1/9/2026

 Friday, January 9, 2026

2007 Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPhone

2025  The House of Representatives voted to sanction the ICC for issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and  Senate majority leader John Thune promised swift consideration of the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act so President-elect Donald Trump could sign it into law shortly after taking office. Under the act, any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes U.S. citizens or those of an allied country, including Israel, not under ICC jurisdiction would be sanctioned along with their family members.

In bed at 10, up at 5.  36/20/54/31  

Meds, etc.  Morning meds at 10:30 a.m.   Trulicity injection at  a.m.

Scattered thoughts: First, I was appalled by J. D. Vance's moot court performance yesterday afternoon in the White House Briefing Room.  I say "moot court" because that is what it reminded me of.  In law school, competitors in the National Appellate Moot Court competition, which I was in 1968, must prepare to argue both sides of a case made up by the competition's sponsor.  The issue to be argued to the moot court is undecided, which is to say, there is no 'right side' and no 'wrong side,' there are only winners and losers.  The exercise is useful in terms of honing advocacy skills, but it tends to inculcate a sense of moral relativism in law students.  No right and wrong, only winners and losers, sort of like Donald Trump's view of the world.  Also, the exercise tends to foster in the participants a sense of theatricality, of histrionics.  In order to argue your assigned side of the case, you act as if you really believe what you are saying, even though you know that in the next round, you will be arguing exactly the opposite position.  In the practice of law, I have seen many lawyers work themselves into a lather persuading themselves of the justice of their client's case, even when they know it is "iffy" at best.  That's what was going on with J. D. Vance in the briefing room yesterday.  Vance, in high dudgeon, pretended to be morally outraged that some members of the news media (and of the public) could view the killing of Renee Nicole Good as anything other than a case of righteous self-defense by a noble public servant enforcing the nation's immigration laws against a left-wing domestic terrorist who was trying to kill him.  He knew that wasn't true, of course.  He's a very bright guy with a Yale law degree.  But he played the role, just like a moot courter.  Another role that Vance plays is that of a believing Catholic, a Christian.  He made the editorial page of the National Catholic Reporter yesterday:  "Vance knows that protesting, fleeing or even interfering in an ICE investigation (which there is no evidence that Good did) does not carry a death sentence. Vance knows that lying and killing are sins.  Vance knows. He doesn't care. Vance’s twisted and wrongheaded view of Christianity has been repudiated by two popes. His Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop, a tool only for his career ambitions and desire for power."  'nuf said.

Second, I've been asking in this journal for quite some time, what's with these guys with their cowboy hats?  Why is it that they think they get to keep them on indoors, even in the Oval Office?  Increasingly, I'm wondering about Kristi Noem, what's with her and her cowboy hats?  What's with her having videos taken of her on horseback?  What's with her and her flak jackets?  Does she ever spend time in the plush office of the Secretary of Homeland Security, and, if she does, does she wear her cowboy hat(s) in the office?

Third, in ICE's ads seeking new recruits to snatch people off our streets and out of their workplaces, it appeals to its target recruits to "Defend Your Culture."  My question is, 'Whose culture is that?"

Fourth, I asked yesterday why anyone would want to be an ICE agent, especially under Trump's regime.  I've often wondered the same thing about cops, but there's a big difference in that cops often help people.  There's some truth to the common motto 'to serve and protect,' especially for good cops.  That's not the case with ICE.  In less than a year of Trump's second regime, they have already earned a reputation as "goons" and "thugs," even 'Gestapo'.  About the agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, I wonder why he drew his weapon when he did, and why he did.  He shouldn't have pulled the trigger, of course, not the first time, nor the second, nor the third.  But why did he pull it out of the holster when he did, unless he intended to shoot the 37-year-old, pretty lady driving the car?  J. D. Vance suggested yesterday that he was perhaps especially sensitive to the dangers of a weaponized vehicle because of the significant injuries he sustained 6 months previously when he was dragged by a car used by an escaping criminal immigrant.  If that 'sensitivity' made him more likely to unholster his weapon, aid it at Renee Good's face, and shoot her, he shouldn't have been assigned to street duty.  None of the three other officers at the scene drew his weapon, only Good's killer.  But again, I wonder why it was that he drew his weapon in the first place, if not intending to shoot and probably kill the young, Christian, poetry-writing, mother of three behind the wheel.