"Unfortunately, when you have a society where you do have ubiquitous crime, you do need some kind of an authoritarian leadership."

"Not saying you need tyranny, not saying you need a dictator, but you need fucking laws and you need rule of law. And sometimes those people come off very harsh and very uncaring and unloving and you know, the total opposite for, like, the reason why people voted for Jimmy Carter, I think, 'cause Jimmy Carter represented like a, like, a genuinely sweet good guy. Right. But, like, look how that presidency was a disaster 'cause they were all working against him for sure. And on top of that, it's, like, hard to, like, you gotta gotta be a bit of a hard ass if you wanna run the world...."

 Said Joe Rogan, on his #2370 podcast, transcript and audio, here, at Podscribe.

"Borgwardt told investigators that on the day he disappeared, he took a kayak out on Green Lake and brought a child-size inflatable boat with him."

"After flipping the kayak and dumping his phone in the water, he paddled the inflatable boat to shore, got on an e-bike that he had stashed at the boat launch and rode through the night to Madison, some 70 miles away, according to the complaint. There, he said, he boarded a bus to Detroit, crossed the Canadian border to Toronto Pearson International Airport and flew to Paris and then to an unspecified country in Asia. He met up with the woman, whom he had met months earlier, and eventually traveled to Georgia...."

From "Man gets 89 days in prison, for every day he faked death to leave his wife/Wisconsin man Ryan Borgwardt faked his drowning with an overturned kayak to establish a new life in Eastern Europe with a woman he met online, prosecutors said" (WaPo).

That's Georgia, Asia.

Among the things Borgwardt did in preparation for his life after fake death was get his vasectomy reversed.

"All I had to do was pretend to be entertained by their lewd gestures, and when Andrew cupped my breast with a doll made in his image, I only giggled away."

Wrote Virginia Giuffre, quoted in "Virginia Giuffre’s memoir ‘contains Prince Andrew puppet assault claim’/Posthumous memoir by victim of Jeffrey Epstein will be released in late October" (London Times).

Why did Andrew have a puppet of himself? Was this sex paraphernalia that he brought to the encounter? No. Epstein and Maxwell gave Andrew a puppet — a very ugly caricature of himself — from TV show "Spitting Image."

Funky-looking and tentacular.

I'm fascinated by the mysteries of sportswriting, and these 2 sentences jumped out at me:

Even the way he plays, all funky-looking forehands and tentacular court coverage, is far from conventional, and at times polarizing. Away from forehands and backhands, he has always been a master of the dark arts, knowing how and when to work a crowd to his advantage, and being more than willing to turn a match into a circus if he thinks it will give him an edge.

That's written by Charlie Eccleshare, at the NYT, in "Daniil Medvedev, tennis’ walking Rorschach test, asks the U.S. Open what it sees."

"Tentacular" — a word I'd never noticed before. I see that H.G. Wells used it in "The War of the Worlds" (1898), to refer to the Martians with “long, tentacular appendages.” The use to describe the tennis player is close enough to the literal meaning. Apparently Medvedev was octopuslike.

But the word has appeared with a more attenuated connection to creatures with tentacles. Grok tells me that the philosopher Donna Haraway writes about "tentacular thinking" in the book "Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene" (2016). There's some notion of "multispecies, interconnected, and responsive" thought to be distinguished from "human-centered, linear, or hierarchical" thought. I'm told there's something called "tentacular empathy" and "tentacular relatings of kinship." Strangulating, and yet I get the sense we're supposed to love it.

Of course, the octopus is a mainstay of political cartoons. Here's one from 1877 that has some present-day resonance:

Lots more here, at "The Octopus in Political Cartoons/Russia, Germany and the United States have all been depicted as octopuses by their nemeses.

Trump is everywhere, minding everybody's business.

Link and link.

Minor matters that are still on the President's agenda.

He'll definitely be finding out. You'd think other matters might come up and rank higher, leaving no time to be spent on the relationship between NBC and Seth Meyers. But no. He'll definitely be finding out.

Sunrise — 5:48, 6:13, 6:18, 6:19.

Write about anything you want in the comments.

And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"They’re overwhelmingly white and tend to have a certain kind of look. Close cropped haircuts. Windowpane suits. Golf shorts."

"They’re not the type to be telling anyone their pronouns or using the word 'queer.' And they aren’t the least bit offended that the leader of their party continues to stoke a moral panic about transgender people. They’re gay. But they’re still Republicans...."

Writes Shawn McCreesh, in "Donald Trump’s Big Gay Government/On the town with the A-Gays of Washington, who have never been happier to be out, proud and Republican" (NYT)(free-access link).

"In 2015, back when the Republican establishment was still trying to thwart Mr. Trump, [Department of Energy official Charles] Moran said that he and some other gay Republicans he knew became intrigued by the brash New Yorker’s history of saying nice things about gay rights....

"It takes one to know one, on the weight question. And the president, of course, himself, is not in good shape. So, he ought to respond to that from me."

"I would say also that his personal attacks on me are just evidence of a guy who’s still living in fifth grade. He’s the kind of bully that throws invectives at people, because he knows that what he’s saying is actually commentary on himself."

Said the rotund Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker, quoted in "Pritzker responds to Trump’s weight comments: 'It takes one to know one'" (The Hill).

This forces me to look up what Trump said, which would otherwise have been erased from my brain (if it was ever there). Let's see... here:  "We will solve Chicago within one week — maybe less.... Chicago's a disaster and the governor of Illinois should say, 'President, will you do us the honor of cleaning up our city? We need help.' They need help. They need help... We may wait -- we may or we may not. We may just go in and do it, which is probably what we should do.... I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians. The bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker. He ought to spend more time in the gym actually, the guy is a disaster."

"Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before."

"They got a Billion Dollars worth of free publicity if they play their cards right. Very tricky to do, but a great opportunity. Have a major News Conference today. Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER again. Remember, in just a short period of time I made the United States of America the 'HOTTEST' Country anywhere in the World. One year ago, it was 'DEAD.' Good luck!"

Said Trump, who seems to involve himself in everything, in a Truth Social post.

I wasn't going to talk about the Cracker Barrel foofaraw, and I have nothing but free time to look at whatever might attract my attention and scribble about to my heart's content. But Trump talked about it, and that's a layer of meaning I cannot resist.

His Truth Social post is interesting — almost like a challenge on "The Apprentice."

By the way, I think Cracker Barrel needed a better logo. I've never understood what the background shape was supposed to be. Looking for it as I drove the interstate, I thought of it as the sole of a shoe. Or what do you think? A kidney? And then all that extra iconography — the man, his chair, the barrel. That's too much going on when people are whizzing by in cars.

"Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s rulings on First Amendment protections, the Court has never held that American Flag desecration conducted in a manner that is likely to incite imminent lawless action..."

"... or that is an action amounting to 'fighting words' is constitutionally protected. See Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 408-10 (1989). My Administration will act to restore respect and sanctity to the American Flag and prosecute those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country, to the fullest extent permissible under any available authority.... The Attorney General shall prioritize the enforcement to the fullest extent possible of our Nation’s criminal and civil laws against acts of American Flag desecration that violate applicable, content-neutral laws, while causing harm unrelated to expression, consistent with the First Amendment...."

From President Trump's executive order, "Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag."

Does that violate the First Amendment even though it explicitly limits itself to what is "consistent with the First Amendment"?

Here's Texas v. Johnson. 

I feel like rereading the dissent:

"We were just kind of living in some turbulent times.... It’s almost turned to a rebellious act to have those right-leaning views."

"And I thought, you know, owning a T-shirt like the 'Reagan Bush ’84' one was kind of a cool way to join the movement of the antiestablishment younger generation of conservatives... [It's less confrontational than] wearing the red MAGA hat around, triggering the libs, so to speak. It’s kind of a peaceful, respectful way to say that, you know what, it’s okay to have a different opinion than you and disagree. I’m going to wear my Reagan shirt — it’s a more respectful way to voice my opinion.... I’ve been even criticized from the right for wearing the Reagan stuff...."

Says Kieran Laffey, George Washington University college student, quoted in "Why Gen Z conservatives love the ‘Reagan Bush ’84’ tee/They weren’t alive in the ’80s, but to them, 'Reagan is still a vibe'" (WaPo).

The article notes that you can easily buy these shirts on line. They just look vintage. We're told it's "the conservative take on a band shirt or the once-ubiquitous Che Guevara tee."

ADDED: Why not get ahead of the trend? Here, on Amazon (commission earned!):

"Wait, people are leaving blue democrat-run states, and moving to republican-run red states? Perhaps the Democratic Party needs to look at the reasons why."

"Dems have a really tough time admitting they could be wrong, about anything. Maybe they are wrong about their policies, and people are voting, with their feet."

That's the top-rated comment at a New York Times article — "How the Electoral College Could Tilt Further From Democrats" — about "the nightmare scenario many Democratic Party insiders see playing out if current U.S. population projections hold" after the 2040 census.

The next 4 most highly rated comments are similar:

"[I]n high school, [Lil Nas X] spent his days chasing internet fame, experimenting across different corners of social media."

"Then, almost by accident, he recorded a song during a $20 studio session using a $30 beat. That track, 'Old Town Road,' went on to break records. The country-rap gumbo topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 weeks and remains the longest-running No. 1 hit of all time."

From "Lil Nas X charged with four felonies after reportedly attacking officer/The 'Old Town Road' rapper faces three counts of battery against a police officer and a count of resisting an executive officer" (WaPo).

"Los Angeles police responded to reports of a man wandering the street in his underwear on Ventura Boulevard. [Lil Nas X] was arrested after he was found naked on the street.... Unsure if Hill was experiencing an overdose or a mental health crisis, police reported that the rapper charged at officers before punching one of them in the face twice...."

In happier times:

"Trump, in a Move With Little Precedent, Says He Is Firing a Fed Governor. President Trump told Lisa Cook that he had found sufficient cause 'to remove you from your position.'"

"Ms. Cook and her lawyer said they would fight the firing."

The NYT headline for the top story this morning.

Little precedent. So there is some precedent.

In a letter posted to social media, Mr. Trump said the allegations of mortgage fraud undermined Ms. Cook.... The president claimed she could not perform as an effective financial regulator, as he invoked a power in the Fed’s founding statute that allows him to fire governors for cause.... 

The allegation against Cook is that she obtained a lower interest rate by claiming — in documents signed 2 weeks apart — that both a condominium in Atlanta and a house in Ann Arbor, Michigan were her primary residence. The NYT states that the allegations against Cook are part of "an emerging pattern of political retribution." The other bits of that "pattern" are allegations against Adam Schiff and Letitia James.

Perhaps the alleged wrongdoing is too personal and insufficiently related to her professional duties to constitute cause under the statute. Trump's letter asserts that he does not have "confidence in [her] integrity." He notes his obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed and asserts that duty requires him to fire her immediately. She is challenging that exercise of power, as if the firing cannot be immediate and a court must double-check the President's finding.

The NYT article is full of material about the importance of the independence of the Federal Reserve.

"The Mysterious Cover Artist Who Captured the Decline of the Rich/Mary Petty was reclusive, uncompromising, but she peered into a fading world with unmatched warmth and brilliance."

I hope you can get past the New Yorker pay wall to see this article, with writing by the artist Chris Ware, and many wonderful New Yorker covers by Mary Petty.

Excerpt:

Her eye was extraordinary, conjuring an Edwardian era through its tiniest features: the brocaded wallpaper, the finely tiled kitchen floors, the thin brass faucets, the plush upholstery.

James Thurber, in an introduction to “This Petty Pace” (1945), the sole published collection of the artist’s work, describes the young Petty as a “slip of a girl.” Like her husband, she initially preferred to mail in her submissions, but by the nineteen-forties she had become a “common sight” at the magazine’s office, “sitting, cool and almost undismayed, on the edge of a chair.” Thurber reports that she would spend three weeks on a drawing; when she was done, she would say that she hated it and herself. “Everybody else, of course, loves it and her,” Thurber adds, observing that what Petty offered in her work was “not a trick, but a magic. . . . She catches time in a foreshortened crouch that intensifies her satirical effects.”

Time in a foreshortened crouch — is anyone catching that anymore?

Example:

ADDED: Ware notes that Petty seems to have influenced Edward Gorey. And I'll just note that the book title — "This Petty Pace" — is a reference to a Shakespeare soliloquy, from "MacBeth," which also has something to say about time.