Throwing It Away, &c.
On the Detroit Tigers, Rod Blagojevich, Francesca Hong, Donald Trump, Richard Wagner, and more
What my Detroit Tigers did last week reminded me of Rod Blagojevich—“Blago”—who was a corrupt governor of Illinois. (“Corrupt governor of Illinois” is a large category.)
We traded our best pitcher to the Dodgers and, for some reason, got relatively little in return. You can read about this fantastically lopsided trade here.
How good is Tarik Skubal? Well, in our uniform, he won the Cy Young Award the last two seasons—’24 and ’25.
Back in 2008, Illinois senator Barack Obama won the presidency, and that meant that the governor—Blago—had an opportunity to appoint a replacement senator. How would he sell that seat? That was his question.
The way he put it was, “I’ve got this thing, and it’s f***ing golden. I’m just not giving it up for f***ing nothing.”
Would that my Tigers had held something like that view.
(President Trump commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020. Upon being released, Blago said of Trump, “He’s obviously got a big fan in me.” And “if you’re asking what my party affiliation is, I’m a Trumpocrat.” Blago had been a Democrat. He attended the 2024 Republican convention. As I see it, “Trumpocrat” is an inspired coinage, applying to millions.)
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Jonathan Netanyahu is one of the great men in Israeli history. He was a commando in the Raid on Entebbe, the operation to rescue hostages at the Ugandan airport in 1976—on July 4 of that year (America’s bicentennial day). Jonathan was the only Israeli killed in the operation.
The only Israeli soldier, I should say. Three hostages were killed in crossfire.
As you can read in this news article, the Ugandan dictatorship has now erected a monument to Jonathan. This is a nasty regime, obviously, whose “president” has been in “office” since … 1986. Still, I’m glad for the monument.
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Have you read about the Democratic candidate for governor in Wisconsin who wanted to cancel Thanksgiving? Cancel it for all, forever, I mean? You can read about this lady, and her hostility to Thanksgiving, here.
She regards Thanksgiving as a colonial offense.
What I say, briefly, is this: If you don’t like Thanksgiving, you don’t have to celebrate it. It’s a free country (thank God).
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I do like this candidate’s name—“Francesca Hong.” A combination of the Italian and the Chinese. Rather American, in truth.
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With the Republican Party Trumpified, our country desperately needs Democrats not to be nuts. They have a hard time delivering.
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A headline: “For sale: early access to Trump’s Truth Social posts.” A paragraph from the article:
“It’s insane,” said one Wall Street executive, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration. “I can say for myself and 200 of my friends in finance, we’re not getting anywhere near this. In another administration, this would be considered criminal.”
I grew up with an expression—something almost Biblical: “a nation of laws, not men.” Turned out to be kinda wrong, didn’t it?
Possibly, we will get back to the rule of law once Trump and Trumpism pass. I wonder: why not start now?
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Back when I was a Republican, we used to joke, “The press rediscovers the problem of homelessness every time a Republican is elected president.” Maybe Republicans will rediscover the rule of law, the importance of character, etc., once a Democrat is elected?
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I had the pleasure of being on the Reagan Caucus Podcast, hosted by John Daly and Cliff Smith (who was filling in for Thomas D. Howes). See the episode here.
“See” is a funny word in that context, isn’t it? Used to be, podcasts were heard, like radio programs. Increasingly, they are seen, on video.
John, Cliff, and I talked about a slew of issues, including character in office, an issue that gives many people the heebie-jeebies.
Cliff asked a good question: What constitutes character?
When it comes to American politics—when it comes to the presidency specifically—I don’t think my bar is too high.
Respect the Constitution.
Respect the rule of law.
Observe our traditions, our norms. You attend your successor’s inauguration. You don’t hang your banner on the Justice Department. You don’t put your name on another man’s memorial.
You don’t use your office to enrich yourself and your family. (I’m speaking of money here, not some other form of enrichment.)
When you lose an election, you concede it. You don’t sic a mob on the U.S. Congress for the purpose of stopping a constitutional process.
You don’t slobber over mass-murderous, anti-American dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un.
I could go on. You have a basic integrity, trustworthiness, and patriotism. You don’t lie 24/7. You take a few hours off, maybe when you sleep.
I am not asking for some Periclean ideal. Just … you know: the minimum. Nixon and Clinton look almost quaint now.
If you say that Trump lacks the character to be president, you will hear from his supporters and defenders: “You’re a square, you’re a prig, you’re a scold. You have TDS,” i.e., “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Don’t buy it. Don’t let others make you ashamed for having standards that until recently were normal and uncontroversial.
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Does this image, circulated by our president, gross you out? I don’t see why it shouldn’t. You don’t have “TDS.” You simply have a stomach.
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Turn, now, to opera. All of our lives, we have heard musicologists say, “If Wagner had lived in the time of movies, he would not have composed operas. He would have made movies—operatic movies.”
Did you see this story? “AI-assisted staging draws boos at the Richard Wagner festival in Germany.” That would be the Bayreuth Festival. I can’t tell you anything about this production of Götterdämmerung—but I feel sure that if Wagner had had access to AI, he would have used it, ingeniously.
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Ethics, ethics. “Gene-edited beagles may offer a future option for people with dog allergies.” That is the headline over this article. I want people to be able to own dogs—to know the joy of owning dogs. What’s more, dogs need good owners. Good and loving owners.
But gene-editing and all that: it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe I’m square, or conservative, and these innovations are mainly benign and salutary.
To be continued …
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Almost every morning, I wake up to news that Ukraine has struck military sites in Russia—and that Russia has struck civilians in Ukraine. Here is an item from yesterday. It comes from the Russian news organization in exile, Meduza.
Try not to get numb, if at all possible. Putin’s Russia is a terror-state. The routineness of its terror should not numb us to it.
Rarely is a war so asymmetrical as the Ukraine war. Rarely is a war so black-and-white. I think of what David Petraeus said, in 2023: This war is “about as clear a right-versus-wrong as we’ve seen in our lifetime.”
Thank you for reading, my friends, and subscribing, if you can and want. Talk to you soon. (My next offering will be a podcast with Kevin Williamson, that talent and gem.)
If character is what a person does when no one is watching, what's the best single word to describe what Trump is doing with everyone watching? Not to go all-Jonah Goldberg, but surely there's a German word that fits.
"In another administration, this would be considered criminal.”
The number of times this president has blown past that marker would be impossible to tally. Way back in 2016 we were told that Trump is special, so he gets a different standard of judgment. Turns out that means no standard beyond "Let Trump be Trump."