Felonious Bunk

Plus: Should we really be in a panic about black plastic kitchenware and more in this weekend's reading list.

Thought I’d pop in and share a few of the thoughts chasing themselves around my brain, because mebbe many of you are feeling similarly, esp after Merchan’s “unconditional discharge” of our now-felon president-elect Trump.

I don’t plan to dig deep into Merchan’s decision, which I will leave to experts such as Joyce Vance, who always makes things clear for me. And, I know there are some followers of mine who get upset (many have left) when I mix politics and cooking, but that is literally what my podcast, The Secret Life of Cookies, is all about.

Anyhoo, what today’s sentencing brought home to me was the difference between how I felt at the beginning of the last Trump administration and today. In fact, up until not long ago I held out hope that the justice system would prevail and Trump would see appropriate punishments for his egregious crimes. But today’s (not surprising) ruling flushed the few lasting remnants of childish naivete out of my head. You remember the feeling you had going into the first Trump administration: that we had the Department of Justice and its hardworking legal minds to protect us, that the Supreme Court couldn’t be as biased as we imagined, that our laws would protect us from tyranny and abuse of the presidential office. Unfortunately, what I feel now is a sense of hopelessness. The wheels rattled on the freight train of democracy during the first administration, but now they feel as if they’re going to come off.

The truth is, and my brother David put it more eloquently than I in his recent substacks, including this one from yesterday:

Should you care when the president says something patently ridiculous [about seizing Greenland or Panama]? Well, on the one hand, because it is ridiculous and, in my view, unlikely to happen, probably not. Let’s focus on his effort to work with billionaires who control our media to get them to end the publication of objective truth or his desire to exacerbate inequality in America and drive up the deficit with unneeded tax cuts or his plan to cause national chaos by rounding up millions of undocumented citizens or his allies plans to cut social security and medicare or….well, you know, the big stuff.

What we’ve got to decide now is how we’re going to let the future administration affect our psyche and mental well-being: when should we be concerned about what comes out of Trumpworld and when should we just focus on baking muffins (like these delicious pumpkin ones) and fixing ourselves a nice cup of green tea with ginger, as I am about to do.

We should always look at pets and pet photos:

Calvin likes that Ikea make sinks just his size.

Puppy rates high on the naptitude test.

Weekend reads

Believe me the irony of me offering you this at the end of today’s substack is not lost on me, but a recent article by Tanya Lewis from Scientific American, “Outrage Fatigue is Real: These Tips May Help,” is definitely news we can use.

Shalom Auslander’s current substack about the unexpected impacts of California fires, is a subtle and thoughtful read.

I am greatful John Birdsall, author of The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard, re-published his comprehensive and important piece about the life of Anita Bryant and her impact on the LBTQ+ community in his latest substack. Also: if you haven’t yet read his bio of Beard, it is one of the best bios I’ve read recently.

And I appreciate Joe Schwarcz from McGill’s Office of Science and Society pointing out the flaws in data that led us all to panic about our black plastic kitchenware and what we should (and shouldn’t) be concerned about.

Okay, tea is now officially cold and that just won’t do.

Take care.

Have you read anything worth sharing this week? LMK in the comments. And, of course, lmk your general commentary on my comments.