In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

Based on a Harvard-Harris poll taken last week , Donald Trump remains the most popular political figure in the US. What does this explain? Well, I would say just about everything, starting with the January 6 committee, which has occasionally been called Impeachment 3.0. Although its stated purpose, insofar as it has one, has been to demonstrate that the January 6 demonstrations at the US Capitol were actually a planned, armed insurrection, it seems to me that its existence at all reveals a deep insecurity among the rulers that the 2020 presidential election was in fact not legitimate. We can certainly argue that any post-election audits of the votes have so far indicated there wasn't fraud widespread enough to have affected the outcome. On the other hand, the subsequent unpopularity of the winner and the continuing general sense that something's wrong has made the certified outcomes irrelevant. Thus the continued attempts to prove that 2020 skeptics are crazies in buffalo ...

Over the weekend, I've kept thinking about David Axelrod's recent remarks , "I mean this is the lot that Biden finds himself in. There is this sense that things are kind of out of control and he’s not in command." My view continues to be that it isn't a medical condition that's the problem; the problem is that the big guy is dumb as a rock, an airhead, and lazy on top of it, and he's been able to power glide through things up to now, more or less. The clip above reflects this -- he starts off with a self-satisfied smirk and an offhand wave, and then he glibly says, "Hi, everyone! Thanks for doin' this. . . Thanks!" At that point, he really seems to believe that was all he needed to do, and he begins to fumble when it dawns on him that there was more he was expected to say. Note that he's aware of his environment -- he knows he's at a political function, although he clearly doesn't think he needs to know which one it is (is t...

In the New York Times this past Monday: Less than a month after instituting a mask mandate for most indoor settings, health officials for Alameda County, the San Francisco Bay Area’s second-most populous county, lifted the order, citing improving conditions in a news release. Mask requirements were reinstated earlier this month for restaurants, bars and offices and other places, in response to increased hospitalizations and new coronavirus cases across the county, which had exceeded last summer’s Delta variant wave. The order was lifted Saturday after Alameda County, home to Oakland and 1.6 million people in the eastern Bay Area, moved from high risk to moderate risk for community transmission on Thursday, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance. Los Angeles County, which must have been humiliated to be beaten to the punch by Alameda up north, had nevertheless threatened to do the same : LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Mandatory indoor mask-wearing could ret...

Yesterday, President Biden gave a press conference at the end of the NATO summit in Madrid where he outlined the Western position on the Ukraine war. There was quite a bit of preening and bloviation, but he did announce a few details of where things might be headed: Secretary Austin just brought together more than 50 countries — more than 50 countries — pledging new commitments, and this is a global effort to support Ukraine: nearly 140,000 anti-tank systems, more than 600 tanks, nearly 500 artillery systems, more than 600,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, as well as advanced multiple launch rocket systems, anti-ship systems, and air defense systems. And again, the United States is leading the way. We provided Ukraine with nearly $7 billion in security assistance since I took office. In the next few days, we intend to announce more than $800 million more, including a new advanced Western air defense system for Ukraine, more artillery and ammunition, counter-battery radars, add...

In the Washington Examiner yesterday : Also distressing to hear were Hutchinson’s accounts of Trump’s repeated fits of rage, including dining table contents overturned and ketchup dishes thrown violently across the room. The worst by far, though, was that people immediately returning from being with Trump in the presidential vehicle told of the president trying to grab the wheel of the car to force it to be driven to the Capitol and then violently reaching for the neck of Secret Service agent Bobby Engel, who headed the president’s protective detail. Hutchinson’s testimony confirmed a damning portrayal of Trump as unstable, unmoored, and absolutely heedless of his sworn duty to effectuate a peaceful transition of presidential power. Considering the entirety of her testimony, it is unsurprising that Hutchinson said she heard serious discussions of Cabinet members invoking the 25th Amendment that would have at least temporarily evicted Trump from office. Trump is a disgrace. Republi...

I mentioned Raymond Chandler in yesterday's post. and for whatever reason, I kept thinking about him all day. Then, late in the afternoon, the news broke that at minimum, it was physically impossible for Trump to have grabbed the steering wheel of the SUV (or whatever it was) in which he was riding on January 6, and by this morning, the headlines emerged that the Secret Service was prepared to testify under oath that Trump never assaulted the driver or the other agent as former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the January 6 Committee. Then I realized that a stock figure in Hollywood noir from The Maltese Falcon to Chinatown is the pretty woman who tells lies. This is part of the secret deliciousness of the genre; women are portrayed as dishonest schemers, and it takes a disreputable but world-weary detective to penetrate the conventional wisdom and winkle out the truth, though the woman's attractiveness remains. Look at Sam Spade's final confrontation with Brig...

I've been building a detailed history file on the First Crackhead now that reporters like Andrew Kerr have been able to dig deeper into previously password-protected files on his abandoned laptop. But even before Kerr's revelations, I find that I missed this story in the New York Post from last April: Hunter Biden — who’s admitted battling addictions to booze and crack cocaine for much of his life — is living across the street from a swank rehab center where Lindsay Lohan once spent a summer drying out, The Post has learned. The scandal-scarred first son’s $20,000-a-month rental home in Southern California is located just steps from the Cliffside Malibu, one of four “residential homes” run by its namesake parent company. The price for “luxury,” in-patient treatment there isn’t advertised, but reportedly ran $68,000 for a 30-day stay nearly a decade ago. The map at the top of this post comes from that story (click on the image for a larger view). I first mentioned his Mal...