#strawberries
The Washington Post explains The Caine Mutiny ’s influence on the drafting of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
“Unraveling”
Bandy Lee, the psychiatrist who edited The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, has revealed that White House officials have been in touch with her about Donald Trump’s mental health.
Ego sum, ergo sunt
Trump says that when he’s no longer president, The New York Times and CNN will cease to exist.
John McCain (1936–2018)
“We live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil.”
“Closing In”
A Barry Blitt New Yorker cover.
“The best witches”
From a New York Times editorial : “For a witch hunt, Mr. Mueller’s investigation has already bagged a remarkable number of witches.”
Not on a first-name basis
One sign of the reality-TV-ification of everything these days is the reduction of persons in political life to first names.
Today in history
“August 5, 1974, was the day the Nixon Presidency ended.... “On August 5, 2018, precisely forty-four years after the collapse of the Nixon Presidency, another President, Donald Trump, made his own public admission.”
“I can’t ‘take it’”
In The New York Times , Christopher Gibbs, a corn, soybean, and cattle farmer and Trump voter, offers his thoughts about tariffs.
ProPublica on shelters
Is it crimes against humanity yet?
“DEMENTED WORDS”
I look forward to the day when we are no longer a country that will stand for Donald Trump’s demented words of violence and death. Also his demented words of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and vilification of all who oppose him.
More negatives
“I can’t believe Michael would do this to me”? “I can’t believe Michael wouldn’t do this to me"?
Not unaware
About that alleged double negative earlier this week: I’m not unaware of it.
“A Lassie Classic”
A New Yorker Cartoon of the Day, by Mary Lawton.
“Thumbs-Up”
A New Yorker cover: “Thumbs-Up,” by Barry Blitt.
Meddling
A column in The Washington Post says, “Stop calling it ‘meddling.’” I’m there. Or was there and am there. I wrote about this word in February 2018.
“Wake up”
Representative Adam Schiff (D, California-28), characterizing Donald Trump’s performance in Helsinki.
Asset and handler
Jonathan Chait, writing in New York , presents a compelling argument that Trump–Russia has been going on for a very long time.
A message for Donnie
“Yer jaiket’s oana shoogly peg, Donnie.”
Principiis obsta and finem respice
Post-WWII, a professor of philology (“Middle High German was my life”) speaks.
“The donor class”
“I think that a lot of Democratic politics has been about trying to find the least offensive cause to the donor class to rally people around while stepping on the fewest toes”: Jeff Beals, Democratic candidate in a New York congressional primary race, from the most recent episode of This American Life.
I’m not sure there’s even an A.Word.A.Day word for this one
The New York Times examines the close relationship between our president and the son of a retiring Supreme Court justice.
Words from politics
This week from Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day , words from politics: malfeasance, nepotism, emolument, collusion, impeach. Yep. They all fit.
Reason to hope
Michael Bechloss, historian of the American presidency, has thoughts that give me some reason to hope.
“Against aspiring authoritarians, and wolves of all kinds”
Cass Sustein on “the ultimate safeguard against aspiring authoritarians, and wolves of all kinds.”
20,000 children
“Zero-tolerance” policies never work well. These preparations bode a humanitarian nightmare — something like a junior version of Guantanamo Bay.
Flip-flop
“Rarely has the White House so tacitly and unmistakably admitted to overplaying its hand. And rarely has it so blatantly copped to its own dishonesty about its actions.”
Recently updated
John Shimkus, now with a position, or an evasion, really.
Recently updated
John Shimkus, still missing in action.
A “government handout video”
You’re a real profile in courage, John Shimkus.