[Sarcastic, not so naive, actually critical of most sanctions as a tactic the U.S. has used, but frustrated as fuck at the lack of… agency, principles, justice.] So now, finally, this is the part where the U.S. gets sanctioned, right?
Photos
By A. Litteri in Union Market
A couple of photos from the No Kings rally in DC
I appreciate the ecumenical critiques. Not to “both-sides” it: there are significant differences and fairly one-sided undemocratic reasons for the complete deadlock, but the clippy sign could very well stand the test of time. I had my ear out for process and not just content critiques from the stage.
"Snake in the grass"
Just some curious bullshit
What appeared to be RFK Jr’s old 2024 presidential campaign bus was parked (illegally) outside the Pierce School condominiums in northeast DC on September 16. This location is also known for hosting a crypto party aligned with Trump’s inauguration and being a place Musk and other DOGE figures early in the administration.
I have no other context, but found it weird to see. I found it vaguely notable that it happened between RFK Jr’s grilling before the Senate Finance Committee last week and his fired CDC director’s testimony before the Senate HELP Committee yesterday. That’s probably a coincidence.
If RFK Jr. hadn’t bought a multimillion dollar home in Georgetown upon his appointment, I’d say it would fit that he’d be living in the old campaign bus (down by the river?) when in DC.
Whatever the actual story, DC has enough Dear Leader banners of Trump being hung off of Heritage Foundation, Agriculture and Labor buildings, we don’t need an outdated totem of failure emblazoned with our other narcissist-in-residence rolling around town.
We’re getting snowed but I don’t mean the weather.
Tuesday’s rally outside the Treasury Department building, along 15th Street NW between F and G.
Yesterday outside the Department of Labor
Snow day!
Alternative Capitol Hill sledding location at Eastern High School with the U.S. Capitol locked-down for election certification.
It’s been a while since I posted an indulgent, vapid photo like this. Cheers, you filthy animals.
Some photos from around a foggy U.S. Capitol this morning.
Assateague National Seashore
This’ll do.
Snow day
He whose face shall not be posted surveying the National Mall from the bottom of the sledding track on the Senate side.
(Apparently, later, actual Nazis came out. Pretty much since this dude was born, I’ve not gone out to document the actual self-described fascists who come to town, but there have been many. :/ )
Adjourned to the porch.
I said “it’s gonna freeze tonight, going to take the hose off, back in a minute.” The hint to the contrary was the whiskey in hand.
Ugh.
Semper fuck you
Or “Can there be closure for a wound carved by systemic failure?"
I’ve visited on or close to the anniversary more years than not since I’ve been an adult in the region with access to a car. This time felt like a little bigger deal—a big round number. It is 30 years to the day since we lost my uncle. This time it was more explicitly acknowledged that my going was on behalf of the whole family.
Today a couple of them talked about him with me more than I have heard in a long time.
My father, his oldest brother, told me today he doesn’t remember the funeral. He was there. My dad brought us all down. My family showed up for funerals. My baby sisters had been to more than a few already. He was obviously torn up, but I did not realize how deep it cut until that comment today.
I realized that I remember this particular funeral, which I attended right around my 12th birthday, with more detail than all the rest (dozens, maybe hundreds, including 3 grandparents). I have detailed pictures and reels in my mind of the solemn ceremonies and procession; the deference to our family while we were on the Naval Academy grounds. The funeral mass in the Naval Academy Chapel. The 3-volley 7-rifle salute. Was there a flyover? Taps. The folding and handover of the flag to my grandmother. The slow drives in government vehicles. The crabs and beers and tears and laughter in the Officers Club. The crisp salutes from plebes, cadets, and officers offered along these routes to us—to him.
I retraced those steps, again, today. I even got a half-cocked almost salute from a fresh plebe before he corrected himself.
I have a letter from my uncle, from some helicopter carrier, written while he was in the Sea of Japan or nearby, which I treasured when he was alive and is priceless now. He had the kind of pull that might’ve sent me a different way if we hadn’t lost him. He was a true believer in a way I am not. I don’t know who he’d be now, at 67. I extrapolate ideas of him, as I’m sure all in my family do, projecting their best version of intentions and wiser reactions to current events into the void.
The sad fact that never goes away: we lost one of the most magnetic people in our family, a natural leader, a hard-driving person who was coming into a new version of himself as fatherhood loomed, all due to the indifference of the military-industrial complex. I don’t know how much my family has wrapped their heads around that.
I’m learning it takes decades to process. Maybe forever.
Semper Fi and all that…
Adobe to discontinue Creative Cloud syncing — this is probably the push I need to ditch Lightroom and move to a different cataloging tool (on top of my other cloud and local storage) and a different editor/“darkroom” tool. I do miss Aperture.
A last week in Chincoteague, Virginia.
Planespotting
Dave and Art did enough damage.
…the least we can do is take their money and run. Or something.
Today was the first day in a while without structured plans and without starting out with a steaming hot morning en route to a 90F high, only to feel even hotter.
So my son and I got on the bike and went to our town’s free museums… yes, the Smithsonian Institution. We’re lucky to have this and I try to remember that and make use of them, for my own benefit, but especially for my toddler’s. That said, I glaze over portions I think I know sometimes… and sometimes I discover something that might’ve been on display for years because I was finally paying attention. Among the nuggets today was a little bit of locking on to a couple of the big donor names behind some of the exhibits, and the politics of those names still being on plaques or carved in stone, despite disgrace or challenging content.
The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (my son calls it the “Dinosaur Museum,") and its Hall of Fossils doesn’t seem to shy away from Climate Change education. I say that because it is the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils and that pig fucker spent a lot more of his money to stop society from understanding and confronting the climate crisis. Either the Smithsonian didn’t agree to any dictates on the substance of exhibits (Koch’s name is also all over a massive human evolution exhibit which seems both accessible and solid, as far as I can tell), or they said “fuck you, Dave,” after he died. I assume the former.
Meanwhile, across the Mall, at the National Museum of Asian Art, once more prominently known as the Freer & Sackler Galleries they’ve changed the emphasis, but have apologized for having to technically keep the Sackler name on the gallery. Apparently, they’d have to give up a bunch of their stuff.
I don’t know the true how and why behind all this, but it sure seems that one museum was better at negotiating a donation and its conditions than the other.
Over at the American History Museum, in General Motors Hall of Transportation, also paid for by ExxonMobil, among others, the electric car does get a mention, as does Ralph Nader… but you kind of have to know the current state of the art and some of the history to appreciate the effort made to get that technology (and its long history!) and, separately, Ralph (a friend, a former boss), included in this exhibit.
On the Washington Channel last night.
