Two books are reviewed this week – one that I read some time ago and somehow neglected to publish on the blog (the third in Kerry Wilkinson’s Whitecliff Bay series) and Keith Urban by Jeff Apter. Both were provided to me by NetGalley as uncorrected proofs for review.
Jeff Apter Keith Urban Kensington Books Citadel, September 2023.
Jeff Apter has adopted an incisive and detailed, but accessible, style which suits his topic – an Australian boy from Caboolture who wanted to succeed in Nashville. In particular, Apter has given the reader so much information about why the various people, as well as Keith Urban, might have acted as they have, but does not pass judgement. This is a style that enhances the biography in which Urban’s attempts at rehabilitation, his behaviour toward managers, bands, other performers, his marriage and attitudes towards expressing himself, are covered. There are plenty of clues to dwell upon as to why an attitude, behaviour or event might have occurred – but there is no overt or covert opinion expressed by this most delicate of biographers. I enjoyed the Australianness of the early chapters, they give Urban a background that cannot be eradicated by his life in America, and this resonates as a reality. At the same time, Nashville becomes an experience for those who know little about it, along with the development of a style of music that has changed over the period. So, too, do we learn about Urban as a songwriter, a man struggling towards success, and then eventual success in his personal and public life and someone as at home in each of the various spheres he now works and lives in. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.
Kerry Wilkinson The Ones Who Are Buried (A Whitecliff Bay Mystery Book 3) Bookouture 17 April 2023.
The Ones Who Are Buried continues the partnership between Millie Westlake and Guy Rushden and begins a new investigation into the disappearance of two school age boys. The investigation begins with Kevin Ashworth, former teacher and football coach found guilty of their abduction, leading the way over cold and wet moorlands to recover a small wooden box. It is too small to house the remains of the missing boys on whom the expedition has focussed but will become an important part of the story of their disappearance. Millie is intrigued by the demand for Guy’s presence, and the background to his and Ashworth’s story is partially revealed. Moving well away from cold and wet expeditions is Millie’s interest in unravelling a mystery associated with a film star, and their visit to her opulent but decaying house.
At the same time as Millie and Guy investigate, their domestic circumstances are further revealed. Millie’s ongoing battle to remain calm in the face of her ex-husband’s and his new partner’s provocation; her relationship with her son who is in his father’s custody; her friendships; and then, a new introduction to the series, more about Guy’s domestic life. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.
After the Covid update: Ian McMullan – Voice Paradox; Heather Cox Richardson – The most recent Trump Indictment; Cindy Lou breakfasts at Kopiku; excerpt from Secret London.
Covid in Canberra the week ending 28 July 2023
There were 176 new cases with 20 people in hospital with Covid. One person is in ICU and 1 ventilated. There was one life lost this week.
Ther are no longer any restirctions in place. however, the encouragement to follow smart behaviours can be observed in the social distancing that takes place, and some wearing of masks.
Another approach to The Voice to Parliament
Voice Paradox
Ian McMullan
Opponents of the Voice referendum risk achieving the opposite of their stated wishes.
Most of the credible opponents of the Referendum , including Peter Dutton and Sussan Ley, say that they are in favour of the first proposition to formally recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution. I am sure that most Australians also agree.
Their objection to the second proposition that a Voice to Parliament be enshrined in the Constitution has led then to oppose the entire question.
Even if the Referendum succeeds the Voice will need legislation before any advisory body can be created.
That is when the detail that many are clamouring for will be debated in Parliament.
If the Referendum fails it is still open to legislate to establish a Voice. That is the likely outcome..
Many prominent Liberals are arguing that localised advisory bodies be created by legislation to provide advice to Government. I have heard Senator Price and Sussan Ley advocate for this outcome
So the effect of a No vote is likely to be that recognition which is supported by many No advocates will fail and that The Voice which they oppose will happen.
Surely some politically savvy Liberals will recognise the paradox they have created.
First published in The West Australian, July 2023.
Heather Cox Richardson – Letter From America, August 1, 2023.
Today a grand jury in Washington, D.C, indicted former president Donald J. Trump for conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges stemmed from Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A grand jury is made up of 23 ordinary citizens who weigh evidence of criminal activity and produce an indictment if 12 or more of them vote in favor.
The grand jury indicted Trump for “conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted and certified by the government; “conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified”; and “conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”
“Each of these conspiracies,” the indictment reads, “targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.” “This federal government function…is foundational to the United States’ democratic process, and until 2021, had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years.”
As Rachel Weiner pointed out in the Washington Post, “conspiracies don’t need to be successful to be criminal, and perpetrators can be held responsible if they join the conspiracy at any stage.”
The indictment referred to six co-conspirators without identifying them by name, but the details included about them suggest that Co-Conspirator 1 is Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani; Co-Conspirator 2 is lawyer John Eastman, who came up with the plan for then–vice president Mike Pence to use his ceremonial role of counting the electoral votes to throw the election to Trump; Co-Conspirator 3 is Trump lawyer Sidney Powell; Co-Conspirator 4 is Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department lawyer whom Trump tried to push into the role of attorney general so he could lie that there had been election fraud; Co-Conspirator 5 appears to be Kenneth Chesebro, a Trump attorney behind the idea of the false electors.
The identity of Co-Conspirator 6, a political consultant, is unclear.
On The Reid Out tonight, law professor Neal Katyal suggested that the six were not indicted because the Justice Department “doesn’t want the trial of the other six to be bundled up with this and slow this down.” Los Angeles Times senior legal affairs columnist Harry Litman concluded that the absence of Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, from the indictment indicates he’s cooperating with the Department of Justice. Meadows had a ringside seat to the last days of the Trump administration.
The indictment is what’s known as a “speaking indictment,” one that explains the alleged crimes to the public. It undercuts Trump loyalists’ insistence that the Department of Justice is trying to criminalize Trump’s free speech by laying out that Trump did indeed have a right to challenge the election—which he did, and lost. He also had a first-amendment right to lie about the election.
What he did not have was a right to use “unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”
The indictment begins by settling out that Trump “lost the 2020 presidential election” but that “despite having lost, [Trump] was determined to remain in power.” So he lied that he had actually won. “These claims were false, and [Trump] knew they were false.” More than 15 pages of the 45-page indictment establish that Trump knew the allegations he was making about election fraud were lies.
In one memorable December exchange, a senior campaign advisor wrote in an email, “When our research and campaign legal team can’t back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we’re 0–32 on our cases. I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy sh*t beamed down from the mothership.”
The Trump team used lies about the election to justify organizing fraudulent slates of electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Allegedly with the help of Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, they attempted to have the legitimate electors that accurately reflected the voters’ choice of Biden replaced with fraudulent ones that claimed Trump had won in their states, first by convincing state legislators they had the power to make the switch, and then by convincing Vice President Mike Pence he could choose the Trump electors.
When Pence would not fraudulently alter the election results, Trump whipped up the crowd he had gathered in Washington, D.C., against Pence and then, according to the indictment, “attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol” to overturn the election results. “As violence ensued,” the indictment reads, Trump and his co-conspirators “explained the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims.” On the evening of January 6, 2021, the indictment alleges, Trump and Co-Conspirator 1 called seven senators and one representative and asked them to delay the certification of Biden’s election.
While they were doing so, White House counsel Pat Cipollone called Trump “to ask him to withdraw any objections and allow the certification. The Defendant refused.” Just before midnight, Co-Conspirator 2 emailed Pence’s lawyer, once again begging the vice president to “violate the law and seek further delay of the certification.”
While Trump loyalists are trying to spin the indictment as the weaponization of the Department of Justice against Trump, legal analyst George Conway noted on CNN tonight: “All the evidence comes from Republicans. If you go through this indictment and you annotate the paragraphs to figure out who are the witnesses the [special counsel] would use to prove particular points, they’re all Republicans. Those are the people who were having the discussions, telling [Trump], ‘You lost.’”
Trump will be arraigned at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time on August 3. The case of the United States of America v. Donald J. Trump has been randomly assigned to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, appointed by President Obama in 2014 and confirmed 95–0 in the Senate. Chutkan has presided over dozens of cases concerning the defendants who participated in the events of January 6, 2021, and has been vocal during sentencing about the stakes of that event. In December 2021 she said: “It has to be made clear that trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, assaulting law enforcement, is going to be met with certain punishment.”
“The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Special Counsel Jack Smith said in his statement about the indictment.
“The men and women of law enforcement who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 are heroes. They’re patriots, and they are the very best of us. They did not just defend a building or the people sheltering in it. They put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people. They defended the very institutions and principles that define the United States.”
The prosecution of former president Trump for trying to destroy those institutions and principles, including our right to consent to the government under which we live—a right the Founders articulated in the Declaration of Independence—should deter others from trying to do the same. Moreover, it will defend the rights of the victims—those who gave their lives as well as all of us whose votes were attacked—by establishing the truth in place of lies. That realistic view should enable us to recommit to the principles on which we want our nation to rest.
Such a prosecution will reaffirm the institutions of democracy. Donald Trump tried to destroy “the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured…by the Constitution and laws of the United States—that is, the right to vote, and to have one’s vote counted.” Such an effort must be addressed, and doing it within the parameters of our legal system should reestablish the very institutions Trump loyalists are trying to undermine.
As former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said this evening: “Like every criminal defendant, the former President is innocent until proven guilty…. The charges…must play out through the legal process, peacefully and without any outside interference…. As this case proceeds through the courts, justice must be done according to the facts and the law.”
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Notes:
https://www.congress.gov/nomination/113th-congress/1227
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/01/trump-indictment-jan-6-2020-election/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/01/politics/co-conspirators-trump-indictment/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/01/trump-charges-2020-election-probe/
Cindy Lou breakfasts at Kopiku, O’Connor
Kopiku has been a stalwart of breakfasts and coffees from its time as 39 Steps. During one period of ownership the cafe failed to meet the friendliness and efficiency of its past ownership, and current owners. This was a pity, but customers returned in a stream once the present owners took over. Once again there were smiles, efficient service, and a dog bowl. Despite their opening Kopiku as the Covid regulations were introduced, they have been immensely successful. On weekends it is sometimes difficult to find seating at their delightful rustic round tables outside. However, on a weekday morning I found everything to my liking – seating outside, a good menu, the regular smiling efficiency and excellent food.
From Secret London (edited)
A Giant Food Hall With Over 15 Food Vendors Has Opened Up In Battersea Power Station • Arcade Battersea
Hitting the recently-revamped grade II-listed building, the latest London food hall is set to rival heavyweights such as Eataly.
JACK SADDLER • 26 JULY, 2023
Giant food halls have been a roaring success in London as of late. Just look at Eataly, the indoor Italian market in a 42,000 square foot space in Liverpool Street, serving up heaps of tongue-tingling pasta and delicate glasses of wine.
Something else that’s been having a bit of a moment recently is Battersea. So, it makes sense that the newest kid on the food hall block has opened inside the recently transformed Battersea Power Station. We got a chance to go and have a look before it opened up fully and we were pretty impressed.
The Arcade Battersea food hall follows on from the success of the brand’s unique food hall concept at its Arcade Centre Point location in Oxford Street. The new food hall boasts 500 seats, two bars, three stand-alone restaurants and a private dining room. It’s quite the dining destination!
Said Cokey Sulkin, COO of Arcade: “I’m thrilled to be leading the teams at Arcade Centre Point and Arcade Battersea. We aim to create a drinking and dining destination to attract Londoners and international guests alike via global cuisines and seamless technology in the historic Power Station”.
Food & drink at Arcade Battersea
Oh, and by the way, those restaurants and bars are in addition to the food hall’s own vendors! Guests can experience a truly unique dining experience in the food hall, with 13 different cuisines to take their taste buds all around the world. We’re talking Cantonese comfort food from Sui Sui, tasty Thai food from Phed Power, Indian fast food from Hero, and Nepali street food from Tipan Tapan (just to name a few). There’s even a new flatbread concept from TikTok butter-boy (and hugely successful restaurateur) Thomas Straker.
Two bars are on hand to keep your thirst sated: Tap Room and ABC Bar. The former features a wall of 32 taps and a huge selection of beer from local and international breweries. ABC Bar, meanwhile, is full to the brim with all of your favourite cocktails.
The best part of the food hall is the order-to-table system that made their original site so popular. What does that mean for you? All you have to do is take a seat, and you can then order widely from around the food hall, all without having to leave your seat. Grab a burger from one place, dumplings from another, a flat bread, and a round of drinks, all without ever having to queue!
The stand-alone restaurants
As if all of that wasn’t enough, there are also three restaurants at Arcade Battersea for you to stuff your face in. Manna is a US-style smash burger and fried chicken joint that has created a selection of dishes specifically for Battersea Power Station (now doesn’t that make us feel special?). Then there’s Solis, a grilled chicken and steak brand, and completing the trilogy of restos is cult Taiwanese favourite, BAO. They’re masters of (well, you guessed it) bao, and they’ve brought a new noodle shop concept to town.
A word to the wise: go with an empty stomach or you’ll regret it…
Read more: London’s Biggest Asian Food Hall Might Just Rival Chinatown.Event details
Robin's Room 