Once upon a time, a President of the United States turned over mysteriously erased tapes that did not deal with national security, or anything really all that important in the grand scheme of things — just his knowledge and direction of criminal activity related to elections. Instead of learning from Nixon's mistake (relying on never-definitively-determined "erasure" that could have been accidental or undirected), the Orange One demanded erasure of material already known to be of value in a criminal investigation. Regardless of the duration of the surveillance video to be erased, this is a bit more serious than an audio recording about campaign dirty tricks…
The Orange One has shown that however sly and cunning he is — however much he bears considerable watching — he is not intelligent. Oops, I can't say that about him: That's the 1912 Army Officer's Manual (and earlier editions) referring to "enlisted men," and the Orange One was never an enlisted man. Just a draft-dodger. Come to think of it, though, the way he dodged the draft just reinforces that he bears considerable watching. Or maybe not: That would make him the center of attention, and he'd like that.
- Speaking of "our betters," it doesn't look to me like either of the leading English-speaking democracies deserves to be called "leading English-speaking democracies" any more. Not Over There; certainly not Over Here. "Betters" my avulsed left big toenail.
- Of course, unelected powerbrokers aren't "betters," either. Ms Francke asks if a fired-for-good-cause female bank president was "held to a higher standard than male bank bosses", which entirely misses the point. That she was held to any standard at all is the real news — not her gender, because she's a "banker." Not a "better" any more than is billionaire hedge-fund owner Leon Black — regardless of various accusations floating around about associations with the less-than-esteemed Jeffrey Epstein, Black is reprehensible due to his past in the banking/finance industry.
- Apparently, though, if professionals don't get caught stealing from their clients, their other problems are not to be mentioned, so long as they file mandatory self-reports on measures that will do absolutely nothing to stop a determined embezzler. I'm picking on California here just because it came up in the news; the organized bar's refusal to effectively self-regulate the things its members screw up that are not subject to prosecution as some form of "theft" or "assault" have been a target of my ire for not quite four decades. (Because I'm old.)
- Sometimes it takes a Nobel Prize winner (ok, ok, "Bank of Sweden Memorial Prize" winner), though, to contemplate whether schmucks can still do good (despite their worst intentions). The relationship of this particular problem to Picasso's treatment of women; to Pound's treason; to Johnny Paycheck's, well, everything — and that's just a few whose credited surnames begin with "P" — should be pretty obvious.
- How one actually obtains access to art, though, is at least equally problematic. Mr Black's term as a leader at MoMA epitomizes the problem: The real art is dead presidents (and living monarchs), which simply are not to be shared with those who otherwise provide access to the art. And definitely not with the artists.
If you finish this platter with either indigestion or the impression that its theme largely concerns "hypocritical failure/refusal/inability to learn," you're probably right. Especially if simultaneous.