It’s a joy to see. Man, dog, skiff on a quiet morning. In this crazy world, the basics of sky, water, and tranquility are reminders that if we can keep them, humanity is possible.
Gratitude, Professor, and Buddy, for a day of rest and rejuvenation for all of you and all of us. We are lucky to be safe and protected. In my mind, I’m in the boat with Pete, with you and all our LFAA friends. What’s next is a surprise. Onward.
Enjoy your evening. The notification chime of your newsletter is always a welcomed sound, especially on Sundays, in anticipation of a photo and news of done downtime for you.
I never mind your Sunday evening rest stops and of course your picture. It just adds to the mood of winding down at least for me. I get a break from the plethora of news and current events that hit my eyeballs during the week. So thank you. It’s getting late and I still have Joyce Vance’s newsletter updating her readers about her chickens. Can’t wait. Have a restful night. Morning breaks early up there.
I echo SPW’s comments about winding down. It get’s so bad with all the news I am having nightmares….but your beautiful calm pictures never fail to sooth my jangled mind. The thing I like most about your pictures is that they stay in my mind’s eye until next week, Thank you so much for sharing. It’s 1230 a.m. EDT out here near D.C.
Without a letter from HCR, I offer for your consideration aNYT opinion piece from the respected retired conservative judge, J Michael Luttig, who counseled VP Pence not to go along with Trump’s plans to overthrow the election. Let us hope that he is right that Trump can’t win. But I am sure that he is considered a RINO by people who still call themselves Republican’s but who are really pod-people Republicans (see "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" if you don’t get the pod-people reference). I am sure they don’t give a damn what he thinks.
"It’s Not Too Late for the Republican Party"
June 25, 2023, 6:00 a.m. ET
• • By J. Michael Luttig
Judge Luttig was appointed by George H.W. Bush and served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006.
Donald Trump this month became the first former or incumbent American president to be charged with crimes against the nation that he once led and wishes to lead again. He cynically calculated that his indictment would ensure that a riled-up Republican Party base would nominate him as its standard-bearer in 2024, and the last few weeks have proved that his political calculation was probably right.
The former president’s behavior may have invited charges, but the Republicans’ spineless support for the past two years convinced Mr. Trump of his political immortality, giving him the assurance that he could purloin some of the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets upon leaving the White House — and preposterously insist that they were his to do with as he wished — all without facing political consequences. Indeed, their fawning support since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has given Mr. Trump every reason to believe that he can ride these charges and any others not just to the Republican nomination, but also to the White House in 2024.
In a word, the Republicans are as responsible as Mr. Trump for this month’s indictment — and will be as responsible for any indictment and prosecution of him for Jan. 6. One would think that, for a party that has prided itself for caring about the Constitution and the rule of law, this would stir some measure of self-reflection among party officials and even voters about their abiding support for the former president. Surely before barreling headlong into the 2024 presidential election season, more Republicans would realize it is time to come to the reckoning with Mr. Trump that they have vainly hoped and naïvely believed would never be necessary.
But by all appearances, it certainly hasn’t occurred to them yet that any reckoning is needed. As only the Republicans can do, they are already turning this ignominious moment into an even more ignominious moment — and a self-immolating one at that — by rushing to crown Mr. Trump their nominee before the primary season even begins. Building the Republican campaign around the newly indicted front-runner is a colossal political miscalculation, as comedic as it is tragic for the country. No assemblage of politicians except the Republicans would ever conceive of running for the American presidency by running against the Constitution and the rule of law. But that’s exactly what they’re planning.
The stewards of the Republican Party have become so inured to their putative leader, they have managed to convince themselves that an indicted and perhaps even convicted Donald Trump is their party’s best hope for the future. But rushing to model their campaign on Mr. Trump’s breathtakingly inane template is as absurd as it is ill fated. They will be defending the indefensible.
On cue, the Republicans kicked their self-defeating political apparatus into high gear this month. Almost as soon as the indictment in the documents case was unsealed, Mr. Trump jump-started his up-to-then languishing campaign, predictably declaring himself an “innocent man” victimized in “the greatest witch hunt of all time” by his “totally corrupt” political nemesis, the Biden administration. On Thursday, he added that it was all part of a plot, hatched at the Justice Department and the F.B.I., to “rig” the 2024 election against him.
From his distant second place, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida denounced the Biden administration’s “weaponization of federal law enforcement” against Mr. Trump and the Republicans. Mike Pence dutifully pronounced the indictment political. And both Governor DeSantis and Mr. Pence pledged — in a new Republican litmus test — that on their first day in office they would fire the director of the F.B.I., the Trump appointee Christopher Wray, obviously for his turpitude in investigating Mr. Trump. It fell to Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, to articulate the treacherous overarching Republican strategy: “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
There’s no stopping Republicans now, until they have succeeded in completely politicizing the rule of law in service to their partisan political ends.
If the indictment of Mr. Trump on Espionage Act charges — not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. Biden as the president on Jan. 6 — fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself. Nor ought it be saved.
There is no path to the White House for Republicans with Mr. Trump. He would need every single Republican and independent vote, and there are untold numbers of Republicans and independents who will never vote for him, if for no other perfectly legitimate reason than that he has corrupted America’s democracy and is now attempting to corrupt the country’s rule of law. No sane Democrat will vote for Mr. Trump — even over the aging Mr. Biden — when there are so many sane Republicans who will refuse to vote for Mr. Trump. This is all plain to see, which makes it all the more mystifying why more Republicans don’t see it.
When Republicans faced an 11th-hour reckoning with another of their presidents over far less serious offenses almost 50 years ago, the elder statesmen of the party marched into the Oval Office and told Richard Nixon the truth. He had lost his Republican support and he would be impeached if he did not resign. The beleaguered Nixon resigned the next day and left the White House the day following.
Such is what it means to put country over party. History tends to look favorably upon a party that writes its own history, as Winston Churchill might have said.
Republicans have waited in vain for political absolution. It’s finally time for them to put the country before their party and pull back from the brink — for the good of the party, as well as the nation.
If not now, then they must forever hold their peace.
J. Michael Luttig (@judgeluttig) was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006.
Chump worked out great for repubs, money by the pot fulls, SC seats for decades, slobbering idiots to keep him absolved of any crimes, and an idol for the Repub leadership to worship. Everybody of consequence told them they need to recalibrate, but double down was their go to. That’s why they feel that he can deliver the WH again, especially with the Repub states making cheating legal. If that happens, we can all kiss our arses goodbye.
Didn't the Rs already make cheating legal? "No one is above the law here," is the American ideal of fairness. But you ARE if you are a crook and have an infinite team of Shyster lawyers. Or if you take bribes as one of the Supremes, ifor a dutiful spouse of one.
I read Judge Luttig's NYT piece yesterday, too, and it's well worth reading all of it, even hopeful!
"There is no path to the White House for Republicans with Mr. Trump. He would need every single Republican and independent vote, and there are untold numbers of Republicans and independents who will never vote for him, if for no other perfectly legitimate reason than that he has corrupted America’s democracy and is now attempting to corrupt the country’s rule of law. No sane Democrat will vote for Mr. Trump — even over the aging Mr. Biden — when there are so many sane Republicans who will refuse to vote for Mr. Trump. This is all plain to see, which makes it all the more mystifying why more Republicans don’t see it."
I don't understand why people refer to President Biden's age so often, when trump is only 3 years younger!
Finally, I love the photograph of Buddy and Pete. Thank you for resting.
Yes agreed about the age issue, they are basically the same age, one with not much energy this time around and one who just keeps after it day after day along with his qualified staff working for all of us. We are so well served by President Biden and his team!
Thank you for sharing Judge Luttig’s brilliant reminder and sociopolitical essay. ... a repub vote is a vote against the Constitution, against the United States and against Truth and Justice.
Thank you very much for bringing in Judge Luttig’s editorial. It may help some silent Republicans “reveal” themselves and is certainly a boost for the Lincoln Project.
With evangelicals championing Trump as ‘their kind of Christian,’ I thought that the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers should be updated to reflect Trump’s ‘Christianity:’
🤣🤣🤣 With compliments from the doggerel queen. Following two ex-Royal marines on a hilarious boat trip I did one to “Land of Hope and Glory” writing of lost empire and continuing gardens.
Finished the reply after hitting the wrong button. It’s way below. In case you don’t get there: you don’t mince words! Should we call it “commanding doggerel”?
It’s a joy to see. Man, dog, skiff on a quiet morning. In this crazy world, the basics of sky, water, and tranquility are reminders that if we can keep them, humanity is possible.
Beautifully expressed, Virginia. And may it be so.
Virginia, the basics of life just may be available in ... every ... breath, with a clear perception of this moment
"If we can keep them." Thank you Virginia, and that KS to Pete Buddy and HCR
"thanks to Pete, Buddy, the caotain, and HCR." if Stupid kindle.
Virginia, thank you for saying it so well. What jumps out at me is that it’s obvious that Pete enjoys going to work.
Pete?! What kind of pup? Send more pics of Pete!
Love Pete the dog! ❤️🐶🕊️
Our animals just love us and help keep us sane.
If that is possible ... ;)
Lab?
Gratitude, Professor, and Buddy, for a day of rest and rejuvenation for all of you and all of us. We are lucky to be safe and protected. In my mind, I’m in the boat with Pete, with you and all our LFAA friends. What’s next is a surprise. Onward.
Enjoy your evening. The notification chime of your newsletter is always a welcomed sound, especially on Sundays, in anticipation of a photo and news of done downtime for you.
I never mind your Sunday evening rest stops and of course your picture. It just adds to the mood of winding down at least for me. I get a break from the plethora of news and current events that hit my eyeballs during the week. So thank you. It’s getting late and I still have Joyce Vance’s newsletter updating her readers about her chickens. Can’t wait. Have a restful night. Morning breaks early up there.
I echo SPW’s comments about winding down. It get’s so bad with all the news I am having nightmares….but your beautiful calm pictures never fail to sooth my jangled mind. The thing I like most about your pictures is that they stay in my mind’s eye until next week, Thank you so much for sharing. It’s 1230 a.m. EDT out here near D.C.
Sleep well, Linda. Think good thoughts.
Sun rises at 7:01 down here at the moment.
I love the picture of Buddy & Pete. Lucky guy. Get some rest. 😴
And lucky dog, too!
How serene! Love the picture and Pete is so cute. What kind of dog?
Pete looks like a Rottweiler to me. And I can also tell that he is a good boy!
Commuter congestion at the dinghy dock!
Without a letter from HCR, I offer for your consideration aNYT opinion piece from the respected retired conservative judge, J Michael Luttig, who counseled VP Pence not to go along with Trump’s plans to overthrow the election. Let us hope that he is right that Trump can’t win. But I am sure that he is considered a RINO by people who still call themselves Republican’s but who are really pod-people Republicans (see "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" if you don’t get the pod-people reference). I am sure they don’t give a damn what he thinks.
"It’s Not Too Late for the Republican Party"
June 25, 2023, 6:00 a.m. ET
• • By J. Michael Luttig
Judge Luttig was appointed by George H.W. Bush and served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006.
Donald Trump this month became the first former or incumbent American president to be charged with crimes against the nation that he once led and wishes to lead again. He cynically calculated that his indictment would ensure that a riled-up Republican Party base would nominate him as its standard-bearer in 2024, and the last few weeks have proved that his political calculation was probably right.
The former president’s behavior may have invited charges, but the Republicans’ spineless support for the past two years convinced Mr. Trump of his political immortality, giving him the assurance that he could purloin some of the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets upon leaving the White House — and preposterously insist that they were his to do with as he wished — all without facing political consequences. Indeed, their fawning support since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has given Mr. Trump every reason to believe that he can ride these charges and any others not just to the Republican nomination, but also to the White House in 2024.
In a word, the Republicans are as responsible as Mr. Trump for this month’s indictment — and will be as responsible for any indictment and prosecution of him for Jan. 6. One would think that, for a party that has prided itself for caring about the Constitution and the rule of law, this would stir some measure of self-reflection among party officials and even voters about their abiding support for the former president. Surely before barreling headlong into the 2024 presidential election season, more Republicans would realize it is time to come to the reckoning with Mr. Trump that they have vainly hoped and naïvely believed would never be necessary.
But by all appearances, it certainly hasn’t occurred to them yet that any reckoning is needed. As only the Republicans can do, they are already turning this ignominious moment into an even more ignominious moment — and a self-immolating one at that — by rushing to crown Mr. Trump their nominee before the primary season even begins. Building the Republican campaign around the newly indicted front-runner is a colossal political miscalculation, as comedic as it is tragic for the country. No assemblage of politicians except the Republicans would ever conceive of running for the American presidency by running against the Constitution and the rule of law. But that’s exactly what they’re planning.
The stewards of the Republican Party have become so inured to their putative leader, they have managed to convince themselves that an indicted and perhaps even convicted Donald Trump is their party’s best hope for the future. But rushing to model their campaign on Mr. Trump’s breathtakingly inane template is as absurd as it is ill fated. They will be defending the indefensible.
On cue, the Republicans kicked their self-defeating political apparatus into high gear this month. Almost as soon as the indictment in the documents case was unsealed, Mr. Trump jump-started his up-to-then languishing campaign, predictably declaring himself an “innocent man” victimized in “the greatest witch hunt of all time” by his “totally corrupt” political nemesis, the Biden administration. On Thursday, he added that it was all part of a plot, hatched at the Justice Department and the F.B.I., to “rig” the 2024 election against him.
From his distant second place, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida denounced the Biden administration’s “weaponization of federal law enforcement” against Mr. Trump and the Republicans. Mike Pence dutifully pronounced the indictment political. And both Governor DeSantis and Mr. Pence pledged — in a new Republican litmus test — that on their first day in office they would fire the director of the F.B.I., the Trump appointee Christopher Wray, obviously for his turpitude in investigating Mr. Trump. It fell to Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, to articulate the treacherous overarching Republican strategy: “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
There’s no stopping Republicans now, until they have succeeded in completely politicizing the rule of law in service to their partisan political ends.
If the indictment of Mr. Trump on Espionage Act charges — not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. Biden as the president on Jan. 6 — fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself. Nor ought it be saved.
There is no path to the White House for Republicans with Mr. Trump. He would need every single Republican and independent vote, and there are untold numbers of Republicans and independents who will never vote for him, if for no other perfectly legitimate reason than that he has corrupted America’s democracy and is now attempting to corrupt the country’s rule of law. No sane Democrat will vote for Mr. Trump — even over the aging Mr. Biden — when there are so many sane Republicans who will refuse to vote for Mr. Trump. This is all plain to see, which makes it all the more mystifying why more Republicans don’t see it.
When Republicans faced an 11th-hour reckoning with another of their presidents over far less serious offenses almost 50 years ago, the elder statesmen of the party marched into the Oval Office and told Richard Nixon the truth. He had lost his Republican support and he would be impeached if he did not resign. The beleaguered Nixon resigned the next day and left the White House the day following.
Such is what it means to put country over party. History tends to look favorably upon a party that writes its own history, as Winston Churchill might have said.
Republicans have waited in vain for political absolution. It’s finally time for them to put the country before their party and pull back from the brink — for the good of the party, as well as the nation.
If not now, then they must forever hold their peace.
J. Michael Luttig (@judgeluttig) was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006.
Chump worked out great for repubs, money by the pot fulls, SC seats for decades, slobbering idiots to keep him absolved of any crimes, and an idol for the Repub leadership to worship. Everybody of consequence told them they need to recalibrate, but double down was their go to. That’s why they feel that he can deliver the WH again, especially with the Repub states making cheating legal. If that happens, we can all kiss our arses goodbye.
Didn't the Rs already make cheating legal? "No one is above the law here," is the American ideal of fairness. But you ARE if you are a crook and have an infinite team of Shyster lawyers. Or if you take bribes as one of the Supremes, ifor a dutiful spouse of one.
By
My state (Tx) has indeed. If many more do it, we are toast
New Jersey is open for Ds😀
I read Judge Luttig's NYT piece yesterday, too, and it's well worth reading all of it, even hopeful!
"There is no path to the White House for Republicans with Mr. Trump. He would need every single Republican and independent vote, and there are untold numbers of Republicans and independents who will never vote for him, if for no other perfectly legitimate reason than that he has corrupted America’s democracy and is now attempting to corrupt the country’s rule of law. No sane Democrat will vote for Mr. Trump — even over the aging Mr. Biden — when there are so many sane Republicans who will refuse to vote for Mr. Trump. This is all plain to see, which makes it all the more mystifying why more Republicans don’t see it."
I don't understand why people refer to President Biden's age so often, when trump is only 3 years younger!
Finally, I love the photograph of Buddy and Pete. Thank you for resting.
Yes agreed about the age issue, they are basically the same age, one with not much energy this time around and one who just keeps after it day after day along with his qualified staff working for all of us. We are so well served by President Biden and his team!
Sandra - My thoughts exactly.
Thank you for sharing Judge Luttig’s brilliant reminder and sociopolitical essay. ... a repub vote is a vote against the Constitution, against the United States and against Truth and Justice.
Thank you very much for bringing in Judge Luttig’s editorial. It may help some silent Republicans “reveal” themselves and is certainly a boost for the Lincoln Project.
LOVE this picture, especially PETE!! Such a good boy 🤗
Nice office mate as well!❤️🐾
With evangelicals championing Trump as ‘their kind of Christian,’ I thought that the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers should be updated to reflect Trump’s ‘Christianity:’
“Onward marching cretans,
Falling off the hill,
With the lies of Donald
Filling you with swill.
Trump the master beater
Leads against the truth,
Forward into battle
With slogans so uncouth.”
🤣🤣🤣 With compliments from the doggerel queen. Following two ex-Royal marines on a hilarious boat trip I did one to “Land of Hope and Glory” writing of lost empire and continuing gardens.
Ah, doggerel! Did you catch my double entendre “Trump the master beater?”
I missed it, but my husband, the great punster, would’ve caught it immediately.
PS If it ain’t doggerel, what do you call it?
Finished the reply after hitting the wrong button. It’s way below. In case you don’t get there: you don’t mince words! Should we call it “commanding doggerel”?
Fits to a tee
SAD ! But SO True !
Buddy and his best buddy! 💛
Wonderful “office”...I’m jealous, Buddy. Have a good break, Heather. Sending love from monsoon in India....
As long as you didn’t leave the cake out in the rain! Thanks, Heather, and best regards to you, Buddy and Pete!
Pete looks quite the steady hand in the bow⛵️!
Have a good night, Heather
Looks like a blessed life!
D Melbourne AU
Doesn't look a bit like the St Kilda Marina...
Yep.