Seems I’ve been neglecting this venue in recent days. Sorry about that. Life and work has piled up, but the pile is manageable now, and so: Back to it.
Like most of you, I’ve been watching the unfolding of the Signal scandal — and it is a scandal, and not one I’ll affix “-gate” to — with a growing sense of horror. The initial horror of the deed, followed by the exasperated horror of the spin: Seriously this is not the big deal you think it is, nothing classified was shared, anyway Signal is secure, anyway that guy should have revealed himself anyway HILLARY DID IT FIRST, etc. As a friend said, wait until Hegseth leaves his phone in a bar somewhere. Because you know that’ll happen. But at this point I don’t have anything special to say about it that hasn’t already been said, so let’s just continue that conversation.
I do have a number of photos to share.
Got my car washed yesterday, because it was shamefully dirty. I don’t know about your car wash, but mine is like an explosion of small-market capitalism, the long hallway from the drop-off to the pickup bays lined with windows — so you can watch the wash, of course — and under that, stacks of stuff for sale because you never know what you might be missing. Peanut-butter pretzels are big this week; a while back it was barrels of cheese puffs. Office supplies of the sort sold near the checkout lines at Staples — tissue, Post-its, legal pads. Lots of car-related stuff like air fresheners or steering-wheel covers (a product I’ve never used, nor felt the need for). Shop towels, microfiber and cotton, in bulk. Lately they’ve been selling generic versions of those Scrub Daddy sponges. There’s a mechanical horse for children to ride while they wait. Self-published books by local authors, and the traditional bulletin board of business cards. But lately I’ve been taken by the family-business displays, like this:
The car wash is called Mr. C’s. That is the original Mr. C, although I’m sure he perished long before it opened. That is one impressive mustache. Sicilian, of course, because northern Italians weren’t the main immigrants from the boot, but rather, the impoverished southern ones. A framed obit near this photo tells more of the story. Sorry the picture is so crappy, but I can read it:
The subject being remembered is the second Mr. C, son of the mustache man. After the original Mr. C came here and earned enough money, he came back to Sicily, married, and left his pregnant wife behind while he crossed the water again and started his grocery business, “pushing a vegetable cart on Detroit’s east side.” At some point he sent for his family; his little boy was 6. The cart became a store, then another store, and by the time that little boy retired in 1969, he went to work in his children’s businesses, which by then included another market, and then a line of delis. The car washes came in 1991, across the street from one of the delis. His son, Vito Jr., is now called Bill. (Or was — this obit is from 2000. Dunno if he’s still with us. The top-tier wash is called “Bill’s Best,” and that’s the one I got.) The Mack Bewick Market is now deep in the hood; it was owned by a friend of a friend’s father for a time, and was notable for not having any bulletproof plexi between the customer and the clerk, “however, the clerks were never more than an arm’s length from a gun,” friend reports. I found a social-media post by someone who said “you could get ANYthing there,” and she wasn’t talking about drugs, but rather, the things that make hood life possible, like low-cost infant formula, counterfeit license stickers for your plates, etc.
An inspiring family story. I wonder how they feel about current U.S. immigration policy.
It’s been chilly this week, but it won’t last, and yesterday Alan raked up all the plant detritus, mulched it with the mower, ran out the gas in the snow blower and set the stage for the first green shoots, expected soon:
We’ll check back in a few weeks, see how it shapes up.
Finally, I followed a link on an old blog a few days back and lo, it still works, and isn’t this story more interesting now:
Boeing should have rejected then-President Donald Trump’s proposed terms to build two new Air Force One aircraft, the company’s CEO said Wednesday.
Dave Calhoun spoke Wednesday on the company’s quarterly earnings call, just hours after Boeing disclosed that it has lost $660 million transforming two 747 airliners into flying White Houses.
This was in 2022, and Boeing was already $660 million in the hole, and responsible for all cost overruns, under a contract signed during the first Trump administration. Meanwhile, I read this story last month:
President Trump, furious about delays in delivering two new Air Force One jets, has empowered Elon Musk to explore drastic options to prod Boeing to move faster, including relaxing security clearance standards for some who work on the presidential planes.
What could possibly go wrong! Keep an eye on this. It could get good — or funny!! — really fast. I want someone to only finger-tighten the bolts holding down the POTUS-only toilet. If regular civilians have to fly on planes with the doors blowing off, it’s the least they can do for us.
Thursday already! Have a great one.
Jeff Borden said on March 27, 2025 at 11:55 am
The interesting thing to me with the Yemen breach is the hatred directed at Europe by Vance and Hegseth. Did a European give little JD a wedgie years ago? Did a European woman slap the shit out of a drunken Plastered Pete?
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nancy said on March 27, 2025 at 12:30 pm
I think JD is best understood as a recently converted Catholic, and not a social-justice and racial-harmony Catholic, but the right-wing kind best exemplified by much of the Supreme Court. Also, remember he’s besties with Rod Dreher, who now lives in Hungary and kisses Orban’s ass, as well as blathering daily about the Threat of Migration to his beloved Europe. These guys read “Camp of the Saints” and consider it journalism, pass around videos of the Arab arrondissements in Paris, etc. I’m sure they text daily.
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Jeff Borden said on March 27, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Agreed on Vance’s Catholicism. The converts are the worst of the prigs. What about Hegseth? I guess a tough guy Christian Nationalist (though what’s with all the goop on his hair?) sees our cousins as louche and corrupt. It’s hilarious because the white Western culture they think they’re saving originated in Europe. Or, maybe I’m overthinking and they’re just a couple of asshole rubes.
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alex said on March 27, 2025 at 1:17 pm
Don’t know what the car washing business is like in Detroit these days, but here in the Fort it has gotten quite competitive, with new chains opening up fancy facilities all over the place (and in some cases immediately adjacent to one another) and all now offer VIP memberships that allow unlimited washes without having to wait in line. Mike’s, the long dominant local chain, appears to be getting crowded out by newcomers Drive & Shine and The Tube.
Auburn has a Tube already, as well as a new Mike’s coming soon. I expect that the old Splash-n-Dash, a brushless wash with a couple of DIY stalls, will probably fold in the not-to-distant future.
They’re all offering ceramic coatings these days, which seal in any dirt and bird turds that didn’t happen to come off during the wash stage. When I declined ceramic at Mike’s on a recent visit, and explained why, a team of people came out and scrubbed the hell out of my rear deck lid which was covered in old clear-coated mud stains.
I’m torn about a new car purchase at the moment. I’d have to pay cash out of my diminished savings, but I’ll have to pay even more if the tariffs take effect. I’m told the tariffs won’t affect existing inventory, but I suspect that the dealerships will seize on this as an opportunity to charge more than MSRP on models that are soon to be subject to the tariffs.
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Dexter Friend said on March 27, 2025 at 1:57 pm
Hegseth promised to completely stop drinking all alcoholic beverages if only, geez, let him please have the job. He got the job. He “used” to drink a lot to blotto stage.
I write this as I am curious if he quit all booze. I tend to think that yeah, he’ll lose his phone while ralphing into a ceramic bowl in the not-to-distance-future.
It’s the real Opening Day. Yeah, it’s been days since the real games started over in Nippon Land. Spectrum, MLB, and The Guardians had a last minute agreement; I will not have to pay for baseball over my cable bill. FanDuel Network will have DET and CIN games. I am set. Now, off for treatment #7 of 12 appointments at the bone cracker man’s office. I would never have gone , but my VA doc sort of insisted. I can now walk with 1 cane instead of 2 canes. Progress.
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Sherri said on March 27, 2025 at 3:55 pm
That’s quite an elaborate hoax climate change is playing, very committed to the bit, drying out all the land like that.
https://wapo.st/41ObJIg
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Peter said on March 27, 2025 at 4:09 pm
Jeff at #3 – you are overthinking it. They are asshole rubes. Just like the rest of them. Anything else is purely coincidental.
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Julie Robinson said on March 27, 2025 at 4:35 pm
If Hegseth has gone cold turkey, he must be having withdrawal symptoms. At least that’s how I feel everyday time I try to quit chocolate.
Walking down the street in NYC, I saw two of the food cart guys pull out prayer mats and perform their prayers right at the corner, out of the walkway. It was beautiful and courageous.
We’re having a terrific time and have seen four shows already, as well as lots of good food and a bit of shopping. Tomorrow will be MOMA and then back home on Saturday. It is COLD and even though we have our puffer coats we are weather wimps now. I’ll definitely be ready for warmth and humidity again.
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Mark P said on March 27, 2025 at 5:33 pm
Alcoholics will promise anything if only you let them do whatever. I’m sure Hegseth meant every word of his promise when he said them. Knowing full well he could not keep his promise because he never has in the past. I’m not aware of a specific promise, but I don’t have to be to know I’m right.
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nancy said on March 27, 2025 at 5:40 pm
MOMA is a fantastic museum, Julie. Saw it for the first time on our last trip to NYC, and was ashamed it took me so long.
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Dorothy said on March 27, 2025 at 5:54 pm
That old picture in the frame reminded me immediately of a similar frame on a portrait in the prop room in Hickory PA. We had it on the set for one of the plays I did with the Old Schoolhouse Players. And in the script they made reference to ‘Grandma Zenobia’. Now every old lady I see in an old picture frame makes want to call her Grandma Zenobia.
My nephew is manager of a car wash that’s part of a chain in Chesapeake VA. I hear he’s really good at his job. He’s a good boss and enjoys his work. He’s good at saving his money and already owns his own townhouse. He did not go to college. I’m not sure how old he is but I think he’s 27. He’s who I think of when someone mentions a car wash business.
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Julie Robinson said on March 27, 2025 at 6:01 pm
We’ve been to MOMA before, so I thought we might go elsewhere, but Sarah has a friend with a membership who really wants to show us her favorites. Who could turn that down?
Seeing a show every night, along with a matinee yesterday, has tired us out and we haven’t done half of what we talked about as possibilities. We’ve been to all the big museums but there are tons of smaller ones that intrigue me. We’ll be back for those as long as we can keep convincing the SIL to come stay with Mom.
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Sherri said on March 27, 2025 at 7:08 pm
Josh Marshall highlights a piece of good news: a poll out of Florida has Democrat Josh Weil only down 4 points in the race to replace Mike Waltz in the special election next week. Waltz won re-election by 33 points in the heavy Republican district.
Which is likely why Trump pulled Elise Stefanie’s nomination to be UN Ambassador, sending her back to the House. If Weil runs a close race next week, even in a low turnout special election, there are going to be some nervous Republicans in Congress contemplating midterm elections. Maybe that will help them remember what their job is.
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Sherri said on March 27, 2025 at 9:42 pm
I see Bill Gates is saying that humans won’t be needed for most things within ten years because of AI. There seem to be a lot of people who have a lot more money than me who agree with him, but I remain unconvinced. Maybe it’s because I remember earlier predictions, and know some people who made them.
Like Geoff Hinton, who also believes that AI is going to take over soon. He also said in 2016 that we should stop training radiologists because in five years, AI would make them obsolete. Didn’t happen. Geoff was on the faculty at CMU when I was a grad student.
Another faculty member was Herb Simon, who was a Nobel laureate and a very early AI researcher. Way back in 1965, he said that within twenty years, computers would be capable of doing anything a man could do. I was in grad school twenty years after that statement, and it hadn’t happened then, and still hasn’t happened.
I don’t mean this to disparage Herb Simon. He was a nice man, and a good friend of mine was one of his students. He was doing some very clever things with computer chess back then, and it was students of Simon who eventually went off to IBM and built Deep Blue, the computer that beat Kasparov. But as IBM discovered when they tried to generalize from that success with Watson, just because you’ve done one amazing thing doesn’t mean you’re close to doing the next amazing thing.
I don’t know what it is about AI that makes people believe that over and over.
to do anything
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Deborah said on March 27, 2025 at 9:53 pm
Good question Jeff B, what is the deal with Hegseth’s hair all gooped up.
Let’s hope Musk doesn’t drop a bunch of $$$$ on Fine’s campaign in Florida, unless he’s already done that and it’s not making any difference.
I saw a clip of Musk being interviewed on Fox and you can hear his Kid wailing in the background. Poor kid. It is so weird that he drags that kid around wherever he goes.
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Sherri said on March 27, 2025 at 10:39 pm
JD has a new job!
‘The “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order directs Vice President JD Vance to eliminate what he finds “improper” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo. The White House fact sheet decribing the order said it will focus on removing “anti-American ideology.”’
No more woke animals at the National Zoo!!
https://wapo.st/4cbTYWM
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Julie Robinson said on March 27, 2025 at 10:43 pm
Guess that means the pandas will be going back to China.
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susan said on March 27, 2025 at 11:17 pm
Deborah, Musk’s kid is his human shield. Since he apparently wears a flak vest, his head is vulnerable, sticking up above his flabby body. You see lots of photos of Musk carrying that kid on his shoulders, as he steps off planes, steps out of buildings, etc.
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Jeff Gill said on March 28, 2025 at 9:39 am
Hat tip, Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki: I read the whole thing. Simple story, well told.
Sherri, I’m fascinated & chastened by how very (VERY) smart people can identify amazing opportunities in technology, but can’t even come close to seeing how it will work out in society, when in use by actual humans. That’s where “Oppenheimer” was a swing and a foul tip for me, high into the opposite field upper deck: J. Robert was brilliant with atoms and fission and triggering mechanisms, but the whole Strauss/Downey subplot could have been more gripping with getting at how Oppy & Einstein & Szilard & Bohr & Teller kept misreading where the human factor was taking questions of national security & executive control.
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alex said on March 28, 2025 at 9:43 am
Not that this will matter to the deplorables a/k/a MAGA, but Hillary lays out the most coherent argument I’ve heard yet for closing down this clown show before it gets any worse:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/opinion/trump-hegseth-signal-chat.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7U4.vJug.SI9D0eJnswsl&smid=url-share
Gift article
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Jim G said on March 28, 2025 at 10:41 am
I couldn’t help but laugh at this, at the top of Hillary’s op-ed:
They left out, “Also, we made a really big deal about her e-mails in 2016. The irony is lost on us.”
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alex said on March 28, 2025 at 10:54 am
I actually cancelled my NYT subscription over its scandalization of Hillary’s e-mails and changed to the WaPo. I subscribed again a couple of years ago when they offered it for something like $4 for the first year if I’d come back. And now I’m dropping the WaPo for its numerous sins which are worse.
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nancy said on March 28, 2025 at 11:25 am
These AI predictions remind of Elon’s promise to deliver entirely autonomous vehicles. I wrote a story for Bridge in 2017 where someone mentioned that. I used a Roomba as an example of a simple autonomous device. It gave me an excuse to embed a video of cats riding Roombas, my favorite subgenre of funny animal clips.
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Sherri said on March 28, 2025 at 1:25 pm
The mistake people keep making with autonomous vehicles is thinking that “better than a human driver” is a low bar. It’s actually quite a high bar, because humans are so adaptable.
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Dexter Friend said on March 28, 2025 at 1:51 pm
Channeling that old bastard Reagan, “here I go again…” In January I gave up all sweets or sweeties as my ancestral countrymen call them. I progressed slowly towards my weight goal, due on December 31, 2025. While buying up all the sugarless gum that this store stocked, I decided one little damn Reese’s would not hurt me. Next day, jonesing, I bought a 5-pack of Reese’s and a big double Butterfinger bar. See? This is why I cannot give in to any notion to drink a Guinness 0 alcohol near-beer. I am addicted to chocolate as well. It’s not the one little Reese’s, it’s the 5 pack and Butterfinger the next day, and then…well, goddammitt! I arrested the behavior. Chocolate addiction is real as rain. I have only to lose 14 pounds by December and I’ll fucking do it by any means necessary. Mostly severe portion control.
Like the ignorant student who walked past the schoolhouse, I walked past MOMA but never went inside. I have been inside the San Francisco and Philadelphia and Chicago art museums so there’s that. I always wanted to do The Getty. Now I never ever want to go back to LA again.
Springtime boomers are loud today. Rain too. Lightning.
Myanmar earthquake, 7.7. Hundreds dead, even as far away as Bangkok.
JD Vance getting the cold shoulder in Greenland. I can’t imagine why. 🙂
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Jeff Gill said on March 28, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Today’s episode of “Suits | DC” is just SO implausible… wait, I’m watching CNN.
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Sherri said on March 28, 2025 at 4:11 pm
Elon’s predictions should always be treated as nothing but hype intended to draw in the suckers to pull in money. On paper, he may be the richest man in the world, but his companies are sustained by smoke and mirrors. He has to maintain the illusion to keep them afloat.
He needs the White House Tesla event because the TeslaTakedown protests really do threaten his whole house of cards. Tesla has a lot of debt, and even without the damage his right wing turn did to the brand, a lot of headwinds in the market. SpaceX is not fulfilling his claims of cheaper launches for satellites, and without StarLink, satellite launches isn’t a growth market at all. StarLink is a particularly wasteful way of providing the service, requiring lots of satellites with short lifetimes, and now nobody trusts Elon and StarLink.
So, Elon needs to take over the federal government to keep and increase federal money flowing to his companies.
And I’ll make a prediction: nobody is going to set foot on Mars in our lifetime. Elon Musk is younger than me, but I expect to outlive him, because he’s a drug addict and likely to end up dead in a stupid way.
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Mark P said on March 28, 2025 at 5:00 pm
Sherri — I once got into a discussion with a Tesla apologist about Musk’s decision to use camera-based navigation rather than an active system like LiDAR. He essentially claimed that since he drove with a passive optical system (his eyes) very successfully, a camera-based autopilot should be able to do the same. I told him about tests where the Tesla autopilot failed spectacularly (not to mention real-life cases), but apparently dead drivers are no more significant than another blown-up rocket.
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Deborah said on March 28, 2025 at 5:02 pm
A mars landing certainly won’t happen in my lifetime and probably not for a long time after i’m dead and gone.
Musk is a mess, I mentioned that clip from Fox where you can hear his kid wailing in the background. After rewatching that clip I noticed his hand gesture while he said that the government is coming after you if you are supporting Tesla takedowns, he used 2 fingers when he pointed which I would interpret as imitating aiming a gun. Am I wrong? Or is that just a South African way of pointing?
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Deborah said on March 28, 2025 at 5:11 pm
Dorothy, I ordered my first book from Avid. I hope I gave them enough time to get settled. I ordered The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior.
I’m currently reading the Dutch House by Anne Patchett, for my reading project. Also I’m very excited to be attending my first book club later in April, they are reading a graphic novel, which I can’t remember the title right now, and I still have to order it. The only graphic novel I’ve read so far in my life was The Fun House by Alison Bechdel, it was quite good.
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Sherri said on March 28, 2025 at 5:45 pm
Mark Rober, who does funny science-based videos, recently put up a YouTube video where he demonstrated that Tesla’s camera-only based system fails the Wile E. Coyote test: it can’t distinguish a painting of a road from an actual road, and crashes right into it just like Mr. Coyote.
https://youtu.be/IQJL3htsDyQ?si=3PN3VQnSIe098KAq
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candlepick said on March 28, 2025 at 6:33 pm
Coming May 20: Spent, new graphic from Alison Bechdel. “Novel in which a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont, is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a citizenry on the brink of civil war. She wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege?”
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susan said on March 28, 2025 at 7:37 pm
Mark Rober is the fellow who made the glitter bomb several years ago, to splat porch pirates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxhDk-hwuo I always liked that one.
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Sherri said on March 29, 2025 at 12:26 am
Elon Musk:
“I mean, you have Tim Walz, who’s a huge jerk, you know, running around on stage with the Tesla stock price, where the stock price had gone in half, and he was overjoyed,” Musk said. “What an evil thing to do. What a creep. What a jerk.”
“Like, who derives joy from that?”
I do, motherfucker. If Elon’s whole house of cards collapsed and all his companies failed, I would derive immense joy from that.
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basset said on March 29, 2025 at 1:06 am
Cover me, I’m goin’ in… just got William Patterson’s enormous biography of Robert Heinlein, each of the two volumes running around five hundred pages with another hundred or so of detailed footnotes. Gonna know all there is to know about the Grandmaster when this one’s done. Have to say, though, that I’m afraid that if RAH were still alive he would be MAGA. Discuss….
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David C said on March 29, 2025 at 5:07 am
Beef jerky fuck bot Marjorie Traitor Green had her knickers in a twist yesterday over the milquetoasts at PBS and NPR spreading communism, sponsored by the Koch Bros. foundation, and drag queens all over our airwaves. I stopped listening to NPR during the 45 years because of Mara Liasson’s shape of the Earth, opinions differ journalism. I doubt they’ve gotten more communist since then.
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Jeff Gill said on March 29, 2025 at 10:20 am
basset — I had some interesting correspondence with Patterson before he died; there’s a number of errors in those two volumes I wish weren’t in there, but RAH left enough of a pile of records & data to flummox a whole team of researchers. He seems to have done most of it on his own.
Honestly, I don’t think RAH would have gone MAGA. His core was way too libertarian, and he really, really, really didn’t like or trust Russia. So I think he’d be largely #NeverTrump. The transgender movement in general today might challenge him, but someone who wrote “I Will Fear No Evil” in 1973, or transitioned his earliest recurring character Andrew Jackson “Slipstick” Libby (he predates Lazarus Long aka Woodrow Wilson Smith) from the 1930s to female in his last couple books of the 1980s as Elizabeth Libby: he couldn’t be too Trumpian on that subject. Heinlein has been accused of militarism based on (I think) a misreading of “Starship Troopers” (which I think reading just the first chapter of “Glory Road” from three years later would demonstrate), and the fact that he was nearly the only published SF author of the early 60s to come out against nuclear test-bans & in the 70s for missile defense . . . which goes back to his deep mistrust of Russia, let alone the Soviet Union, which is also why anachronistically I think it’s fair to say RAH would despise DJT.
https://classicsofsciencefiction.com/2022/10/01/misfit-by-robert-a-heinlein/
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alex said on March 29, 2025 at 10:45 am
Never read Heinlein, but from what little I know about him biographically he just doesn’t strike me as a MAGA type, but someone more like his libertinish literary contemporaries. Maybe it’s because I romanticize those folks. But then maybe it’s because I equate MAGA with just plain stupid.
The NYT ran an interview today with Megyn Kelly. I’m not wasting a gift link on that stupid twit. I never thought she was brilliant, but I had no idea she was so fucking dumb. She excuses Trump’s abuse of her in 2016 by saying that Trump needed a foil and that by playing that role, and suffering threats and harassment from MAGA, she gave him cred with his base and thus helped propel him into the presidency. What a weird fucking rationalization. And she excuses Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment, saying she had gotten past it and had a good working relationship with him and that he did so much for her. Then why the fuck did she #me-too him then? And she says she’s all about fighting wokeism and that the dustup over blackface that cost her the job at NBC was even worse than all of her friends at Fox turning on her for outing Ailes. And she also prides herself for having given women who’d alleged sexual abuse from Trump a platform to tell their stories but she also says she didn’t believe any of them.
So I guess these days she vlogs with Ben Shapiro, not that I’ve ever ventured into that media bubble. My local newspaper runs Shapiro columns and they’re nothing but counterfactual agitprop and it’s almost enough to make me unsubscribe.
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Sherri said on March 29, 2025 at 2:17 pm
Timothy Snyder on Greenland.
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/vance-in-greenland?r=2h24&utm_medium=ios
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Sherri said on March 29, 2025 at 3:37 pm
I think it’s a toss up as to whether Heinlein would be MAGA. Yes, he was libertarian, but lots of libertarians have gone MAGA, so I don’t think that’s a hindrance. Trump’s avoidance of military service would have offended Heinlein, but I would guess that Heinlein would also be prone to the anti-woke arguments. I doubt he would have ever understood or appreciated the criticisms that his own works were sexist.
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Deborah said on March 29, 2025 at 7:23 pm
At its peak there were around 500 today at the Tesla protest it was fantastic. There were protestors on all 4 corners of the intersection because the sidewalks around the showroom were packed. I was there around an hour and a half, it was 64°, cloudy but warm. We need a bullhorn. There was one idiot Trumper wearing a hat trying to rile us up. The cops surrounded him and asked him to leave, he didn’t so they followed him everywhere. He kept yelling that we were cowards because we wouldn’t go after him, we just chanted louder, but we sure could have drowned him out better with a bullhorn. There was a lot of media, a couple of TV station trucks and lots of cameras.
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FDChief said on March 29, 2025 at 9:04 pm
The other “Trumpy” RAH thing from his canon is the creepy racism in Farnham’s Freehold. Blacks are cannibals? Okay, eeew. And let’s not even go into the icky father-daughter incest plot suggestion.
The dude was a WW2-era techbro, so the likelihood that he’d had followed the same MAGAt trajectory as much of Silicon Valley seems predictable.
I will give him credit for foreseeing AutoCAD in Door Into Summer. The squicky pedophilia-ish subplot? Not so much.
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jim said on March 30, 2025 at 12:26 pm
FDChief and all: I have all RAH’s books, and have read them multiple times (I’m a re-reader, sorry). I don’t think he’d be MAGA, but as Sherri noted who knows. re the incest “plot suggestion”, it is an actuality in “The Number of the Beast”.
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basset said on March 30, 2025 at 12:46 pm
AutoCAD, remotely-controlled hands (“waldoes,”) the Crazy Years, he knew more about the future than he ever admitted.
RAH would never have supported Trump or some of his more visible allies, he would have been down with massive public spending cuts, minimal government, opposing liberalism, probably taking over Greenland, many of the MAGA principles but not so much of the public posturing and acting up.
Jeff, say more about your conversations with Patterson if you would.
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Sherri said on March 30, 2025 at 1:36 pm
I think there are a lot of Trump supporters who look just like Heinlein: educated, former military, libertarian, distasteful of bombast, hate dishonesty, believe in honor. Yet they support Trump. That’s why I think it’s a toss up for RAH. For some, it’s because they convince themselves that the Democrats are worse. For some, it’s because they can’t imagine a world in which white Christian men aren’t the default.
I’ve read widely in the RAH canon, and I think he would have had a hard time being criticized for being sexist. It very easily could have pushed him over into Trumpism, which is resentment for not being top of the heap.
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jim h said on March 30, 2025 at 3:07 pm
He definitely would not be on board with the anti-trans part. In the last five books it was simply accepted that people could choose which sex they preferred to be.
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FDChief said on March 30, 2025 at 5:50 pm
Jim; In “Freehold” there’s a dialogue between Farnham and his adult daughter wherein the subject of inbreeding comes up (at the point in the tale where the protagonist and family think they are the only survivors of nuclear holocaust) and daughter suggests that daddy is her preferred reproductive partner.
I don’t think it’s so much some sort of authorial incest kink as his wanting his White Savior to be the Alpha Dude, men fear him, women crave him, blah blah the usual straight guy fantasy.
I recall enjoying RAH in my twenties. Re-reading him in my sixties? Meh. There’s a huge body of better work out now, and a lot of Heinlein hasn’t aged well…
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Sherri said on March 30, 2025 at 6:18 pm
There’s a huge body of better work out now
No kidding! If you enjoy sci-fi, you really doing yourself a disservice if you’re ignoring the works of the last twenty years. N.K. Jemisin, Anne Leckie, Arkady Martine, Martha Wells, Ted Chiang, Katherine Addison, James S.A. Corey, Naomi Novik, Mary Robinette Kowal – these are just the ones off the top of my head that I’ve enjoyed as least as much as Heinlein, Asimov, or Clarke.
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