9.20.205 – vituperation

vituperation
and invective failing to
get to the point

A federal judge tossed Donald Trump’s $15bn defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, book publisher Penguin and two Times reporters, and said the suit was filled with “vituperation and invective” and violated civil procedure in federal cases for failing to get to the point.

From the article, Judge strikes down Trump’s $15bn lawsuit against the New York Times by George Chidi in the Guardian.

The Judge who tossed the lawsuit wrote:

A complaint is a mechanism to fairly, precisely, directly, soberly, and economically inform the defendants — in a professionally constrained manner consistent with the dignity of the adversarial process in an Article III court of the United States — of the nature and content of the claims. A complaint is a short, plain, direct statement of allegations of fact sufficient to create a facially plausible claim for relief and sufficient to permit the formulation of an informed response. Although lawyers receive a modicum of expressive latitude in pleading the claim of a client, the complaint in this action extends far beyond the outer bound of that latitude.

This complaint stands unmistakably and inexcusably athwart the requirements of Rule 8. This action will begin, will continue, and will end in accord with the rules of procedure and in a professional and dignified manner.

The Judge told the President’s lawyers to go back to school and AI most likely and come up with a complaint that meets existing standards and gave them 4 weeks to do it.

It is not over but just one more sign for one side, that we are dealing with a clown car of staffers who couldn’t get a job in a meat marker which is really unfair to folks who work in a meat marker and for the other side, that left leaning commie pinko woke judges are standing in the way of might makes what is right.

Just another brick in the wall.

Still I live for the day to read a historical account of this administration that by ALL accounts, it was filled with “vituperation and invective”, failing to get to the point.

To quote Big Bill:

It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth (Act 5 Scene 5).

See all the Thurber Drawings I could identity at Muggs and Rex – Click here!

9.19.2025 – in the fell clutch of

in the fell clutch of
circumstance not winced nor cried
bloody, but unbowed

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus by William Ernest Henley as published in A Book of Verses (London: David Nutt, 1888).

9.18.2025 – concerted effort

concerted effort
to try … try … to lie to the
American people

In an interview on Wednesday, the Trump-appointed head of the US media regulator, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States (FCC), said Kimmel had made a “concerted effort to try to lie to the American people”.

Brendan Carr went on to call Kimmel’s comments an attempt to “play into a narrative that this was somehow a Maga or Republican-motivated person”.

From the article, Explainer: What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk’s killing? by Jonathan Yerushalmy and Oliver Holmes in the Guardian.

Am I the only one banging there head on the floor until it really hurts?

Mr. Kimmel was taken off the air because he made a concerted effort to try to lie.

Try to lie?

Try?

When the guy in the oval office …

Did you see how that TV Channel in Great Britain complied a show on that feller of nothing but 3 hours of his lies?

A review said Channel 4’s use of facts to correct almost everything the US president has said since taking office in January is a monumental flex. Sadly three hours of him speaking is deadeningly boring.

Three hours of him, not trying to, but actually lying.

And Mr. Kimmel TRIED TO LIE according to FCC.

Well as Carl Fox (Played by Martin Sheen in the Movie Wall Street) said:

I don’t go to bed with no whore, and I don’t wake up with no whore.

That’s how I live with myself.

I don’t know how you do it.

9.17.2025 – character, and the

character, and the
common moral sentiment
were their own safeguards

As long as he was able to maintain that by a broad restoration of individual character war would strengthen his society, Theodore Roosevelt could ignore the problem of power.

He, with William McKinley, Pierpont Morgan, and others of the old consensus, assumed that character automatically controlled power.

The decisions of self -regulating men of character would be right, socially beneficent, indeed altogether irreproachable, whether the issue were a vote, a war, an industry, or a canal.

Character, and the common moral sentiment for which it stood, were their own safeguards against any abuse of power.

The Mirror of war: American society and the Spanish-American War by Gerald F. Linderman (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1974).

Along with everything else any cat might drag in, there seems to be a hue and cry against the evils … THE EVILS … of higher education.

The type of place that might teach that character, and the common moral sentiment for which it stood, were their own safeguards against any abuse of power.

Boy HOWDY but do I see why there are those who don’t want anything like that to be taught to college age kids.

Just imagine if a batch of 22 year-olds were dropped into society thinking that character, and the common moral sentiment for which it stood, was important!

I can imagine it.

It was me.

This book was written by Dr. Gerald F. Linderman, the man who gave the 1st real college lecture I ever had the privilege, AND I DO mean privilege of attending.

He taught a survey class of United States History from the Civil War to WW2.

He would stand in front of the class in this huge lecture and at 10 after the hour he would start speaking.

You could soon hear him through out the hall, not that spoke louder but the class would suddenly get less than quiet.

Early on I found out the best seats were in the front rows and I would sit back, spell bound, and listen as Dr. Linderman spun a tale of hero’s and villain’s as he taught the history of the United States.

For the rest of the time I was in college, I took every class I could from Dr. Linderman.

And if there weren’t classes from Dr. Linderman, there was Dr. Fine, Dr. Lockridge and Dr. Lindner.

See, I went to the University of Michigan.

I went to the University of Michigan and I am proud of it.

Sure I like the football team and the basketball team and the big stadium.

But I am here to tell you that if all I could brag about was the 6,000,000 books in the library and the way my mind got opened up by people who understood the value of such a library, I would wear a a Michigan T shirt with just as much pride.

I know, I know, I know, a lot of that comes across as pretty arrogant but if you were there and experienced the challenges, well, all I can say is that it was a pretty special place and it created pretty special people.

Yes I felt I was at one of the top universities in the world.

Yes, I felt I was up against other students who were among the top students anywhere.

Yes, I felt I held my own and if I could hold my own against those students at that University, then yes, I felt I could succeed anywhere.

If that’s arrogance, then so be it.

Because along with those challenges, it was up to you to embrace it.

It wasn’t for everyone

But if you did, the University embraced you back.

There was another student favorite Professor who taught great books by the name of Dr. Ralph Williams.

Each year he would open his class with a welcome speech.

I have done my best to reconstruct this speech from memory.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the University of Michigan!

You have come to a great university, and you come now into a time of extraordinary possibility. This university, vast and varied, is a world unto itself—a place where people from across the globe gather, not only to learn, but to inquire, to explore, and to become.

At Michigan, you will encounter ideas that will challenge you, and people who will expand your understanding of the world. You will study with faculty who are among the best in their fields—who have committed their lives not only to knowledge but to the transformation that knowledge can bring.

And you—each one of you—belong here. Regardless of your background, your accent, your style, your strengths, your uncertainties—you are meant to be here. You have been chosen not only for what you have already achieved but for what you might become.

You are now part of a living tradition, stretching back over 200 years, and yet always reinventing itself. You walk in the same Diag as poets and scientists, as civil rights leaders and Nobel laureates, as people who once stood where you stand, wondering what lies ahead.

My friends—because you are my friends—make the most of this time. Read deeply. Ask questions. Dare to speak. Dare to listen. Reach out to those unlike you, and learn from them. Seek not only information, but understanding. Seek not only success, but wisdom.

And remember: you are not alone here. You are part of a community that believes in you, that hopes with you, and that stands ready to help you grow.

Welcome to the University of Michigan.

Welcome home.

Look, if your college experience wasn’t like this, I am sorry.

I probably had more fun than I should have.

But I grew up a lot as well.

And I can see how an experience like this might scare a lot of people.

Kids, young kids, going someplace where the Professors said:

Ask questions.

Dare to speak.

Dare to listen

A place where people from across the globe gather, not only to learn, but to inquire, to explore, and to become.

I always remembered you are not alone here. You are part of a community that believes in you, that hopes with you, and that stands ready to help you grow.

Scary right?

I sure do understand why some folks would be afraid of places that teach things like that.

Oh geeee whiz.

BTW – As for higher learning, I once was supposed to meet my friend Doug, in front of this building, Angell Hall, on Central Campus. It was winter and I made a bunch of snowballs and hid behind the columns waiting for Doug to come walking up the sidewalk. Standing there, snowball in hand, I heard, HEY MIKE. Doug had come thru the building and came out behind me. Sometimes you can be friends too long.

9.16.2025 – if you are tired

if you are tired
from the last six years, you have
earned the right to be

I warned of rising authoritarianism, I wrote: “So what do those of us who love American democracy do? Make noise. Take up oxygen…. Defend what is great about this nation: its people, and their willingness to innovate, work, and protect each other. Making America great has never been about hatred or destruction or the aggregation of wealth at the very top; it has always been about building good lives for everyone on the principle of self-determination. While we have never been perfect, our democracy is a far better option than the autocratic oligarchy Trump is imposing on us.”

And we have made noise, and we have taken up oxygen. All across the country, people have stepped up to defend our democracy from those who are open about their plans to destroy it and install a dictator. Democrats and Republicans as well as people previously unaligned, we have reiterated why democracy matters.

If you are tired from the last six years, you have earned the right to be.

And yet you are still here, reading, commenting, protesting, articulating a new future for the nation. And I am proud to be among you.

Written by Heather Cox Richardson in Letters from an American, A newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, on September 15, 2025.

Ms. Richardson hit a note with me today.

She hit a note with me because, I am tired.

Tired out.

Everyday its something new.

Everyday its something different.

I think they have found something new to hate.

They think they have found another way the attack on themselves has been revelead.

Revealed and stopped.

All for the greater glory and security of themselves.

And all I see is consuming hate.

Hate and fear.

Fear?

Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.*

I work daily to defend what is great about this nation: its people, and their willingness to innovate, work, and protect each other.

I agree that making America great has never been about hatred or destruction or the aggregation of wealth at the very top; it has always been about building good lives for everyone on the principle of self-determination.

I agree that while we have never been perfect, our democracy is a far better option than the autocratic oligarchy Trump is imposing on us.”

And I have made noise, and I have taken up oxygen.

All across the country, people have stepped up to defend our democracy from those who are open about their plans to destroy it and install a dictator.

Democrats and Republicans as well as people previously unaligned, we have reiterated why democracy matters.

If I am tired from the last six years, I guess I have earned the right to be.

As for me, I will be vindicated and will see God’s face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing his likeness. (Psalm 17:15 NIV).

*“The Gate of the Year” is the popular name given to a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins, written in 1908 and privately published in 1912, was part of a collection titled The Desert. It caught the public attention and the popular imagination when King George VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British Empire.