Fulton County jail, in Georgia, USA
Today is Thursday August 24th, 2023. Kia ora!
Well, there’s lots going on right now. A number of people are surrendering to the authorities in Fulton County, Georgia; that would be the Fulton County jail, which, according to Ben Wittes, is not a nice place. As Michael Moore wryly remarks, Trump will have to set foot in this jail as part of his surrender; i.e. he will see the inside of a jail. So that is noteworthy.
In other big news, it’s said that Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner Group, and would-be coup inciter back in June (I think), is one of several passengers in a plane crash, where all the people on board (ten passengers) were killed. So, that raised a number of questions: was he really killed? Was it is accident, or the result of poor maintenance? Was the plane shot down? If so, by whom? What really happened here? I suspect we’ll never know, since there are apparently no survivors. Who will lead the Wagner Group now? And what happens to their activities in Africa? Was this supposed death an Act of God, or an act of Vladimir Putin? And what will happen now?
Apparently the plane was an Embraer, owned by the Wagner Group; it was on its way from St Petersburg to Moscow.
Back here in Aotearoa/New Zealand, there are constant polls, mostly if not all bad for Labour. But some strange things are happening. Part of Lambton Quay is to be severely disrupted by the start of LGWM activities (Let’s Get Wellington Moving), an initiative that’s been around for a long time, was narrowly approved by the Wellington City Council, but which National Party leader Chris Luxon vows that a National government won’t support. I thought it was mainly about a Basin reserve flyover, and a second Mount Victoria Tunnel; silly me, it involves huge disruption to Lambton Quay, no doubt affecting bus routes, and what limited parking remains there. This comes upon the closure of Wishbone outlets, the lack of people coming back into the CBD for work, as zoom is increasingly unreliable. And who can blame people for not wanting to get dressed up for work, when public transport is so unreliable. Then there are the bike lanes too; while I can understand attitudes of people who wish to ride a bike everywhere, it can be really hard to drive on narrow streets, avoiding other traffic and bikers, to say nothing of finding a parking place. And there are some places it’s very hard to get to on public transport – Te Papa is one, Commonsense Organics near the top of Tory Street is another. And if you’re walking, you have to dodge e-bikes on the footpath too. To add to this, it’s planned to close the Melling Station in Lower Hutt for 18 months, and then I read in this morning’s paper that a newish building in Wellington is to be pulled down and replaced. Huh? There are already many treasured buildings regarded as earthquake risks, with limited use by the public, though of course they haven’t fallen down yet. It’s very hard to see any kind of normal future arising out of all of this.
Back to overseas: Prigozhin’s death is now being called an assassination, by Russian State television; Putin says he made some serious mistakes, whatever that means. That does not leave us much the wiser, though.
In the UK, there is a lot of publicity around Lucy Letby, the neo-natal nurse who was found guilty of murdering several infants (7), and the attempted murder of several more. As with the Met police, a much darker side of medical authority is emerging, where it was really difficult for whistle-blowers to speak up about any concerns they may have had. What a desperately sad story. There are situations when we or our loved ones are totally in the hands of the medical folk who care for us. We are fully dependant on them.
It’s now Friday August 25th.
I have another doctor’s appointment at 4:30 pm this afternoon (in a cabin, what is my car registration). I duly take a Covid 19 test, and again, it’s negative. Actually I feel better today than yesterday, but yesterday wasn’t good. I do feel a bit better today, but I’ve had to cancel several upcoming events, and I promised that I would get seen again.
There’s news, of course: the republican presidential debate, minus Donals Trump; the expected entry of Trump into Fulton County jail (not a salubrious environment); and more about the death of Prigozhin. With regard to the latter, Putin has stated that this very good businessman made some mistakes; it seems undoubted that Prigozhin’s plane was shot down; there seemed to be no mechanical failure beforehand. So the message is very clear: don’t annoy Putin in any way, or you’ll be a dead man walking.
With regard to the republican debate, it was predictably upsetting – only one hopeful (Asa Hutchinson) believed that humans have played and continue to play a part in climate change. They’re divided about supporting Ukraine. Ron de Santis managed to avoid any direct questions. Christie attacked Trump, to jeers. All but one will vote for Trump if he’s the republican nominee for president, even if he’s convicted. European nations are predictably upset at the prospect of Trump becoming president again, as are many of the rest of us.
And then Trump surrendered to the Fulton County jail. He did this in prime time, and it was duly covered by all the networks. We were treated to ongoing coverage of his motorcade winding through Atlanta freeways, which had no doubt been cleared. There was an alarming parade (80?) of secret service agents on motorbikes, with flashing lights. There seemed to be few protesters. Although we did not see Trump enter the jail (there was a covered walkway for him to get out of his car)), his mugshot was taken, and released. He does not look best pleased with that. He said a few words afterwards, predictably feeling sorry for himself. Actually he looks like an angry old man, in contrast to smiling, honourable, Joe Biden. What a contrast. Goodness knows Biden has plenty to be angry about, but his empathy and general decency is astonishing.
I watched much of the coverage: John Dickerson on CBS, the local Atlanta channel, and MSNBC, of course, where Rachel Maddow spoke to a black man who had been a district attorney. Trump has apparently changed lawyers. He also promised Rudy Giuliani, who gave himself up to the jail yesterday, $800,000 for helping him to overturn the 2020 election. Giuliani has not received this money, and his New York apartment is on the market.
But the thing I find truly ironic is that it’s this Georgia indictment, where Atlanta, the capital of the South, that has the greatest potential to harm Trump and his co-defendants. Here, in the south of the US, where Republican state governments have been so unkind to black people, it’s black people who are now in charge: as Trump and his 18 co-defendants hand themselves in to the Fulton County jail, it’s not they who are in charge. They are being told what they may and may not do; they’re having mugshots taken, a time-honoured American legal tradition, and they are having to ask D.A. Fani Willis about court trial dates and accommodations. The whole situation, of rich folk in their gated communities, with their private jets and private schools, has been turned on its head, in that black people are now telling them what they can and cannot do. That is a delicious moment, and while it’s extremely significant to see a former president of the US indicted (four time), photographed, and released on bail conditions (which are becoming ever more strict), it’s coloured D.A.s and judges who are telling Trump and his gang of co-defendants just what they may or may not do. They are holding the cards, for once. What a moment!
And by the way, his bail conditions are ever more stringent, i.e. he mustn’t threaten anyone.
It’s now Saturday August 26th.
I did see a doctor yesterday afternoon, and he’s prescribed antibiotics. So far, I’ve had two doses, and I seem to be coping all right.
Last night we watched another two episodes of Brideshead Revisited. What an amazing series this is! We had Charles Ryder and Julia Mottram’s affair on board the ship crossing the Atlantic. Charles is married, somewhat unaccountably; he has two children, whom he doesn’t seem to care about at all, but then the rather wonderful Sir John Gielgud played his distant father (his mother had died), so not much in the way of parental role models there then.
JD is appalled by Charles’s neglect of his children; if he was away travelling so much, how did he father his son? Perhaps he wasn’t the father. His wife, Celia, reminds me of one of JD’s aunts, she’s so much in control, as was Lady Marchmain. JD rather likes Celia and Rex Mottram; I rather liked Sebastian, when he was beautiful, and his sister Julia. But really, as young people, did any of us make wise decisions? would we make the same decisions again? I hope we’ve been better parents than anyone depicted in this series!
Reactions are still occurring to the death of Prigozhin (The Kremlin now disavows responsibility; I thought yesterday Putin was virtually admitting, yes I ordered it. Is Prigozhin dead, then? The plane went down, certainly. But we’re still confused. Meanwhile, Russians are terrified.
In the US, the shock of the Republican debate is outshone by the mugshot of Donald Trump. While people are savouring that moment, Charlie Sykes and Tim Miller wondered on the Bulwark podcast this morning what Saturday Night Live would make of it. Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson is not garnering much attention, thankfully.
By now, all of Trump’s co-conspirators have surrendered to the Fulton County jail. One of them (a black man, who couldn’t raise bail), has actually been jailed. Evidently Sidney Powell has also asked for an early trial. It’s interesting that machinations are continuing in the Georgia indictment, as the co-defendants are apparently falling over each other in their attempts to avoid further incrimination and a prison sentence. Some of them are potentially incriminating Donald Trump. everyone was “just following orders”, of course. Where was your moral compass, then? And this is just in Georgia! Where a black D.A. is calling the shots. Evidently Trump, prisoner No. P01135809, lied about his weight and height, and said that his hair colour was “strawberry blond”. He also hired someone to pay his bond, although he claims to be “really rich”, and changed his lawyer. Michael Steele, a former chairman of the RNC, is rather enjoying this moment and had the number off pat. He’d memorised it.
So what’s more shocking then? Trump’s mugshot, or the All Blacks’ loss to the Springboks at Twickenham? My brother-in-law, a New Zealander living in Australia who usually follows these matches on the family Messenger chat, did not do so this time. His cheery “Go the All Blacks!” was missing. A conspiracy theorist would say it’s all his fault. The fact that the All Blacks were playing one man down probably affected the final outcome, but the Springboks, traditional rivals, must have played rather well.
It’s now Sunday August 27th.
Last night we looked after one of my son’s children, while their parents went out for the evening. They are so grown up now, and quite capable of taking themselves to bed. What a joy to see them again. We watched Round the World in 80 Days, a film made in 2004 based on the book by Jules Verne, and I have to say it was quite fun to watch. After the children had gone to bed, we watched the last two episodes of Brideshead Revisited, where Lord Marchmain goes back to Brideshead to die. As he can’t climb stairs, he sets up court in a truly ornate bed in a Chinese drawing room on the ground floor, which Charles Ryder had never seen used. The family members who are there dine with him here. Gone are the elaborate ceremonies around dinner, for the most part. Everyone still dresses, of course, as do the servants. As predicted, religion played a huge part here in the illness and death of Lord Marchmain, played very well by the great Laurence Olivier. There were several surprises: Bridey’s engagement to a widow with three children (a fervent Catholic, but not in De Brett’s); Lord Marchmain’s making Brideshead over to Lady Julia Flyte (don’t get me started on the naming conventions in the English aristocracy!), and the breakup of Julia and Charles Ryder’s relationship. But a catholic priest did visit Lord Marchmain, and on his second visit he was able to administer the last rites. JD and I had interesting discussions about all this, of course, and I wondered, should I be alive at the time of his death, would he like a priest to visit, and, if so, who? And how much should I pay them? I warned him he might have to put up with a non-Catholic minister; in any case, the reformed churches stress one’s personal relationship with God, rather than requiring intercession through a priest. Heavy stuff, indeed. Sin, and the catholic church’s rules about annulment, divorce and remarriage, played a huge part in everyone’s behaviour and their relationships, but what a story. Charles is kind of converted at the end – or is he? I found his prayer a bit hard to take, but then I’m just an onlooker, and I personally decided long ago not to become a Catholic.
I zoomed into the church service this morning. Zoom was still having some issues, particularly with the sound, but when I turned it up on my PC is was much better. There seemed to be very few physical church goers. The texts were from Exodus, when Pharoah’s daughter saves the baby Moses, and his mother gets to look after him, and from Matthew 16 where Jesus asks his disciples Who do they say that He is? Simon Peter has that wonderful response, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
In Russia, Wagner mercenaries are asked by Putin to pledge their allegiance to Russia after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In the US, there’s been another mass shooting – in a store in Florida, not in a school. I just watched a very moving press conference, where a black official, the sheriff, spoke well about this tragedy. Evidently the shooter took his own life. He carried a Glock pistol and an AR15 type weapon. He was on a mission to kill “niggers”. Officials are devastated, of course, but this happens far too often. The shooter was male, of course.
That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Nga mihi nui.
Classic Barbarian 