Fig. 1. The Gateway Arch, St. Louis. Photograph by author, July 23, 2022.
The photograph (figure 1) is the result of a wrong turn and a traffic jam. I got a lot closer to the Gateway Arch than I was supposed to, but not so close that this isn’t a rather tightly cropped shot. It really is huge.
Your clever Uranus jokes have nothing on those of the folks of Uranus, Missouri, yes, an actual town, where I saw a billboard for a fudge shop, yes, a billboard, declaring that “the world’s best fudge comes out of Uranus.” That wasn’t the only billboard, but it was probably the worst joke.
After a long drive through Missouri, I passed directly into the Indian nations of Oklahoma. Much to my surprise, I did not pass through Arkansas; Missouri, it turns out, has a short border iwth Oklahoma, and I crossed there. It was still a long drive to my hotel.
When I finally checked in in Irving, Texas, if I had any doubt I was in Texas, it was dispelled as I walked past the television in the hotel lobby on the way to my room. It was tuned to Fox News.
And it was playing an ad from Mike Huckabee touting a program to “teach” kids—yes, kids—about Donald Trump. Of course, the announcer referred to Trump not by his given name, but rather as “President Trump,” something only Trump’s admirers do, so it’s not like I had to chase down the website to see what this program would have to say.
Remember this when you hear conservatives complain about “liberals” indoctrinating kids.
The room was lovely, but the toilet lent support to Trump’s fury about toilets.[1] I can’t tell you if that was by design but the mini refrigerator’s freezer also failed to keep my frozen stuff frozen.
But at least I got a sound night’s sleep, in stark contrast to the Econo Lodge the night before, where I had not only the upstairs neighbor moving stuff around and walking heavily at three o’fucking clock in the fucking morning, but a fire alarm (false and brief) at around eight. I probably will not be booking EconoLodge in the future; the chain was okay in California, but I’ve had too much trouble with it elsewhere.
This room at the Cities of Gold Casino however, somewhere around Santa Fe, New Mexico, looks spectacular. But the walls are thin; I can hear my neighbors playing their television and sneezing. I may just be going too cheap with rooms.
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
While Attorney General Merrick Garland fiddles,[2] it appears the Atlanta area district attorney, Fani T. Willis, is putting together an actual case over, among other things,[3] Donald Trump’s call to the Georgia secretary of state beseeching him to “find 11,780 votes.”[4]
Jon Allsop, “The January 6 committee revolutionizes democratic storytelling,” Columbia Journalism Review, July 22, 2022, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/january_6_committee_review.php
David Lauter, “Jan. 6 hearings have wounded Trump, and more decline may be ahead,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-07-22/jan-6-hearings-have-wounded-trump-more-decline-may-be-ahead-essential-politics?sfmc_id=1348269
Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri, and Eric Tucker, “Jan. 6: Trump spurned aides’ pleas to call off Capitol mob,” Associated Press, January 22, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-panel-hearing-3e3dc618ed8cee37147cf6a792c0c0fa
Spencer S. Hsu, Devlin Barrett, and Katie Mettler, “Steve Bannon found guilty in Jan. 6 contempt of Congress trial,” Washington Post, July 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/22/bannon-january-6-trial-friday/
Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim, “On the Docket: Atlanta v. Trumpworld,” New York Times, July 23, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/us/politics/trump-georgia-election-interference.html
Amy Davidson Sorkin, “What Will Come of the January 6th Committee’s Case Against Trump?” New Yorker, July 24, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/01/what-will-come-of-the-january-6th-committees-case-against-trump
- [1]Rob Picheta, Nikki Carvajal, and Greg Wallace, “Trump claims Americans have to flush the toilet ‘10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once,’” CNN, December 7, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/07/politics/trump-americans-flushing-toilets-intl/index.html↩
- [2]Farnoush Amiri and Michael Balsamo, “Jan. 6 panel puts Garland in ‘precarious’ spot, ups pressure,” Associated Press, April 1, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-merrick-garland-donald-trump-f70143880cb9be8a0610edcad1ed18e8↩
- [3]Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim, “On the Docket: Atlanta v. Trumpworld,” New York Times, July 23, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/us/politics/trump-georgia-election-interference.html↩
- [4]Amy Gardner, “‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor,” Washington Post, January 3, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html↩