“'Morality is for suckers,“ Trump might say.

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“So, what are you going to do about it?“

Protest!

“Whatever.“: “Vance ironically acknowledged the yelling and shouts of ‘You ruined this place!’ [Kennedy Center for the Arts] with a smile and
a wave,“ notes The Guardian.

“Department of Education to investigate UC Berkeley for DEI-related claims,“ The Daily Californian.

“...Federal officials told [Columbia] university it must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under ‘academic receivership for a minimum of five years.‘ The demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including $400 million already pulled over allegations of antisemitism,“ AP, i.e., protesting Israel’s degree of military activity. | Mar. 21: But the real reason seems to be revenge for his failing the “art of the deal.” Anyway, Columbia caves in, which creates an extortionist venue evincing considerations of principle by the President of Princeton.

humble attitudes of highland altitude

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Wandering through my textual garden…

Is that a frivolous trope for my library?

No: The work of having gathered preferred flourishings into my own constellation mirrors an oriental holism of value that can prevail over ephemeral news, soon forgotten in disjointing days of our times.

Our times?

We have in common this medium, what may be said, preferring to be here, giving time to this.

aftermath of a regression for the mean: Trump 1.01

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I live in a state—a nation: California (12% of U.S. pop.)—which voted strongly for Harris, for the Democrats’ Harris. I live in this world.

So, should I bother analyzing why a slight (sleighted) majority of the continent’s population prefers a showman, a propagandist, a carnival magician, a salesman playing power broker?

That’s something to explain relative to one’s interests in political life, integral for me generally.

facets of evolutionary dissonance

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Who in the U.S. isn’t tired of the presidential election season? And I’m despaired about the degree of appeal that fascist Trump has in the world’s most “advanced” (pluralist) “democracy” (federation, which eludes the E.U.). (Nordic nations work well politically because they’re much more—still—ethnically homogeneous.)

Among many comments I make weekly at Washington Post articles,
this article on truthlessness in our politics caused this comment today, which implicitly laments the developmental relativity of political sense. (“FEMA” there is the Federal Emergency Management Administration,)

Bloomsday for greater humanity

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Leaders from the great plurality of nations, meeting in Switzerland, may have seemed to voice platitudes in their communique, but ask yourself: What can ultimately cohere humanity “fruitful[ly], comprehensive[ly] and constructive[ly]” other than sanctified commitment to the United Nations Charter and fidelity to UN-congruent international law by collaborative global political leadership?

The Summit photo is almost enough: “We are here. ‘High-level’ dialogue will prevail.”

for united nations evolving Palestinian prosperity

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At the New York Times, the excellent article on “…Biden’s Clash with Netanyahu…” caused my short comment, which brought a couple of replies, but the Times stopped new comments before I could post a second reply. In case you’re not a subscriber to the pay-walled site, here’s my comment, replies, and the reply which I couldn’t post:

me: I want to see more attention given to how collaborative regional leadership can lead to a Palestinian state which Israel can accept (especially by helping that to be so, in partnership); and extended attention given to how all regional powers can collaborate to rebuild Gaza.  

We need a vision for hope which is realistic and detailed, so that we have better reason to endure too much news about unbearable tragedy; so that Israel can be seen to serve constructive aims; and so that Palestinians can focus their energies on self-determination, not mere recovery.

more exemplary persons

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One of the great dimensions of democracy is the well-informed citizen. But time for that is stolen by the normal job world. Nevertheless, sustaining principled journalism is a noble profession.

A great exemplar was Robert McNeil, who died today at 93 (News Hour tribute video). This memorable man of art, as well as addict of news which matters, noted some years ago (tribute video: 10:00 min.) that “Winston Churchill said...the empires of the future are going to be empires of the mind.”