Now, where were we?

 As the British prepared (and prepared) to bury their queen, a different ritual of death was being performed in Izium, Ukraine.  Retreating Russians had left behind more than 440 bodies in mass graves, many with their hands tied behind their backs, some showing signs of torture.  There is no reason to think that more will not be found.  When the Polish intelligentsia and officers were murdered in 1940 in Katyn Forest they were not tortured first, only shot in the head.  Russians today are more depraved than their grandfathers under Stalin, a proud achievement.

Puerto Rico was still recovering from Hurricane Maria and the incompetence and malice of the Trump regime (which dreamed of swapping it for Greenland) when it was hit by Hurricane Fiona.  It is flooded and entirely without electric power, road and bridges have been destroyed, and many people lack clean water.  At least they won't have to deal with this:

Speaking of Americans without water, Gov. Tate Reeves opened a speech by saying, "I've got to tell you it is a great day to be in Hattiesburg.  It's also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson."  Thank you, folks, I'm here till 2024.  Try the fried okra!  

To the dismay of public health experts Joe Biden told 60 Minutes "We still have a problem with covid...but the pandemic is over."  If by a problem he means four hundred deaths a day and a struggle to get more money out of Congress, yes.  At its height we were seeing over a thousand deaths a day and healthcare workers giving up out of exhaustion.  Now there are multiple effective vaccines, drugs like Paxlovid and remdesevir, Jared Kushner is no longer hoarding the ventilators and hardly anyplace requires a mask or a test (which may account for those four hundred deaths).  When the 1918 pandemic was declared over in April 1920 it lingered in many parts of the world.  Chengdu, China, population 22 million, is in lockdown; there is "movement restriction" in Shenzhen.  Not over.  

But with Americans out and about again, the country is seeking a spike in sexually transmitted diseases including syphilis (26 percent), HIV (16 percent) and our new friend monkeypox.  Complicating this set of problems is the inevitable return of the morality police and those who would restrict even condoms lest they be used in contraception.  No doubt someone will blame all the new STDs on the hedonistic Democrats and demand the return of Bible-waving King MAGA.  Not yet, but when Trump is indicted I guarantee fucking in the streets.  Also the parks, the public pools, on planes, in trees, dangling from bridges, while sky-diving...

I say "when" because even his lawyers now admit the possibility.  Raymond Dearie, the special master approved by Judge Aileen, wants to know which of the stolen documents recovered by the FBI Trump had decided to "declassify."  He wants to know by October 7, which does not fit in with their plans to delay, delay, delay until the possible election of a fascist House (the Senate is slipping away) which will do nothing but impeach Biden three times a day.   Trump's principal defense is threats of unimaginable violence on radio shows and weird ritualistic hate rallies allegedly in support of various candidates.  And even in Merrick Garland holds off until November 9, why should Fani Willis?  Georgia's prisons are especially unpleasant, Donzo.  I'm sorry to say chain gangs have been abolished.

Maybe Trump should follow the example of the load he selected to run for the Senate in Georgia.  Herschel Walker is signaling not to expect much of him when he debates Raphael Warnock on October 14 (or after he's elected, assuming he is).  "I'm a country boy.  I'm not that smart.  He's a preacher, is smart and wears these nice suits."  White southerners still need to be assured that smart Black people are the exception to the rule despite all the degrees and Nobel prizes and statesmanship.  Good ol' Herschel ain't uppity, he won't ask for nothing,' hell, he'll be grateful for a chance to be a senator.  And he'll say sir and ma'am.  He's the Birth of a Nation candidate.  With a little dementia.

The human trafficking continues, with Governissimo DeSantis sending a planeload of immigrants to Delaware because somebody told him Biden lives there.  ("He should come visit, we have a beautiful shoreline," Biden said, mocking the state that has nothing to recommend it but shoreline.)  But at least one member of law enforcement is taking notice.  Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, wants to know how people were "lured" from the county's Migrant Resource Center and flown to Florida and then on to Martha's Vineyard.  County Judge Nelson Wolff (in Texas a county judge is like an executive) agrees it could be a crime.  Kidnapping is a federal offense -- what does the Justice Department say?

In case there was any doubt that Trump is insanely jealous of DeSantis (who is, after all, younger, thinner and somewhat smarter), Rolling Stone reports that he's accusing the Governissimo of stealing his idea by kidnapping and trafficking penniless asylum seekers.  If he was still president, and who's to say he isn't, Trump would be using his personal Air Force to fly them to Nambia or someplace like that.  He insists that last month's FBI search gave him a "ten-point boost" in polls of probable fascist voters, but he's lost a powerful backer:  Joe Rogan has switched allegiance to DeSantis, who is crueler, equally racist and has better hair.   Maybe he stole Trump's idea but would Trump ever have thought of censoring dictionaries and outlawing LGBTQ people?   Then again, would DeSantis have torpedoed a Senate candidate by telling the mob, "J.D. [Vance] is kissing my ass he wants my support so bad"?  That's what people look for in a senator -- slobbering subservience.

But Trump did have one happy moment on his way to prison -- he was glued to the state funeral and saw the Bidens, who arrived late, sitting in the fourteenth row.  "That's what happened to America in just two short years.  No respect!...If I were president they wouldn't have sat me back there -- and our Country would be much different than it is right now!"  I believe him.  He would have belly-shoved his way to the front, probably displacing the Queen of Denmark, and told everybody in earshot how much the late queen loved him and how she secretly made him the Duke of London.  As for how different our Country -- I mean country -- would be, I can't bear to think about it. 

If I may return to The Funeral for one wee paragraph, it was stage-managed to perfection, clearly the result of years of planning and rehearsal.  One moment was unsurpassed.  Paul Burns, Piper to the Sovereign, used to wake her every morning playing outside her residence.  As her coffin awaited internment in St. George's Chapel he played "Sleep, Dearie, Sleep."  Then Pipes -- as she called him -- turned and walked slowly away as the music faded to silence.   Of course it's the only way to achieve dynamics on the bagpipes, but whoever thought of that is a genius.  Excuse me, dust in my eyes.