“It may be a very good sort of penitence in a vagabond, who has wasted the best time of his life, to go back then to decent people that he never was a credit to, and live upon them; but it’s not my sort. The best kind of amends then, for having gone away, is to keep away, in my opinion.”
[NYTimes]: Amid Scrutiny, Paul Manafort Leaves Republican Convention Role
Eight years after helping Donald J. Trump get elected — and four years after being released from prison — the longtime political operative was back as a volunteer to advise the G.O.P. convention. By Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
Important read. [Gifted article, no paywall. The Washington Post] Under Putin, a militarized new Russia rises to challenge U.S. and the West By Robyn Dixon
In Putin’s bid to recast Russia as a global superpower, he champions a society built on pro-war activism, puritanical values and scaled-back social rights. https://wapo.st/3yhcopj
More than 116,000 Russians were tried under repressive criminal or administrative articles during Putin’s most recent term, the highest since Stalinist times, according to a study by Proekt, an investigative Russian news outlet.
“The country is turning into an absolutely totalitarian state. There is complete lawlessness. There is no democracy. There are rich people and slaves, that’s all.” Askhabali Alibekov, jailed Putin critic
There’s a dystopian edge to the new Russia. Peace activists, young and old, are behind bars, while convicted murderers, rapists and other violent criminals have been set free — pardoned by Putin to fight in Ukraine. Some are returning from war and committing horrific crimes.
[NBC News]: Clarence Thomas says critics are pushing 'nastiness' and calls Washington a 'hideous place'
The Supreme Court justice said that “reckless” people in Washington, D.C., will “bomb your reputation.” Via AP
Esther describes a thunderstorm having taken shelter in a hunting lodge: “we sat, just within the doorway, watching the storm. It was grand to see how the wind awoke, and bent the trees, and drove the rain before it like a cloud of smoke; and to hear the solemn thunder, and to see the lightning; and, while thinking with awe of the tremendous powers by which our little lives are encompassed,
to consider how beneficent they are, and how upon the smallest flower and leaf there was already a freshness poured from all this seeming rage, which seemed to make creation new again.”
[NYTimes]: Giuliani Is Suspended by WABC, and His Radio Show Is Canceled
The radio station disciplined Rudolph W. Giuliani after he violated company policy by trying to discuss the legitimacy of the 2020 election on the air.
Illustration: Where Nemo has been buried
“Is this place of abomination, consecrated ground?’
‘I don’t know nothink of consequential ground,’ says Jo, still staring.
‘Is it blessed?’
‘WHICH?’ says Jo, in the last degree amazed.
‘Is it blessed?”
Dickens possessed copies of G. A. Walker’s Series of Lectures on the Actual Condition of the Metropolitan Graveyards (1846) which detail the dreadful conditions in London burial grounds.”
I am liking @VillalonaLaw on w @AnaCabrera on @Msnbc but -- I must disagree w Villalona's characterization of Trump chomping at the bit to testify. Donald Trump, himself, is a coward -- He himself is unwilling, & afraid to testify. That is a performance--A show.
Joe Biden is bring economic strength and jobs to Wisconsin; opening A.I. Microsoft research center in Racine.
Donald Trump, we are talking about his mushroom pee-pee, a night with a porn star while his new wife and 4 month old are back in NY.
split screen
[The Washington Post]: Company fined $650K for hiring children to clean meatpacking plants
A judge approved a consent order finding that Fayette Janitorial Service LLC sent teens to clean razor-edged machinery with dangerous chemicals. By María Luisa Paúl
