“Disputes between Roman citizens—veteran soldiers who had settled in the province, for example—would be subject to Roman law. Cases between noncitizens might be left to the preexisting laws of the land, allowing the community to keep hold of an important measure of self-determination.” – Powers and Thrones (Dan Jones)

https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/f90718b3-a6ab-4f13-be29-0a0e1edfb09a

I guess this is how Jesus got turned over to the ancient Israelites? I think I’m missing something, because he still wound up crucified.

…

Ah. He didn’t actually get turned over. What was I thinking?

«Luke 23:13-25 (NRSVue)
Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people, and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have him flogged and release him.”,
Then they all shouted out together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!” (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.” But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified, and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.»

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/upshot/record-debt-republicans-bill.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.YJwU.ah-4Gwy5zHo3&smid=url-share (gift)

Reading this book was supposed to be an escape for me, but monkey brain keeps jumping in.

«Septimius Severus, who seized power in a.d. 193 and clung to it until a.d. 211, was born in Libya (Leptis Magna) to a north African father and a Syrian Arab mother; his successors (known as the Severan dynasty) therefore shared this African Arab heritage. The second emperor of this dynasty was none other than Caracalla. So while Caracalla had good political reasons for issuing his edict of a.d. 212—not least widening the tax base during a parlous time for the public finances—it is perhaps not too anachronistic to suspect the experience of being an emperor with African heritage must have affected his thinking.»

An African Roman emperor.

https://www.historians.org/resource/china-and-the-west/#:~:text=The%20force%20which%20reversed%20the,government%20was%20opium%20from%20India.

«Britain chiefly wanted a market in China for her textiles, and all ships sailing from England had to carry a quota of cotton cloth….»

Man. Everywhere you look.

And where did the cotton come from? WHERE DID THE COTTON COME FROM, MOTHERFUCKER?

“The cost of maintaining this [Roman imperial] force, dispersed across millions of square miles from the North Sea to the Caspian Sea, gobbled between 2 and 4 percent of the empire’s entire GDP every year; well over half the state budget was spent on defense.” – Powers and Thrones (Dan Jones)

https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/d107da99-9b5a-4b61-a9e7-07dbdbdcc4b1

So… he used the word “defense”, and that popped out at me. That word has really wormed its way in to our vocabulary. Not “spent on war” or “spent on the military” but “spent on the noble and peaceful cause of defense.”

Ministry of Truth!

«A recent study by political scientist Larry M. Bartels found that Republicans who score high in what he calls “ethnic antagonism”—who are worried about a perceived loss of political and cultural power for white people in the United States—are much more likely to espouse antidemocratic, authoritarian ideas such as “The traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it,” [emphasis mine — John L.]and “Strong leaders sometimes have to bend the rules to get things done.”»

21% through “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (One World Essentials)” by Heather McGhee.

I’m going through this book at a glacial pace. Every time I pick it back up, I find something like this. Which probably explains the glacial pace — I need to process.

Really, conservative white person who says America is great because democracy and don’t tread on me? Really??

I really expected so much better of you.

Nice job, Romania, congratulations. I hope at least the Trump victory here made some things clear.

«In a setback for Europe’s surging nationalist forces, Nicusor Dan, a centrist mayor and former mathematics professor, on Sunday won the presidential election in Romania, defeating a hard-right candidate who is aligned with President Trump and has opposed military aid to Ukraine.

With more than 98 percent of ballots counted, preliminary official results gave 54 percent of the vote in the presidential runoff to Mr. Dan, 55, the mayor of Romania’s capital, Bucharest.  His opponent, George Simion, a nationalist and fervent admirer of Mr. Trump who had been widely seen as the front-runner, drew only 46 percent.»

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/world/europe/nicusor-dan-romania-election.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IU8.nf-1.9AskpqQEAvT8&smid=url-share (gift)

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-approval-rating-charts-eaf089db?st=V6XjHX&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink (gift)

Blah, blah, blah. Young, Black, and Latino Trump voters changing their minds. Big surprise.

Everybody else still loves him.

https://gcaptain.com/ntsb-baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-risk-was-30-times-above-acceptable-threshold-68-other-bridges-need-assessment/

For those who are interested, gCaptain generally has the goods on maritime accidents.

https://newrepublic.com/post/195324/trump-administration-crimes-jail-time

«Even among the gravely worried, there is this sense that the “rule of law” is like a machine someone turned on at some point in the past, which runs in the background of American life like some sort of ambient presence. What the rule of law really is, it turns out, is the sum total of our deeds—and our inaction. The rule of law lives or dies on our willingness to act….»