She thought … of the incalculable amount of tenderness contained in the world; of the fate of this tenderness, which is either crushed, or wasted, or transformed into madness; of neglected children humming to themselves in unswept corners; of beautiful weeds that cannot hide from the farmer and helplessly have to watch the shadow of his simian stoop leave mangled flowers in its wake, as the monstrous darkness approaches.

Spring Break, USA!

**********************

Look at ongoing spring break in Miami Beach.

Compare it to last year’s spring break in Miami Beach.

As you know, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” and at some point gun-mad, cheap hotel and booze-mad, no-government-interference-mad states like Texas and Florida are going to have to get sane, which UD thinks in this case means accepting the fact that when you proudly broadcast your gunny rummy scummy ways to the world, the world will respond. If you build tacky, they will come. And as the violence gets worse year after year, you’re going to need police-state-quality surveillance, which UD is sure your permanent residents are going to love. They bought their five million dollar condo for sunny, carefree Florida, after all.

Now, Florida – all shot up and beaten and exhausted – is grandly claiming that it never wanted spring breakers. “We don’t ask for spring break, we don’t promote it, we don’t encourage it, we just endure it, and frankly it’s something we don’t want to endure.” Fine words, Mr Churchill, and, now that it’s not just a source of revenue but a human and public relations disaster, you will fight it on the beaches etc. But of course you have promoted it; yours is not just a party city, but a mega-club party city, and a warm, longtime home for drug and gun dealers.

***********************

Note what an even more sleaze-friendly city – New Orleans – did before last year’s Mardi Gras:

[The governor put] a statewide mask mandate in place as well as occupancy limits on bars, restaurants and other businesses.

New Orleans Democratic Mayor LaToya Cantrell, also a Democrat, went even further by closing bars completely in the city, even those allowed to operate as restaurants. City officials also closed iconic Bourbon Street to cars and limited pedestrian access for the final weekend of the season.

Next thing you know they’ll be confiscating weapons!

“If you take away those two shootings, which of course are major, then it [is so far] vastly improved over 2021,” said resident-activist Matthew Gultanoff…

Police chased and caught a man who they said threw a 9 mm handgun into some shrubbery. The man told police he fired in self-defense. Video surveillance seemed to support his claim and Derrick Antonio Mitchell, 19, was charged only with three weapons violations, carrying a concealed firearm, tampering with physical evidence and possession of an altered firearm.

The “only” is priceless. Miami Beach has declared martial law. I mean a state of emergency/curfew.

… an allusion to disgraced plagiarist Paul McCrory, who we have covered on this blog, and who has today jumped from far-off Australia to the New York Times. The cause of making the world safe for sports concussions will have to be passed to another creep.

So Early in the Spring

Sunrise Rehoboth

Psychedelic ocean and the gulls slate gray

A man prepares his tripod for blastoff

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Backstage the moon shot through with blue

Bows to the sun and gives way

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Where’s the pilgrim fellowship chanting in the sand?

The mournful Scottish bagpipe band?

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This morning all worship comes down to me

Godless, with sacred symphony

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A young woman, walking on the boardwalk with a friend, suddenly shouted this yesterday. Mr UD was walking behind her, and reported the event back to UD.

We didn’t know the president would also be here, but, sitting on our balcony yesterday, we saw the tell-tale coast guard boats.

As for last evening, we looked up from our cell phones a little after eight to see an enormous clear golden moon casting a long silver line on the water. Later, as it whitened, the moon was bright, like the sun.

This morning was all pastels over the water, and UD walked the few steps to the new Cafe Reho, where she got breakfast to bring home to Mr UD. She also checked out CoWork Reho next door, where you can rent your own office with enormous ocean views.

With the spring come all the paeans to the spring, especially to the spring garden; and while UD – an enthusiastic gardener – likes to read all the regeneration-swoons, she’s also partial to the Bronx cheers — like the above comment from a New York Times writer. Or, you know, the famous first lines of The Waste Land, etc.

I mean, who has not watched Prince Charles sidle among his manure stocks and kind of wanted him to say “Mind you, it’s all rather a stinking bloody mess.”

Here are Mr UD and the dog enjoying our just-mulched layout.

In a blistering speech broadcast today, Senator Rand Paul (pictured) attacked Anthony Fauci as “traitorous scum that I will spit out like a midge.” America, he said, must “purify” itself of “seditious trash” like Fauci.

Analysts noted Rand’s puffy face and trembling hands as indicators of rage and frustration that his long campaign to destroy Fauci continues to meet with failure. Observers found particularly chilling Rand’s flourishing, at one point, of a poisoned-tip umbrella.

[satire]

China still has a ways to go. But better late than never.

That leaves Tucker Carlson and his ode to you know who:

You and me against the world
Sometimes it seems like you and me against the world
When all the others turn their backs and walk away
You can count on me to stay

Remember when Zelenskyy came to town
And you were frightened by his frown
Wasn’t it nice to be around someone that you knew
Someone who was big and strong and looking out for

You and me against the world
Sometimes it feels like you and me against the world

And for all the times we’ve cried I always felt that
Xi was on our side

And now that he is gone
And only two are left to carry on
Then remembering will have to do
Our memories of massacres will get us through
Think about the days of me and you
You and me against the world

First it makes it sound utopian; then it announces there are no houses for sale.

Mother Russia was robbed by us fellas they say.
That's why we've got such wonderful yachts.
Give a little to charity?  No, nyet, and nay!
 We're spending each ruble we got.

 We docked in Ibiza, but then they said 'ey, please-ah:
All di Rusos get out: bye bye! 
Then we pondered it - Hum... hum... Where is the place for pond scum?
And the answer was clear: Dubai!

... Yes, Dubai!  Yes, Dubai!
For there's nothing too vile for Dubai!
Ukrainians die and our money piles high
Come one and come all to Dubai.

Because it’s funny – including the cat video.

… leave Garrett Park to go shelling on the Delaware beaches, while everyone knows that the real shelling action in that state lies within the nondescript buildings in Wilmington that house shell companies from around the world.

People are beginning to be aware of this because of all them Russky oligarchs in the news.

For the state of Delaware, these small [incorporation] fees add up to as much as 41% of the state’s entire revenue. In 2019, they collectively amounted to $1.4B...

Adopted in 1899, the Delaware General Corporation Law “reduced restrictions upon corporate action to a minimum” and promised to maintain the most hospitable business enclave in the nation — a place where corporations could frolic in the open fields of capitalism, unencumbered by income tax, bureaucratic policing, and shareholder litigation.

As we frolic ‘pon the open early spring fields of sand, all around us the open fields of capitalism sprout another astounding bumper crop for wee Delaware and we are so oblivious. It’s all secret, see, so even if we wanted to shake the sand off our feet and take a serious look at Delaware’s incomparable tax haven we couldn’t.

Delaware and Nevada are two of the jurisdictions where it is the easiest to obtain the anonymous companies money launderers like best. Those states are in fact significantly less transparent than famous tax havens like the British Virgin Islands... Delaware and Nevada have not just risked the rest of the country, they have risked the entire world. They have tunneled a gaping hole in the domestic laws of any country concerned with preventing corruption, fraud, tax evasion, drug trafficking, terrorism, and all the other ills facilitated by anonymous shell companies.

Here’s one guy who at one time had a slew of Delaware shell companies:

On 2 November 2011, [Victor] Bout was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization, and was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment. Since June 2012, Bout has been held at the United States Penitentiary, Marion.

This guy must be itching to help Putin’s war effort!