the BlueAngels &…
The Wellsian Mirror
I’ve struggled recently with the individual and collective response to the Trump administration. The level of inaction and unconcern feels nothing short of pathological given the material harm that’s being caused. And I’ve been unable to construct the right internal model in order to understand it until the past few days. On the whole, people…
Where did I leave that bottle? On 2017 and Trump.
The number of mixed messages is maddening. Whether we’re in a bona fide emergency or not. A constitutional crisis or governmental concerns in the context of a frantic news cycle. Steps toward a new type of government or a mechanism that largely preserves the status quo. After all, not a hell of a lot seems…