… 231.8 lbs…

… stayed up to watch the J6 Select Committee hearing… it detailed 45’s determination that the capitol riot should stop the election from being certified by congress… there was not a huge amount of new information, but there was more flesh put on the bones, so to speak… whether it is yet demonstrable in a court of law, it is clear that 45 wanted and motivated the insurrection and that he had control of the mob, could have ended it at any time, but only did so when he saw the gambit had failed… of particular note to me was the way in which Liz Cheney reached out to women… she praised the women, by name, who had come forward to testify and reminded women of how hard they had to fight to win the right to vote… this from Heather Cox Richardson this AM…

At the end of the hearing, Cheney praised the witnesses, especially the women. She offered special thanks to Cassidy Hutchinson, who “knew all along that she would be attacked by President Trump, and by the 50-, 60-, and 70-year-old men who hide behind executive privilege,” but had courage to testify nonetheless. Cheney mentioned the female witnesses by name, saying they were “an inspiration to American women and to American girls.” ¹

… and…

Speaking especially to the American women whose votes will be key to the upcoming election, she noted that the room in which they were meeting was where the committee on women’s suffrage met in 1918. We… “have a solemn obligation not to idly squander what so many Americans have fought and died for.” ²

… the committee reminded us that the threat is not over… that 45 is still trying to claim the election was stollen, still has the same devout followers enthralled and ready to go and still poses a threat to democracy…

… just posted a reply on HCR about Liz Cheney’s callout to women at the end of the hearing…

… this sculpture by Ai Weiwei is beautiful in appearance and concept…

… i read this review of Nope and confirm the already growing feeling that i would like to see it…

… an article on Crazy Kat and e e cummings is an intriguing read… i read it from beginning to end… one of George Herriman’s strips in the article…

… as i get the coffee ready for H, i am reminded of the sugar water spill she left last night… the floor a sticky mess… i get the mop out, set it up, leave instructions for how to use it…

… i head for Kitchen and Coffee… in a leisurely way… making photographs as i go… at one corner i stop to make a picture and two women in head scarves walk out from behind the building… they stop… i did not want people in the picture… one woman walks back behind the building… the other looks after her… i decide to make the picture with the woman in it… she turns at the instant i snap the picture and looks at me… i wonder if she somehow felt the camera on her… as i was editing yesterdays journal entry i ran across this…

… i think about this… divine attracts consciousness with the power of the sea’s liquid material manifestations… without consciousness, is there any divine?… the pansychic idea that everything has awareness… material at its most basic level has awareness, even if only attraction to that which attracts and in turn is attracted… this is the base level of awareness… to “know” something is adjacent…

… i am even more intrigued by the idea that she sensed me taking the picture and turned to see… i am not sure she liked that i did, but it was at a distance…

… loud talking barista is here today, though being relatively quiet… she is wearing a grey knit top and black stretch shorts down to just above her knees… i note that she has tattoos on both arms…

… the music is soft, easy to ignore… LM barista is talking about going to the pool after work…

… Etel Adnan…

In between there was Greece and Rome, but Rome’s gods, unlike Greece’s, seem to have left for good.³

… i think about this… it rings true… so much of western civilization resting on the foundations of ancient Greece, not Rome… EA observes that God “could be absolute darkness or absolute light,” and i think the only absolute is darkness, when it happens… the absence of light, the absence of consciousness… is there such a thing?… God, EA tells me, is “born out of the fear of pain, decay, or disappearance”… i nod, but my fears don’t create god for me except as absolute darkness… i reject the existence a separate from me they are everywhere and everything all at once… it is meaningless to consider God as some kind of apartness… which is the stance of worshiping, i and thou… rather… god… like the sea, is immersion, we simply can’t separate ourselves from God, if she exists… so what is worship but a kind of arrogance of the worshiper?… there is no point in naming Gods except to name ourselves… “eternity is death’s favorite name” EA tells me… “only consciousness is life,” and consciousness ends… or does it?… yes, in any way meaningful to me here and now… but perhaps not in general…

… a mother asking her toddler Ben what number he is… ten is apparently the right answer, i don’t know why… he’s a toddler, not a ten year old, so i don’t know the significance of ten to Ben… she makes a picture of him as he says to her “ten”… maybe a short video, that would make more sense… dad seems to prefer Benjamin to Ben…

… finished editing photos taken today… ran some errands to gather food for dinner and for dogs… on the way back stopped in a friends wine store and found out their son is sick… in the hospital… doctors not sure what is going on yet… they are waiting for more test results… then he told me his daughter’s dog had cancer and nothing can be done… a bad week he said… i did my best to comfort… glad he told me about it…

… chicken duties today… will plan to get there right at 5:30 as coup is likely to be hot… don’t want the chickens to be cooped up too early… some storms in the area… may cool things down a bit…

… i am delayed in my chicken duties by a thunderstorm passing through… as i am going to the car, a lightning bolt flashes in the near distance… i go back inside and watch the progression of the storm on my weather app… when it is safe i get in the car and go…

I have been having the thought, frequently and steadily, that a Liz Cheney run for President might be the best pathway to holding on to our Republic and the freedoms that we have enjoyed for so long.

The odds of her being nominated seem long to me. However, if she threw her hat in the ring, I think we might want to help her. And by we, I mean centrist independents and moderate Democrats.

I say this knowing that she holds policy positions that are antithetical to a lot of what I believe in. My calculation is this. At present, the political landscape looks poor for Democrats in 2022 and in 2024. The Biden administration currently has a very low approval rating and conditions don’t look good for improvement in the next two and a half years. We may be looking at a scenario where, even setting aside the state level voting shenanigans, it is going to be difficult for Democrats to win the presidency again. Hopefully this will improve, but it’s prudent to think about the what ifs.

So far, the front runner for the Republican nomination is 45. It’s possible that the 1/6 committee is making a dent in his support, but it remains strong, grounded in willful ignorance as it is. The other alternatives, so far, are Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbot. I have no confidence that either of them would be the kind of reverent constitutionalist that Cheney is. We are talking about the survival of the republic here and Cheney is the only one I trust on the Republican side to insure that.

I am convinced that we cannot allow a MAGA Republican to win the presidency in 2024. I am pretty sure any such candidate will shred the constitution while in office. Certainly 45 would.

Add to this mix that 45 and his MAGA horde are gunning for a constitutional crisis should he (or DeSantis or Abbot) be nominated but loose.

Bottom line, a MAGA candidate either wins and then causes a constitutional crisis, or they loose and cause a constitutional crisis. Both scenarios are grim.

On the other hand, should Cheney find a way to capture the nomination, she can be counted on to uphold the constitution in victory or defeat. And, I would argue, if you really want to return the Republican party to an honorable and reasonable participant in our two party system, she needs to win. The non-MAGA Republicans will need that validation for her principled conservatism to be viable. She also needs time as leader of the party to clean out the worst of the MAGA rats.

If she were to be nominated, run and loose, we would avoid a constitutional crisis. However, a loss would allow the MAGA folk to continue to fester and the party could easily swing to the dark side again.

I have been conducting my own non-scientific survey of liberal friends and, interestingly, many of them are having the same thoughts I am. Recently I read an article in the New York Times about the major Democratic donors that are supporting Cheney in her fight to keep her house seat in 2022. We have all come to the same conclusion, Cheney is looking like a clear pathway out of the disaster we are heading for.

The question independents and liberals will need to ask themselves if she is the Republican nominee in 2024, who is best positioned to save the Republic? And if the answer is Liz Cheney, can we play the long game and overcome our aversion to her policies and vote for her? The choice to me is Cheney now and live to fight for a more liberal society another day. The alternative could seal off any possibility of the multicultural society we have been heading for, for a very long time.

Think what you will about her voting record, Liz Cheney is a hero. If we get past this moment in history without the loss of democracy, she and I will disagree about almost everything, but, “long may she run,” to quote Neil Young.

It’s been a tremendous honor—the highest honor of my professional life—to represent the people of Wyoming for the last five and a half years. I am a conservative Republican. I’m going to work hard to earn the vote of every Wyomingite in this election. And I think it’s important for people to know that I believe that the most conservative of conservative principles is fidelity to our Constitution.

In Wyoming, we ride for the brand, and our brand is the United States Constitution. So, I’m going to ask people for their vote. I’m going to work hard to earn that vote.

But people need to know something about me. I will never put party above my duty to the country. I will never put party above my duty to the Constitution. I swore an oath under God and I will abide by that oath. I won’t say something that I know is wrong simply to earn the votes of people to earn political support.

That’s what the voters of Wyoming deserve. That’s what the voters of Wyoming demand. That’s the kind of respect that we owe the voters of this great state.

We need to recognize that if we are not faithful to the Constitution, if we embrace lies, if we embrace the lies of Donald Trump, if we tell the people of Wyoming something is not true, we will soon find ourselves without the structure and the basis and the framework of our Constitutional Republic.

If we don’t abide by the Constitution when it is politically inconvenient, then we will not have the Constitution as our shield when we need to defend our First Amendment rights and our Second Amendment rights.

So, I’m asking for your vote and I’m asking you to understand that I will never violate my oath of office, and if you’re looking for somebody who will, then you need to vote for somebody else on this stage because I won’t.

I will always put my oath first."

Liz Cheney to Run Against Trump?

As the hearings of the January 6 committee get closer… to implicating Donald Trump criminally in the violent attack on the US Capitol, the former president is reportedly considering announcing a 2024 presidential bid earlier than he might have.

… this morning it starts to feel like the downhill race to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year… the middle of Week 46, less than seven weeks to go…

… HCR meter encouraging… the case for holding 45 accountable is being built, slowly, steadily… the Trumpublicans get crazier and crazier… Representative Gosar only the latest iteration of bat shit crazy with his tweeted anime wherein he decapitates(?) AOC… there is justifiable outrage… all the Trumpers in congress care about is disciplining the 13 congress men and women who voted for the infrastructure bill, a broadly popular bill that their states all desperately need… absolute loyalty to the party is all they care about… it is a necessary condition for authoritarian rule… this quote from Liz Cheney is amazing:

_ “In this time of testing, will we do our duty? Will we do what we must? Will we defend our Constitution? Will we stand for truth? Will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics? Or will we look away from the danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies and enable the liar?”_ she said. “There is no gray area when it comes to that question. When it comes to this moment, there is no middle ground.”¹

… i am in love with Liz Cheney… a politician with strong integrity… i suspect i disagree with most of her politics, but on the issue of where we are and what we need to do she is bang on…

… i continue to struggle with refining what i am doing photographically… struggle is probably too strong a word… i am evolving and refining what i am doing…

… oh my, did i finally turn off autocapitalize?… it seems i did!… so exciting… no more having to escape capitalization!…

… back to what sort of photographer am i?… i have begun to center on the iPhone as my camera of daily choice… easier, lighter, and damn, image quality is getting so good!… this, coupled with the very easy workflow of native camera app to Ulysses to Micro.blog has pushed me in the direction of publishing photos as i go, without editing, without careful selection of images to include… photography (and writing) of-the-now… i am publishing photographs in color, some of which i later import into Lightroom, turn to black and white and edit more careful in general… i have decided to be increasingly selective with that group, while maintaining a broader selection on the iPhone photo app… in color… part of me wanted to share color photographs with the Salon last night… instead i prepared a selection of images in black and white from the past ten days… i did not present them as there were an abundance of photographers wanting to show their work, but i reviewed that set several times and i feel good about it…

… so, the practice is evolving as both an of-the-now practice and one that then filters the of-the-now body of work into a more considered body of work with a focused and edited sensibility to it… this is the body that will coalesce into portfolios, book projects, photo poems…

… H wound up in a much better mood yesterday afternoon and evening… they went for a walk with Chas, an idea they sneered at when i suggested it in the morning… “it’s boring, my back hurts” they told me… they did the dishes while i was Zooming with my Salon buddies… i have this nagging question about yesterday morning… did they, for some reason, conscious or not, feel the need to torpedo my good mood and high spirits?… they did an excellent job of it… i can’t help but wonder…

… on the alcohol front… last couple of nights i have limited myself to beer… this seems to be working out… no mildly debilitating effects the morning after… for some reason, perhaps its volume of liquid, i am not as prone to overdoing it with beer… and last night’s meal was kielbasa roasted on a bed of onion, red pepper and red cabbage, glazed with peach preserve and mustard, served with mashed potatoes… beer was a perfect accompaniment, though Corona might not have been the perfect beer for the meal…

… halloween… we are ready for the trick or treaters, except we never get very many… we bought good chocolate so we would be willing to eat what is left over… a stash that could last the year depending on how many come to our door tonight…

… no HCR meter this morning… she decided to take the night off… in her place i read a couple of articles in The Bulwark… the first is about standing up to bullies… Fox News and FN personality, Tucker Carlson are the bullies… Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger are viewed as standing up to the bullies… is it doing any good?… the good that needs doing is to ween the too-many-people swallowing Carlson’s bullshit off of the bullshit… really, at some point, the whole concept of opinion news built around personalities needs to be reigned in… news needs to go back to being news with standards of truth and fairness… personality opinion needs to be kept off the news so that it is not mistaken for news… i am sure this is free speech problematic, but there has to be away to reign in the flow of bad information and incendiary personalities…

… [the second](https://www.thebulwark.com/when-jesus-came-to-q/ “Lecaque, Thomas, When ‘Jesus” Came to Q, The Bulwark, October 29, 2021") was about a crazy Qanon conspiracy speech given by the actor who played Christ in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ… a film widely viewed as anti-Semitic as is MG… the degree of crazy in this country, at this moment, is astounding… i am very worried we are on the path to authoritarianism underpinned by this crazy… if it comes to pass, there will be chaos and abundant lives lost…

… a frustrating day yesterday… after having spent the entire day before cleaning the house and making dinner for K and D, i looked forward to Saturday being a me day where i got things done i wanted to do… it didn’t turn out that way… H wants to get a second wire crate so we could leave the dogs in crates and attend, last night, a birthday party… then there is setting it up… then there is laundering the dog beds… when i get down to the laundry room there is lots of water on the floor… drain pipes from the kitchen have sprung a leak… should i fix it myself?, or should i call the plumber… i decide to call the plumber because, the plumbing is a mess and needs to be done properly… shouldn’t cost that much and we will then be good to go into the distant future… but, because the plumbing is a problem we can’t do dishes and thus can’t cook, which means we have to order in for the weekend and the pot roast i bought on Friday needs to go into the freezer until we can cook a more elaborate meal…