Party Animals, &c.

On Elon’s new venture; presidential oration; a Cuban heroine; singing Estonians, and Welshmen; Ozzy Osbourne and George W. Bush; and more

GOP luminaries, gathered in 2024 (Photo via Speaker Mike Johnson)

For me, it is good news, bad news. “Did you hear that a new political party has been formed? Yes, by Elon Musk.” To read about this development, go here.

By some iron law, there are only two major parties in this country at a time. We are supposed to find our place under one or the other tent. But, in the last many years, some of us have felt partyless.

You know the kind of party I would welcome? I will take a crack at sketching it out:

A party that stands for the rule of law. Constitutionalism. Individual rights. Limited government. Free enterprise. Federalism. Civil society. National security. Fiscal responsibility. Personal responsibility, too. Character in office. E pluribus unum. Western civilization (with its flavoring by cultures everywhere).

I could go on, but that’s probably enough for now. You don’t want to read a manifesto. (Do you?)

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A headline to absorb: “Tuberville says ‘inner-city rats’ live off the American taxpayers: Trump should send them ‘back home.’” Tommy Tuberville is a U.S. senator from Alabama. The article quotes him as saying,

You can stop the federal funding. President Trump can do anything he wants when it comes to the federal. Again, these inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt. And it’s time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers, that are working very hard every week to pay taxes.

There is a great deal to say about Senator Tuberville’s comments. I will say just a little. Alabama is one of the states that receive much more from Washington, D.C., than they send. Indeed, Alabama receives about $40 billion more than it sends. (New York sends about $90 billion more than it receives.)

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Another headline: “How Democrats in America’s most Jewish city embraced a critic of Israel for New York mayor.” There is a lot to say about this subject, too. (The article is here.) I will say simply that I think of Hillel: “If I am not for myself …”

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A story from my hometown: “University of Michigan regents, execs get 24-hour security as threats, harassment persist.” That article is here. The subheading tells us that the U of M “provided 24-hour security to regents and executives as harassment, property damage, and personal threats from pro-Palestinian protesters continued.”

That ought not to be, in America. Disgusting. Shameful. Let the protest be peaceful and lawful, or quash it. That’s liberal democracy, ordered liberty.

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A less disturbing story: “Royal train to end 156 years of service as King Charles III seeks to economize.” (Article here.) Some Americans will think of the Sequoia, retired by President Carter in 1977 (or rather, sold by him). (The Sequoia was the presidential yacht.)

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You may have seen this lil’ grift by the sitting president:

I think of scandals past. Sherman Adams and the vicuña coat. Richard V. Allen and the wristwatches. Doesn’t it seem like . . . small beer, compared with now? Prissy, almost?

Yet I prefer that sensibility to “lol anything goes, nothing matters.”

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On Independence Day, President Trump gave a speech in Des Moines. “They wouldn’t vote,” he said. He meant, Democratic members of Congress did not vote for his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed with Republican support.

Democrats did not support the bill, the president said, “only because they hate Trump. But I hate them too, you know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth.”

I understand partisanship. Partisanship has its place—many places. I even understand partisan invective (“I hate them”). But in a presidential address on the Fourth of July?

If my standard is prissy, so be it.

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I am delighted to hail the Trump administration, and the Rubio State Department, for their backing of Rosa María Payá to sit on the IACHR, which is to say, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Rosa María (an old friend) is a Cuban democracy activist and the daughter of another such activist, the great and martyred Oswaldo Payá.

To see a press release from the Center for a Free Cuba, go here.

I can’t help thinking back to Reagan and Valladares: President Reagan appointed Armando Valladares, a former political prisoner and one of Cuba’s greatest dissidents, to be the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

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The opening paragraph of a report from the Associated Press:

Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian lived in the United States for 47 years, married a U.S. citizen and raised their daughter. She was gardening in the yard of her New Orleans home when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers handcuffed her and took her away, her family said.

Does that seem right to you?

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I’d like to mention the leadership in Cameroon, and I ask you to bear with me, please. Since 1969, the Pittsburgh Steelers have had three head coaches: Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin. Since 1969, the Michigan State basketball team has had three head coaches: Gus Ganakas, Jud Heathcote, and Tom Izzo.

Since 1960, when it won independence, Cameroon has had two presidents. The incumbent, Paul Biya, has been in that office since 1982. He is 92 years old and is gearing up for another campaign (this is no democracy, as you know).

(For a recent story on Biya and Cameroon, go here.)

Well, North Korea has had three dictators since 1948: father, son, and grandson.

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“Thousands of voices unite in song at traditional choir festival celebrating Estonia’s culture.” For that article, go here. As you recall, the efforts of Estonians to break free from the Soviet Union, in the last years of that empire, were dubbed “the Singing Revolution.” I counted it a privilege, in the years following, to meet some of the leaders of that revolution (for example, Mart Laar, who became the prime minister of his country in 1992).

In 2006, the filmmakers James and Maureen Tusty, a husband-and-wife team, made a documentary about the Singing Revolution. I reviewed it, but cannot find that piece on the Great Wide Net. The film has a website, however: here.

Stirring (the revolution and the film).

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In an airport, I saw a “Sensory Room,” as they call it. I thought it had to do with religion or prayer. But then I saw a “Meditation Room.” In the next airport, I saw a “Religious Reflections Room.”

It can be dicey, the naming business. So many sensitivities to account for . . .

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In one of these airports—the second one—I noticed a clock that was wrong. I mean, considerably off, not just a few minutes off. A wrong clock is no big deal. But in an airport? That can be problematic . . .

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A woman walked by, wearing a T-shirt that said, “Surviving Purely Out of Spite.” The look on her face suggested she meant it.

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An obit is headed, “Joseph Giordano, Surgeon Who Helped Save Reagan’s Life, Dies at 84.” (Go here.) That whole event is so vivid to me. Things that happen when you’re young make a deep impression, don’t they?

(The assassination attempt was on March 30, 1981. Nancy Reagan always referred to the event as “March 30th.”)

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Another obit: “Stuart Burrows, Welsh Lyric Tenor Who Straddled the Atlantic, Dies at 92.” (Go here.) On social media, I remarked, “One of the sweetest voices this side of heaven. (What is it about Welshmen and singing?)” My friend Dan Foster replied, “It’s not unusual.”

Perfect.

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Did you see this? “Ozzy Osbourne says farewell to live performance with a hometown show for 40,000 fans.” I loved a moment between Osbourne and President George W. Bush. It took place at the 2002 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. The rocker pointed to his funky tresses and said, “Mr. President, you should wear your hair like mine!” Bush answered, “Second term, Ozzy, second term.”

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I thought this was kind of nice—a floral outburst at Lincoln Center, in New York:

Thank you for joining me today, my friends. Privilege to jive with you, on matters important and maybe a little less so. Later on.