Sunrise — 5:56, 6:14.

"Taiwan must be 'mentally prepared' for a Trump victory in November — and the scrutiny that will come with that..."

"... said Mei Fu-hsing, director of the Taiwan Security Analysis Center, a New York-based research center. 'If [Trump] is reelected, he will certainly demand Taiwan to significantly increase its own defense spending and be more proactive in preparing for war,' Mei said. Improved training is a key way for Taiwan to show it is taking military readiness seriously, analysts say. But new programs have continued to face shortages of funding, instructors and equipment, leading to regular complaints from attendees about the quality of instruction, according to reservists as well as official statements acknowledging setbacks. 'It was a complete waste of time,' said Vincent Tsao, a 30-year-old scuba diving instructor who spent most of his five days of reservist training last week sitting idly inside being taught by retired soldiers who openly acknowledged they weren’t prepared to lead the program."

From "Taiwan is readying citizens for a Chinese invasion. It’s not going well. The government extended mandatory military service and revamped reservist training in an effort to make Beijing think twice. But it’s already falling short" (WaPo).

"Gianna is a beast. She’s better than I was at her age. She’s got it. Girls are amazing. I would have five more girls if I could. I’m a girl dad."

Said Kobe Bryant, about his daughter Gianna, in a quote etched in the plaque at the base of this newly unveiled statue installed outside the Lakers' Crypto.com Arena:

The Athletic supplies context: "Kobe, Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., on Jan. 26, 2020, while traveling to a basketball tournament for Gianna. Two of her teammates, three other parents, an assistant coach and the pilot were all on board."

"Everyone... had a story about explaining basic etiquette to boorish colleagues. No, you can’t microwave fish at lunch."

"Stop cutting your toenails on your desk. Don’t bring a gun to the office.... H.R. knows that employees and managers are annoyed by its memos, by its processes, by just about anything that interrupts life as it was. When an email is sent nudging everyone to take that 45-minute online course in, say, data security, H.R. can almost hear the eye rolls."

From "So, Human Resources Is Making You Miserable?/Get in line behind the H.R. managers themselves, who say that since the pandemic, the job has become an exasperating ordeal. 'People hate us,' one said" (NYT).

"Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Friday overruled the overseer of the war court at Guantánamo Bay and revoked a plea agreement reached earlier this week..."

"... with the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and two alleged accomplices.... In taking away the authority, Mr. Austin assumed direct oversight of the case and canceled the agreement, effectively reinstating it as a death-penalty case.... Mr. Austin’s decision brought relief to family members of victims who had expressed anger over the deal, but it also left uncertain the next steps of the prosecution over America’s deadliest terrorist attack.... The case had become mired in more than a decade of pretrial proceedings that focused on whether the detainees’ torture in secret C.I.A. prisons had contaminated the evidence against them.... Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Republican leader, called the agreement 'a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice.' Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas called the deal 'disgraceful and an insult to the victims of the attacks,' and introduced legislation intended to nullify it. But Senator Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, hailed the plea agreement as a 'small measure of justice and finality to the victims and their loved ones.'"

From "Defense Secretary Revokes Plea Deal for Accused Sept. 11 Plotters/Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III assumed direct oversight of the case and effectively put the death penalty back on the table" (NYT).

"The two candidates conveyed the customary air of indifference, neither saying anything publicly or appearing to lift a finger in his own behalf."

"Jefferson remained at Monticello, Adams at his farm, which he had lately taken to calling Stoneyfield, instead of Peacefield, perhaps feeling the new name was more in keeping with New England candor, or that it better defined the look of the political landscape at the moment."

From "John Adams" (p. 672) by David McCullough, describing the candidates' participation in the election campaign of 1800. (Commission earned.)

"I spent Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, Time, and Effort fighting Joe, and when I won the Debate, they threw a new Candidate into the ring. Not fair, but it is what it is!"

Writes Trump, at Truth Social.

Full text:

"But it’s... a different time. From school board meetings to board rooms, Americans... question whether affirmative action and diversity and inclusion programs are achieving what they’re supposed to."

"Add in widespread distrust of the political process, and it’s evident why many say they want to hear precisely how the next president will make their lives better. This may help explain why Black Americans are supporting Mr. Trump in rising, if still small, numbers.... When it comes to Ms. Harris, 'we can all see that you’re Black — everybody knows that,' said Bradley Thurman Jr., a 53-year-old self-described independent in Milwaukee. Mr. Thurman, who is Black, had not been enthusiastic about voting for President Biden. But, he said, Ms. Harris makes him 'a little bit more onboard' with Democrats. But Mr. Thurman, who co-owns a coffee shop called Coffee Makes You Black, added that he wanted to hear more detail about her ideas. 'I want to know what your policies are and what you’re bringing to the table and what you’re proposing,' he said. 'And, you know, how it’s going to affect me?' The desire to see Ms. Harris in a multidimensional way may reflect that the power of identity politics has diminished...."

Writes Jeremy W. Peters, in "Should Harris Talk Much About Her Racial Identity? Many Voters Say No. Even as Trump plays up racial divisions, many Americans said they would rather not dwell on race or identity. 'We can all see that you’re Black'" (NYT).

At Yelp, Coffee Makes You Black gets 4 1/2 stars. I enjoyed scrolling through the 52 photographs of the place. Sample review: "The food is always on point. They recently started the r&b brunch and the dj was live. Even when the dj is not present the music is good-- like our kin is running the play list. Keeps the vibes right. The service is always kind. Just need more people to get plates out. I'll wait tho... the food &vibes are just that good. IMO."

Trump rejects the old agreement to debate — with Kamala Harris swapped in for Joe Biden — and proposes a new one. But I think, in the end, the old one will prevail.

Here's what Trump wrote at Truth Social last night:

I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th.

He has agreed. She hasn't agreed, and I don't think she will. Why would she? She's boldly claimed Joe Biden's position as the Democratic Party's candidate, and she can claim status as the successor to the agreement. And she will want to, because the terms are favorable to her, and the terms of the proposed new agreement are worse. It's Fox News, instead of ABC.

The Debate was previously scheduled against Sleepy Joe Biden on ABC, but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant, and I am in litigation against ABC Network and George Slopadopoulos, thereby creating a conflict of interest.

That "conflict of interest" is not new. It existed when the agreement was with Biden. Trump could have backed out of the agreement with Biden too. It's just a matter of how we the people would view the backing out. Is Trump afraid? Harris is already out there taunting him, saying "If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face." That's a taunt that will work against any criticism he might make of her. She's not going to give up the old agreement. Not only are the terms better for her...

The perverse incentive of prisoner deals.

"Prisoner Deals Stoke Fears of Perverse ‘Incentive’ to Grab Americans/Hostile governments like Russia and Iran are often involved, and practical alternatives are hard to come by, experts say" (yesterday, in the NYT). 

Officials and experts agree that these recent cases reflect what Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in February called a “rising trend” in which American enemies are “wrongfully detaining people, often as political pawns.”...

[I]n roughly the past 10 years, as foreign terrorist threats have receded, the imprisonment of Americans by hostile governments on false or inflated legal charges has risen sharply, according to Danielle Gilbert, an assistant professor at Northwestern University who studies so-called hostage diplomacy....

Families of prisoners.... enlist celebrities and the media to help pressure U.S. officials to “do whatever it takes,” as they often say.... Ms. Gilbert noted that such deals have proven to be politically popular. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have benefited from heartwarming Oval Office meetings with freed prisoners and their families, and dramatic accounts of how their leadership sealed the deals....

The article links to Trump's response at Truth Social:

In the sun's spotlight in the woods today: Lycoris squamigera.

It didn't really look like it belonged there. Seemed more like something for some meticulous garden in the neighborhood. But the sun shone on it so brightly — at 2:30 in the afternoon — that I stopped and recorded the incongruous gaudiness. 

"Lycoris squamigera... is a plant in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. .... The flowers spring dramatically from the ground in mid to late summer; it usually takes only four to five days from first emergence to full bloom. This suddenness is reflected in its common names: surprise lily, magic lily, and resurrection lily." Wikipedia. 

It's also one of several plants that gets called "naked ladies." I was going to call this post "At the Naked Ladies Café...." — and add "... you can talk about whatever you want” — but I thought that would be pandering. I'm still providing the information that you can call this plant "naked ladies," and, of course, as usual, you can talk about whatever you want.

Where's the sunrise picture today? I overslept! Slept until 6:00.

A dark-horse contender in the VP race offers a new — better? — concept than weird: Bewildered!

Out with Tim Walz and his "weird." It's JB Pritzer and he's got a new word to sell you: "bewildered."

I'm reading: "Pritzker says Trump 'bewildered' by Harris, new Dem excitement" (The Hill).

Now, I'd written Pritzker off. I just didn't think it could be him. But he's jumping to the top of the headlines at Memeorandum, and I am tantalized by his use of a single word, a funny word — "bewildered" — so I'll bite:

"Democrats need a dad?"

Says Meade, when I read this headline out loud "Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?" (NYT).

It's an episode of "The Ezra Klein Show." From the transcript, here's the "dad" part:

KLEIN: Let me ask you about political geography. There’s a sense of, particularly, the Midwest as “That’s where people are normal. Then they get weirder on the coast.” You’re a former Army guy, right? You’re a former football coach. You’ve got real good Midwestern dad vibes. And so you can talk about the weirdness of Trump and Vance in a way that I think a lot of Democrats would not feel they could and also in a way that they’re like, “Oh, right, maybe we’re not the weird ones.” But I always think this is a very unhealthy dimension of our politics, a sense that there are sort of “real” Americans here, not “real” Americans there, beyond the coast. I’m curious how you think about this, both from the perspective of what it’s allowed you to say — maybe that would not have landed coming from others — and also just, like, what you do about it.

The emphasis there is on the geography, the "Midwestern" part of "Midwestern dad." I wanted the "dad" part, but I'll soldier on: 

"As a lesbian, I cringe when I hear straight women refer to their platonic friends as 'girlfriends.'"

"This usage feels as if it diminishes the significance of the term within the lesbian community. Lesbians use 'friend' to mean a platonic friend and 'girlfriend' to mean a romantic partner. It feels like an erasure of lesbians (and other queer identities) when straight women use 'our' term. I’m not saying that they are intending to be homophobic or harmful, but the impact is anti-L.G.B.T.Q.+.... Given the evolving landscape of language and identity, I wonder: Would it be ethically sound for me to ask people to use the term 'friend' instead?"

That's a letter to the NYT "Ethicist" advice columnist (Kwame Anthony Appiah).  I haven't read the answer yet.

My responses, in the order they occurred to me:

1. This was once one of the arguments for same-sex marriage — a desire to use the honored terms "husband" and "wife" to refer to the most-treasured relationship. That always had this other side, even when marriage was restricted to male-female couples: You should get married if you want the rest of the world to stand in awe of the vast profundity of your commitment to your lover.

2. It's not really a matter of ethics. It's a matter of language usage. And you ought to hesitate to use your feelings about your self-expression to impose on how other people speak, especially when they are using the language that they've lived with and there's no connection to any ill will toward you or anyone who deserves special consideration. Why would you want to push people around like that?

3. It's better as a discussion topic than a request. Don't say: I'd like to ask you to refrain from using the word "girlfriend" to refer to women you're not having sex with. Start a conversation, like: You know, every time you call one of your friends your "girlfriend," I picture the 2 of you having sex, and then I have to remember that's probably not what you meant, but you keep doing it, so I thought I should confess, that's how it sounds to me — and my girlfriend.

"A whistleblower alleged that Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe personally cut security resources and 'retaliated'..."

"... against agents with security concerns leading up to former President Donald Trump’s rally on July 13, according to a letter released Thursday."

From "Acting Secret Service Chief ‘Retaliated Against’ Agents Who Had Security Concerns At Trump Event, Whistleblower Claims" (Daily Caller).

🚨🚨 NEW - Whistleblower tells me Secret Service Acting Director Rowe personally directed cuts to the USSS agents who do threat assessments for events. Whistleblower says those agents were NOT present in Butler - and some of them had warned of security problems for months pic.twitter.com/v9igQ5L7FZ

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) August 1, 2024

"I mean, like, what I think probably happened on January 6th where they withheld the police presence? If something happens, well, this will sink Trump forever."

"I mean, Pelosi, her people knew about this. They knew about possible plans to breach the Capitol. And according to J. Michael Waller, there was not one law enforcement officer present on the west side of the Capitol. How can that possibly be? But of course, the Senate Committee, they didn't investigate that. The House January 6th committee obviously didn't investigate that. I mean, those were also just whitewashes, committees designed to not get to the truth, but to cover up what probably happened. Okay. To get Trump. So I completely understand the suspicion that's out there. It's legitimate suspicion, and that's why this has to be fully investigated. I'm not going to rest until we uncover things. "

Said Senator Ron Johnson (text and audio at Real Clear Politics), asked about the assassination attempt.

"And let's face it, I uncovered an awful lot. I know firsthand how corrupt the FBI's investigation was. I've been a target of their corruption - the recipient of unsolicited briefings where they talked about being a target of Russian disinformation to try and obviously sabotage the revelation of the Hunter Biden laptop. But it kind of worked because we didn't take possession that when it was first offered to us. We went to the FBI to find out what they knew about it. They wouldn't tell us for weeks until the computer shop guy turned it over to Rudy Giuliani's attorney. The rest is history. So, no, these guys know what they're doing. They pre-sabotaged the Hunter Biden laptop. They completely, it was a complete corruption of the Russian collusion hoax. And by the way, has the Washington Post, have these guys given back the Pulitzer Prizes they earned or won for a complete false story, the narrative they promoted that put America in political turmoil, that it's still present to this day. I mean, where's the mea culpas in the media? You'll never get it. Because they're active advocates for the left themselves. That's the problem. Trump is not up against Kamala Harris. He's up against the leftist media."