"We merely believed two of the most powerful cultural icons of our time. Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton..."

"... each pointed my generation of aspirational teenagers toward a Black Camelot.... [Cosby] invested the cultural capital of being America’s dad into becoming America’s minister on Black aspirations. Despite being raised in subsidized public housing in Philadelphia, the comedian Cosby merged with the well-to-do Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable of 'The Cosby Show.' That’s the Bill who built Hillman to show Black families what was possible. But it was another Bill — William Jefferson Clinton — who made Cosby’s fictional world feel like an early draft of the real world. Clinton gave us Black cool in a white Southern package. He was from a place called Hope, like a divinely chosen character we could have learned about in vacation Bible school. He played saxophone on 'The Arsenio Hall Show' and prayed well in Black churches. His casual affinity with and for Black Southern culture was political gold...."

Writes Tressie McMillan Cottom, in a new piece in the NYT called "I Believed in the Promise of Hillman College. What Happened?"

"I mean, sometimes I like feeling nothing but sometimes it's it's fun to feel something."

Thanks to Lem, in the previous post, for pointing to this video, which has Nathan Fielder exploring the concept of "cringe."

Back in 2013, I blogged about the word "cringe." People were admiring "cringe-inducing" comedy, notably "The Office," which I wouldn't watch, because it made me feel bad. I mean, I like to feel something, but not bad.

"On Saturday, Mr. Trump proposed a follow-on to Space Force: a new 'A.I. Force.'"

"But he left to earthbound speculation what, exactly, it was supposed to do. Mr. Trump cast his announcement — along with his promise to appoint a new A.I. 'Czar' for the White House — as an effort to boost the A.I. industry, saying 'we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it.' In the roiling debate in Washington over regulating frontier A.I. models and the companies that produce them, or slowing down development until the mystery is solved about the summer in which A.I. agents went rogue, Mr. Trump continues to side with the 'accelerationists,' who call for the government to stay out of the way.... Mr. Trump did not make clear whether he envisioned the new A.I. Force as a military command or a civilian agency or department."

From "A.I. Gone Rogue? Trump Proposes Not New Rules but an ‘A.I. Force.’/The president proposed a follow-up to his Space Force but continued to dismiss worries about A.I.’s pace or potential for harm" (NYT gift link).

Appointing a so-called "czar" is an old presidential trick, but which President started it?

It's never been an official title (of course!) but it was Woodrow Wilson, during WWI, who had the first "czars" — an "industry czar" and a "railroad czar."

"Through much of the 19th century, noncitizen voting expanded alongside U.S. territorial gains..."

"(the government offered the vote to Europeans who helped dispossess Indians and colonize the West). But in the mid- to late 1800s, immigrants started to become scapegoats for changes that native-born Americans saw as threatening.... Confederates banned immigrant suffrage during the Civil War because they thought migrating Europeans were anti-slavery, while northern states rolled back voting rights in reaction to waves of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century, which they associated with crime. By 1926, no state let noncitizens vote in federal elections. In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, making noncitizen voting in federal elections a crime...."

Writes Zak Cheney-Rice, in "The Fear of Noncitizen Voting/For Trump, it is the death of America. For liberals, 'Woke 1' excess. Why is noncitizen voting so terrifying?" (New York Magazine).

Trump styles.

🚨WOW: President Bill Clinton has COPIED President Trump's signature red 45-47 hat, now wearing a red 42 hat.

Trump owns our culture and style, and if you can't beat them, join them!

Even Bill Clinton can't deny it. pic.twitter.com/5HtLdDOEPx

— Bo Loudon (@BoLoudon) July 21, 2026

"I do love revenge, I will say that,' adds Meeropol, 57, taking a sip from an iced Americano... 'I’d always loved revenge movies."

That's from "The woman behind E Jean Carroll: I do love revenge, I will say that/Ivy Meeropol has made a film starring one of Trump’s biggest foes. And she has her own beef with the president — dating back to her grandparents’ execution" (London Times).

Meeropol = Ivy Meeropol, the documentarian who made a movie about the man, Roy Cohn, who "helped to send her grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, to the electric chair, leaving her father orphaned at the age of ten." Now, Meeropol has a movie about E. Jean Carroll.

A few days ago, Carroll finally received the $5.6 million she won in her lawsuit against Trump, and Meeropol said: "This historic moment shows that our legal system — established almost 250 years ago to serve as a check against absolute power — still works. E Jean used to sign off from her television show in the mid-Nineties saying, 'Fate loves the fearless,' and it couldn’t be more appropriate today...."

Much has been made of the fact that Carroll is not a perfect MeToo victim.

Alan Greenspan lived to be 100.

I'm reading "Alan Greenspan, Fed Chairman Through Prosperity and Crisis, Dies at 100/The pre-eminent economic policymaker of his time and a skilled political operator, he favored market-friendly stances that would later come to be associated with destructive financial forces" (NYT).

Even as Mr. Greenspan skillfully managed interest rates in a way that kept the economy humming along, he remained leery of confronting a danger he well recognized: that the low-inflation, easy-money environment he had helped create was putting the United States at risk by fueling unsustainable investment booms. And he remained reluctant to act as banks and investment firms adopted complex new trading techniques that would come to wreak great damage. At the Fed, he was remarkably successful at what he considered the central banker’s primary task of holding down inflation. He also helped the United States deal with periodic shocks, including a stock market crash just weeks after he took office, the near-meltdown of Asian financial markets a decade later and the aftereffects of the 2001 terrorist attacks....

From my blog archive:

October 23, 2008

"A flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.”

Greenspan says oops.

And there was a time when I was reading Greenspan's autobiography:

"You did it all with such grace and class and cool that you made the hardest job in the world look like a walk in this beautiful park."

Said Michelle Obama, as "Mr. Obama looked down and wiped away tears."

She's quoted in "Presidents Line Up for Obama’s Long-Awaited Center in Chicago/Thursday’s opening drew four former presidents, as well as Bruce Springsteen, Bono and Jennifer Hudson. Chicago has seen years of planning and legal fights" (NYT).

Biden was there too, bearing with unbearable sorrow:

"The Iran war must end with a decisive victory. And that victory can only be achieved in one of two ways..."

"Either Iran capitulates or the U.S. launches a final flurry of military strikes. Trump has given the regime every opportunity to sue for peace, and it has rejected his overtures. It is admirable that Trump is taking his time. He understands that what he is doing is important and cannot be rushed. But it is also true that he cannot declare victory until either Iran cries uncle — or he finishes the job."

Writes Marc A. Thiessen in "Trump is 14 days from decisive victory in Iran/The regime won’t deal and the blockade alone won't break it. Only military action will" (WaPo).

ADDED: Elsewhere in WaPo, there's "What will happen when the clock strikes 60 days on Trump’s war/Clinton's precedent will allow Trump to keep fighting Iran without congressional approval."

Can we talk a little bit about beauty filters?

I'm told this is Rosie O'Donnell, inviting us to "talk a little bit about Eric Swalwell. If she's actually ready to get serious about the interests of women, why is she presenting herself like this?

Rosie O’Donnell speaks out about her past support for Eric Swalwell.

“It’s heartbreaking to me. And I wrote him a little message. And I said ‘Bill Clinton broke my heart and you did too.’ The conclusion I’ve come to- men suck.” pic.twitter.com/QP1nBuQDUc

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 16, 2026

She's used some kind of filter that makes her look like a little girl. That actually fits the substance. She's posing as an innocent girl whose "heart" was broken when men she supported revealed themselves to be abusers of women. She wants us to be angry at them because they hurt her — they broke her heart. First Clinton and now Swalwell. Her conclusion is babyish: "Men suck." 

Then she takes on a believe-the-science attitude: "The way that [men] are physiologically, they can't, sort of, control their sexual urges." After saying that, she touches her nose and cheek in a way that makes me think she knows she's bullshitting.

Notice that it's basically the same bullshit theory we were talking about 2 days ago in "The problem is less a 'boys will be boys' tolerance than a sense of resignation among politicians, staff and other members of official Washington that powerful, ambitious men are built differently."  That post title is a quote from a NYT column. The columnist, Michelle Cottle did not detail this "built differently" hypothesis, so I paraphrased it: "the idea is if we want truly great men in our positions of power, we need to accept the component of their psyche that is a drive for sex — a lot of sex, with young, beautiful women."

The Bill and Hillary tango.

Somewhere on the streets of New York City, what's going on?

Watch as Bill Clinton almost pushes Hillary into an intersection in NYC.

(elderordonez1) pic.twitter.com/PndtE2eMkb

— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) March 11, 2026

In "happier" times:

Bill Clinton looking at the Epstein files.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Caroline Baniewicz (@carolinebaniewicz)

ADDED: Here's a reference video — Bill Clinton enjoying something in the Epstein files that his lawyer attempts to remove from his line of sight and his reflexive emotional reaction.

"Do flight attendants typically wear tank tops and jeans?"

Bill Clinton says he thought the victims on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane were flight attendants.

Q: “Do flight attendants typically wear tank tops and jeans?”

*Long pause*

CLINTON: “They don’t all wear uniforms on private planes.” pic.twitter.com/w1vgHOAfF8

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 3, 2026

Full context:

"But even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause."

"We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long. And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him."

Said Bill Clinton, in his opening statement.

As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals. pic.twitter.com/0rX8cat5Pu

— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) February 27, 2026

"The Clintons are likely to be asked why, long after Maxwell had been publicly accused of trafficking girls with Epstein in 2009, she was still welcome at events with the couple."

"In 2010, Maxwell attended the wedding of the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, and in 2013 was a guest at the Clinton Global Initiative conference. The former president Clinton also attended a dinner with Maxwell in Los Angeles as late as 2014, according to reports.... Speaking to Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney-general, Maxwell said Bill was 'my friend, not Epstein’s friend.' She said: 'President Clinton liked me, and we got along terribly well. But I never saw that warmth with Mr Epstein.'"

From "The questions Bill and Hillary Clinton need to answer about Epstein files
The couple will be questioned, starting on Thursday, over pictures with the paedophile and emails to Ghislaine Maxwell. What will they have to explain?" (London Times).

"For almost the entirety of her married life, she has had to answer questions about her husband’s action."

"She has supported him throughout. There is no reason for her to have to suffer this last indignity. She has nothing to do with it. It is infuriating. She is a global icon, a trailblazer for women. It is heartbreaking that she has to do this."

Said Patti Solis Doyle, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton, quoted in "For Hillary Clinton, an Epstein Deposition Is the Latest ‘Stand by Your Man’ Moment/The former first lady, senator and secretary of state had no dealings with Jeffrey Epstein but is once again under pressure to answer for the actions and relationships of her husband" (NYT).

Should "a trailblazer for women" vouch for a man who has abused women? But maybe what Hillary knows is that no abuse was involved within Bill's relationship to Jeffrey.

Mr. Clinton had a relationship with Mr. Epstein years before Mr. Epstein’s sex crimes conviction. The former president took four trips on Mr. Epstein’s private jet in 2002 and 2003 and appears in photographs in the files released by the Justice Department. But Mrs. Clinton did not. She has said that she “cannot recall ever speaking to Epstein,” and that she met Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime associate, only a few times. During the period when Mr. Clinton was building the Clinton Global Initiative and interacting with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell, Mrs. Clinton “was busy being a U.S. senator,” said Ms. Doyle, who worked for her at the time. “She was not involved.”

I wonder if the members of Congress will be satisfied with the assertion that to be a member of Congress is to be too busy to get into mischief. 

Meet Jeffrey Epstein.

wild find, how the media first introduced Jeffrey Epstein 25 years ago https://t.co/RZLXdHQvKr

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 10, 2026

AND: As long as I'm embedding things from Mike Benz this morning:

"You know, if you're if you're a 70-year-old billionaire, you can't walk into a bar... and meet an 18-year-old.... I'm presuming these things are facilitated at private parties..."

"... and it needs to, you know, for a lot of these guys, it has to be discreet. You know, they've got wives, they've got reputations, and you know, there's an aspect of this that plays out at every institution. I worked at a New York law firm and... there's ways that you can make partner — at least this was kind of the vibe that I felt. Some people make partner because they're really good technically.... There are some people who move up because of nepotism.... There are some people... who brought in one client... a really big rainmaker. And there are some people who move up because they open doors to partners while they're associates. They introduce them to someone. They host events. They've got tickets to exclusive things. And the partners just like being around that person because they get access to that person in a currency that they can't get on their own. And that includes hosting cool exotic parties, having attractive women."

Politico chooses the photograph with the blue dress.

Link.

Can you interpret a photograph?

The fall of man.

Noam Chomsky, the world’s most famous critic of power structures, photographed at 30,000 feet with Jeffrey Epstein. pic.twitter.com/zi05lGSrfX

— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) December 19, 2025

And what does Bill Clinton in a hot tub mean?

ADDED: If you drop Bill Clinton in a pot of boiling water, he will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place him gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, he will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, Bill Clinton will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on his face, him will unresistingly allow himself to be cooked into a sumptuous feast for.... Well, I don't know who it's for, but Bill sure looks dreamily blissful.

(See "Boiled Frog" (Wikipedia) for my source material, the version of the apologue in Daniel Quinn's "The Story of B.").