Tom Rachman on why the Royal Family is still around

“a disunited kingdom, humbled but not humble, lurching between bombast and insecurity”


see tweeted article, archived*

an outstanding piece by Tom Rachman (!?)

To associate yourself with anything that makes you feel less small, that you don’t need to compete for but is unconditionally yours – surely, this longing is understandable, when even the lucky and confident dread where politics is headed and what tech is making us; are stressed about soaring prices, the war in Ukraine, insanity in the culture; afraid of hackers and viruses, both digital and respiratory; bewildered by online trends that seem ridiculous till they obsess millions, and you must join or be left behind. Not to mention the environment.

So, no, it’s not mad to want something to hold onto, something stable, a comfort. For some, the royals are that.

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*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts

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a telling slip: “a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq”

Jake Johnson, May 19, 2022:

Former President George W. Bush on Wednesday inadvertently condemned "the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq" as he delivered remarks criticizing Russia's assault on Ukraine.

Recognizing the slip, Bush—who in his memoir described the catastrophic Iraq invasion, which he launched in 2003 under false pretenses, as "eternally right"—quickly brushed it off with a chuckle and blamed his age.

"I mean of Ukraine," Bush told an audience gathered in Dallas. "Iraq, too. Anyway. Seventy-five."

Much of the crowd appeared to get a kick out of the 43rd president's blunder, laughing as he moved on with his speech.

"I'm not laughing," Mehdi Hasan said in a brief MSNBC segment Wednesday night. "I am guessing nor are the families of the thousands of American troops and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died in that war."

source: Common Dreams article, cached*



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*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts
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deaths attributed to Covid-19 in US, Canada, UK, and EU

at over a million deaths from Covid in the US (!?), the total is almost three times higher, proportionately, than in Canada*

but …


daily deaths from Covid are now more than twice as high, proportionately, in Canada as in the US*


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*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts

the asterisks in the body text of the post link to up-to-date interactive charts: hover on their plotted lines to see the values
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Coquitlam glacier – last one in Vancouver region – in death spiral


snowpack and glaciers: natural reservoirs for year-round water supply from winter precipitation


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*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts

disappearing glaciers a threat to water supply in Peru (!?)
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Evgeny Maslin, died February 2022

see copy of tweeted article, archived*


2022-03-14T021:32−07* / March 14, 2022
*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archive of miscellany or notrehta posts

corrections on March 10 from NYT: Cooperative Threat Reduction Program :: Cheney was defense secretary under George HW Bush
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