The hospital discharged my ex-husband yesterday to a rehab hospital, although the infection isn’t eradicated and he’s still mega-week and somewhat confused. Seems to me the infection is the priority and until that gets better he won’t be able to cooperate with rehab. I hope I’m being too pessimistic, but I guess I’ll find out. I’m planning to go over there this afternoon.
Thanks again for your prayers and good wishes.
Tom Lehrer has died at the age of 97. I’ve written about Lehrer before; you can find many of those posts here.
I was raised on Lehrer from early childhood, which is a bit weird since many of his songs (most of his songs, actually) were pretty warped. I loved them. I think I still know every word of every song, many of which are satiric masterpieces.
He was a decent piano player, too.
Oh, and a math professor at several then-prestigious institutions.
My family were early adopters of Tom Lehrer’s oeuvre because a family friend had been his college roommate. That’s how I came by his records at such a young age, before he was famous. It’s hard to choose a Lehrer song for this post because I have so very many favorites, but I’ll go with this for the humor:
And this very dark one for the fabulous run of rhymes that goes from 0:35 to 1:10:
And of course, this homage to Gilbert and Sullivan and the Periodic Table:
I could just keep going, but I’ll stop here.
Trump says it’s great:
“It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals,” Trump said Sunday alongside von der Leyen [of the EU].
The agreement imposes a flat 15% tariff on most European imports to the U.S., including automobiles—significantly lower than the 30% Trump had previously threatened, but still far tougher than the 10% baseline the EU hoped for. In return, the EU will buy $750 billion in American energy and invest an additional $600 billion into the U.S. economy.
“We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%,” Trump said. …
“It is about rebalancing,” von der Leyen said as she sat next to Trump. “You can call it fairness, you can call it rebalancing. We have a surplus and the United States has a deficit, and we have to rebalance it.”
Sounds good to me. But how does CNN Business spin it? With this headline: “Trump’s EU deal averts disaster. But few are cheering.” The NY Times has this more interesting take of very reluctant semi-praise: “For Trump, E.U. Trade Deal was Badly Needed: After a lot of big talk on trade, the Trump administration needed a big win. It appears to have just gotten one.” Here’s another CNN approach: “Trump lands another big win with EU trade deal, but he can’t dodge the Epstein saga.”
He can’t dodge it if CNN has anything to say about it.
The NY Post, as you might expect, has a more enthusiastic attitude as reflected in this headline: “Eu-reka! Trump strikes ‘biggest deal ever made’ with EU as prez announces Europeans will invest trillions in US, pay tariffs.”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The story on my ex’s medical travails isn’t good, unfortunately. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but the basic situation is that he currently has delirium, presumably caused by an infection that so far has been resistant to antibiotic treatment. I’m very much hoping that they will find something that will zap the bug sufficiently to bring him back from the brink of whatever is going on with him. He’s very miserable, and as far as I’m concerned it’s been a nightmare to see him this way. He’s had a number of medical troubles in recent years, but they’ve mostly been nasty but not too nasty. This present situation is far more difficult.
I very much appreciate your prayers and good wishes.
He’s not a young man but until the last few years he was very active and still quite athletic. Parkinson’s has been part of the picture starting about five years ago, and he seems to have dropped off a cliff with that recently, too.
We separated twenty-five years ago, and so you might imagine it took us a while to become friends again. But we’ve been friends again for at least fifteen years, he’s the father of my child and the grandfather of my grandchildren, and what’s happening now is very difficult.
It’s especially difficult, of course, having lost Gerard two and a half years ago. I know this is part of getting older, but I was hoping to stave it off for many more years. I’m trying to be optimistic because I know it’s possible that some sort of treatment will help, but this is definitely a low time for me. I think blogging is helpful, because (except for posts like this) it gets my mind onto other things.
Wish I had better news. I hope that soon I will.
Light posting because I’ve been dealing with my ex-husband’s health crisis today. Distressing.
UPDATE 11:30 PM: I’m home now, he’s being admitted, so we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for the well wishes and prayers.
I’ve seen many comments around the blogosphere to the effect of this: “Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of trafficking. So of course other clients were serviced in addition to Epstein.”
However, that’s a misunderstanding of the case. As I read it, as far as I can tell, the only client involved in the verdict was Epstein himself.
Here’s the legal document:
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GHISLANE MAXWELL was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States Circuit Judge Alison J. Nathan to 240 months in prison for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade. MAXWELL was previously found guilty on December 29, 2021, following a one-month jury trial, of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor. …
In the later phase, from approximately 2001 until at least approximately 2004, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls to visit Epstein’s Palm Beach Residence to engage in sex acts with Epstein, after which Epstein, MAXWELL, or another employee of Epstein’s would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash. MAXWELL and Epstein encouraged one or more of those victims to travel with Epstein with the intention that the victim engage in sex acts with Epstein. Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, MAXWELL and Epstein also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. In this way, MAXWELL and Epstein created a network of underage victims for Epstein to sexually exploit.
You’ll find more at the link, but it’s all in that vein: Epstein, Epstein, Epstein.
The evidence against “clients” other than Epstein rests on the testimony of 2 women, one a proven liar (Giuffre), who sued in civil court to get lots of money mostly through settlements (like the one with Prince Andrew). Alan Dershowitz – who was one of the accused – fought back and won. I’ve written about this several times on the blog – for example, see these posts.
Now, it’s certainly possible there were such other clients, but I’ve seen no convincing evidence of it. Maxwell was convicted of trafficking, procuring girls who traveled across state lines to have sex with Epstein, not with anyone else. Maxwell is apparently giving testimony in connection with a Congressional investigation, and it’s certainly possible she will talk about other clients. If she does, it will be the equivalent of a jailhouse snitch trying to curry favors – unless, of course, she can come up with evidence other than her own statements. I would never say never about the existence of other clients. But I would have to see something fairly convincing and so far there’s been nothing of the sort.
For the left, failing to teach history – or teaching the leftist version of history – is a feature rather than a bug. A big, big feature. It makes it easier to fill in the blanks with utter claptrap.
To wit:
The Obama-directed & Clapper-Brennan-Comey-created Intel Community Assessment on Russian meddling in the 2016 election claimed “the Kremlin has historically preferred Republican over Democratic candidates.”
Here is the *actual* historical record, which is 180 degrees different. https://t.co/zSRnMDF1Rw pic.twitter.com/mLaVe1fAd5
— Jerry Dunleavy IV ?? (@JerryDunleavy) July 25, 2025
In what alternate universe would that be believable? In the universe created by abysmal ignorance of history.
I’m not saying that Clapper, Brennan, and Comey are themselves ignorant of the actual history. I suppose that could be the case, but I very very very much doubt it. I think they rely on the public’s ignorance, particularly that of people under fifty.
Once again, no surprise here:
True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine.
I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly next September.
The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population.
Peace is possible.
There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza. Finally, it is essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East.
There is no alternative.
I think the UN General Assembly is the perfect venue for Macron’s perfidy. And France is just the country to do it. Recall that it was French media who spread the al-Durah hoax around the world, making way for the carnage of the Second Intifada.
It reminds me that Arafat and the Palestinian cause got a huge boost from their massacre of the Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972; after which Arafat addressed the UN in 1974. Terrorism pays.
I’ve seen speculation about that – for example, here.
It is indeed a puzzlement. I don’t think they were stupid people, so I reject that notion. I have a one-word answer – which of course, being a blogger, I’ll expand on – and that is:
Hubris.
They felt protected by firewalls of “classified” labels.
They had spent their lives conniving and plotting and had only been promoted and acquired more and more power.
They thought they’d be successful in stopping Trump, because they had a host of ways and a host of powerful allies in the cause. And, if successful, the right would never come to power, certainly not in their lifetimes.
They knew the left would certainly never tell or investigate, nor would the press. The left and the press would back them up and/or cover up whatever they did.
But in addition, they thought the right would never get access to those emails, and if they did, the press and the left would be able to deflect them. More importantly, the right would never prosecute. That last remains to be seen.
And if the right did prosecute, the right wouldn’t win the cases. That also remains to be seen.
On those last two points, I think that this article is relevant. Despite the left’s demonizing of the right as power-mad fascists, until now in the US in recent years the right – for the most part – was reluctant to play hardball to the extent the left does. From the piece:
… merely being in office is not enough. Conservatives (or those labelling themselves as such) also need to have a will to be in power and not just to be in office. The power truly to change things can be found not just in the realm of politics but also in culture, education, and entertainment. The Left fights wars—cultural, ideological, total—while conservatives content themselves with fighting single-issue battles. The Left controls culture, media, education—it is, essentially, always in power. Conservatives, meanwhile, take office now and again, but rarely shape the culture.
This time around for the Trump administration, I see some of that happening. But in the case of the Russia Hoax, the willingness to use legal power is especially important too. However, there can be danger of abuse of power in employing the law to try and to convict the opposition; after all, that is what the left has been trying to do to Trump and anyone who would work for him, the approach known as lawfare which culminated on the four legal cases against Trump in which the law was stretched to the breaking point to manufacture novel ways to “get” him. The right has an understandable reluctance to do that, and I share that reluctance.
But what if people such as Clapper and Brennan really are guilty? And of what? I’ve discussed that before, and I plan to discuss it again. But if people really are guilty of the sort of things of which the Russiagate co-conspirators are accused, they need to be prosecuted.
Of course, those who thought – and still think – Trump was guilty and should have been imprisoned will not be changing their minds on that, and they will see the prosecution of the Russia Hoaxers as a terrible and vengeful miscarriage of justice. And I believe that group of people may consist of half the country.