May 18, 2022
Late Morning Update:
Minnesota. Brad Parks & Eric Levenson of CNN: "Former Minneapolis Police officer Thomas Lane pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter Wednesday related to his role in the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement.... Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng faced state charges of aiding and abetting murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter for their actions -- or lack thereof -- as their colleague Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck and back of Floyd, who was handcuffed and lying on his stomach, for over nine minutes. During the arrest, Lane held down Floyd's legs, Kueng held down Floyd's torso, and Thao stood nearby and kept a crowd of upset bystanders back."
China. Nectar Gan & CNN Beijing Bureau: "Black box data recovered from a China Eastern flight that crashed in March suggests someone in the cockpit intentionally downed the plane, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a preliminary assessment from United States officials. The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou when it nosedived from 29,000 feet mid air into the mountains, killing all 132 passengers and crew on board. It was China's deadliest air disaster in decades. Information extracted from the plane's damaged flight-data recorder shows human input orders to the controls sent the plane into its deadly dive, according to the Journal, citing people familiar with the probe."
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: Sorry for not covering the play-by-play in Tuesday's primary races as it happened, but I could not get excited about these jamokes. Whoever ends up winning, the top picks will be Rand Paul, the traitor, the Nazi and the the white supremacist. Even the Democratic races lack sizzle.
The New York Times' live updates Tuesday are here: In Pennsylvania, "Doug Mastriano, a far-right state senator, won the Republican nomination for governor, and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman will be Democrats' candidate in one of the fall's most important Senate races. In North Carolina, Madison Cawthorn fell to defeat in his House race.... Mr. Mastriano's victory sets up a fall clash with Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, a matchup with vast potential consequences both for state-level issues like abortion rights and for election certification in the 2024 presidential race.... The Democratic primaries came to an unusual finish, with both leading candidates absent from the trail. Mr. Shapiro, 48, tested positive for the coronavirus and was isolating at home while Mr. Fetterman, 52, suffered a stroke on Friday and his campaign announced he had a procedure on Tuesday 'to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator.' Both Democrats cast emergency absentee ballots.... Mr. Mastriano, who has been subpoenaed by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, made his own failed effort to subpoena voting machines to 'audit' the 2020 election. Last month he spoke at a conference organized by QAnon conspiracy theorists."
Here's a predictable headline in the Washington Post's live updates of election results: "Cawthorn underperformed in precincts with more educated voters."
What happened here is simple and straightforward: terrorism.... Violence inflicted in the service of hate and a vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group. A hate that through the media and politics, the Internet, has radicalized angry, alienated, lost, and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced -- that's the word, 'replaced' -- by the 'other' -- by people who don't look like them and who are therefore, in a perverse ideology that they possess and being fed, lesser beings. I and all of you reject the lie. I call on all Americans to reject the lie. And I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain, and for profit. -- President Biden, Buffalo, New York, Tuesday ~~~
~~~ Chris Megerian of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned the poison of white supremacy and said the nation must 'reject the lie' of the racist 'replacement theory' espoused by the shooter who murdered 10 black Americans in Buffalo. Speaking to victims' families, local officials and first responders, Biden said America's diversity is its strength and the nation must not be be distorted by a 'hateful minority.'... Biden spoke after he and first lady Jill Biden paid their respects Tuesday at a makeshift memorial of blossoms, candles and messages of condolence outside the Tops supermarket...." The Washington Post's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here's a transcript of the speech, via the White House, as delivered. It was quite a good speech, and a tearjerker at times.
Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, urged Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and the network's top executives in a letter on Tuesday to 'immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called "Great Replacement" theory on your network's broadcasts' in the wake of a deadly racist rampage in Buffalo. The letter, which followed remarks Mr. Schumer gave on the Senate floor Monday, may signal a new effort by Democrats and others to raise pressure on the cable network and its top-rated host and moneymaker, Tucker Carlson.... 'For years, these types of beliefs have existed at the fringes of American life,' Mr. Schumer wrote in his letter, which was also copied to Mr. Carlson personally. 'However, this pernicious theory, which has no basis in fact, has been injected into the mainstream thanks in large part to a dangerous level of amplification by your network and its anchors.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ A copy of the letter, via the New York Times, is here. As Garrett Haake pointed out on MSNBC, Schumer's letter is effectively confirmation that the Senate itself will do nothing to deter gun violence because there are not 60 votes for even the most innocuous gun control legislation. (Also linked yesterday.)
The New York Times is liveblogging events in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesday, including President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden's visit. President Biden is scheduled to deliver public remarks at 1:00 pm ET. (Also linked yesterday.)
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Replacement theory used to be a fringe doctrine, but these days, in at best thinly disguised form, it is attracting significant mainstream support within the G.O.P. And this mainstream acceptance helps it spread. As The Times has documented, Tucker Carlson's Fox News show has amplified the doctrine more than 400 times. And lest you dismiss Carlson as a mere media figure, remember David Frum's dictum: 'Republicans originally thought Fox worked for us. Then we discovered that we work for Fox.'" Krugman misses the days when voodoo economics, "a crank economic doctrine -- the claim that tax cuts pay for themselves -- became in effect the official Republican party line." Despite the fact that voodoo economics never inspired any acts of terrorism, he reckons "that the embrace of crank economics presaged the general moral collapse of the Republican establishment ...[and] opened the door for paranoia and conspiracy theorists of all kinds -- and the consequences have been deadly." (Also linked yesterday.)
Olivia Beavers & Jordain Carney of Politico: "Rep. Elise Stefanik's GOP colleagues are largely defending the New Yorker over an incendiary immigration ad that sparked Democratic charges she was nodding to a racist conspiracy theory." MB: They say she once had a Black friend, or something.
Guns ᴙ Us. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The United States is in the middle of a great gun-buying boom that shows no sign of letting up as the annual number of firearms manufactured has nearly tripled since 2000 and spiked sharply in the past three years, according to the first comprehensive federal tally of gun commerce in two decades. The report, released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Tuesday ... painted a vivid statistical portrait of a nation arming itself to the teeth. Buyers capitalized on the loosening of gun restrictions by the Supreme Court, Congress and Republican-controlled state legislatures. The data documented a drastic shift in consumer demand among gun owners that has had profound commercial, cultural and political implications: Starting in 2009, Glock-type semiautomatic handguns, purchased for personal protection, began to outsell rifles, which have been typically used in hunting."
Rip Van Garland Awakens. Glenn Thrush & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has asked the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack for transcripts of interviews it is conducting, which have included discussions with associates of ... Donald J. Trump, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The move, coming as Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appears to be ramping up the pace of his painstaking investigation into the Capitol riot, is the clearest sign yet of a wide-ranging inquiry at the Justice Department. The House committee has interviewed more than 1,000 people so far, and the transcripts could be used as evidence in potential criminal cases, to pursue new leads or as a baseline text for new interviews conducted by federal law enforcement officials.... On April 20, Kenneth A. Polite Jr., the assistant attorney general for the criminal division, and Matthew M. Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote to Timothy J. Heaphy, the lead investigator for the House panel, advising him that some committee interviews 'may contain information relevant to a criminal investigation we are conducting.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the chair of the committee, told reporters Tuesday that the Justice Department -- and some state and local investigators -- requested that the committee share copies of interviews conducted by House lawmakers and investigators. 'My understanding is they want to have access to our work product, and we told them, "No, we're not giving that to anybody,"' Thompson said. The committee may allow investigators to review records in the committee's office, he said." An AP report is here.
Because every word he says is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.' -- paraphrase, borrowed from Mary McCarthy ~~~
~~~ Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not expecting to call Donald Trump to testify about potentially unlawful schemes to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election win, its chairman said on Tuesday. The panel has been weighing for months whether to seek voluntary cooperation or subpoena the former president in its wide-ranging inquiry in an effort to obtain his insight into unlawful schemes to overturn the results of the 2020 election. But Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill that it was 'not our expectation' to demand testimony from Trump."
Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "On Jan. 6, 2021..., a top Trump appointee at the U.S. State Department met with two activists who had been key to spreading the false narrative that the presidential election had been stolen. The meeting came as Trump's allies were pressing theories that election machines had been hacked by foreign powers and were angling for Trump to employ the vast powers of the national security establishment to seize voting machines or even rerun the election.Robert A. Destro, a law professor at Catholic University of America then serving as an assistant secretary of state, confirmed to The Washington Post he met with the two men -- Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann and Michigan lawyer Matthew DePerno -- in the midst of the tumultuous day. The two men have previously claimed to have huddled on Jan. 6 with State Department leaders, who Oltmann has said were sympathetic to the claims that a 'coup' was underway to steal the presidency from Trump. They have not identified with whom they met. Destro's acknowledgment is the first independent confirmation that they successfully gained the high-level audience.... Oltmann and DePerno played important behind-the-scenes roles in crafting the baseless allegations that the election was stolen from Trump...." (Also linked yesterday.) A CNN report is here.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Finnish and Swedish envoys delivered letters expressing their nations' interest in joining NATO to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels. Mr. Stoltenberg has said that NATO will seek to admit both nations in a fast-track process.... If both are admitted, it will be NATO's most significant expansion in nearly two decades.... The triumphant mood in the Nordic states was shadowed, however, by signals that Turkey, a NATO member, might seek to block their accession.... The International Criminal Court has sent a team of 42 investigators, forensic experts and support personnel, its largest-ever field deployment, to assist with I.C.C. investigations in Ukraine, according to the court's prosecutor." Here's the Times' summary of developments Tuesday. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that another group of 694 Ukrainian fighters in the strategic port city of Mariupol left the Azovstal steel plant in the last day as part of a negotiated surrender. The Washington Post could not immediately verify Russia's account that a total of 959 fighters, including 80 seriously wounded, have now left the plant, and it was unclear how many remain.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address that the 'evacuation mission continues.' Ukraine said it is seeking a swap for the fighters taken to Russian-held territory -- yet some key Russian officials are signaling they won't support such an exchange."
Neil MacFarquhar & Anushka Patil of the New York Times: "A military analyst on one of Russian state television's most popular networks left his fellow panelists in stunned silence on Monday when he said that the conflict in Ukraine was deteriorating for Russia, giving the kind of honest assessment that is virtually banished from the official airwaves. 'The situation for us will clearly get worse,' Mikhail M. Khodaryonok, a retired colonel and a conservative columnist on military affairs, said during the '60 Minutes' talk-show program on the Rossiya network.... 'We are in total geopolitical isolation and the whole world is against us, even if we don't want to admit it,' said Mr. Khodaryonok, noting that Russia's 'resources, military-political and military-technical, are limited.'... Mr. Khodaryonok noted that Ukraine seemed to have momentum."
Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "An intelligence subcommittee hear[d] testimony from two Pentagon officials on observations [of 'unexplained aerial sightings'] by military pilots and others. Pentagon officials testifying at a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday showed a previously classified video of an unidentified aerial phenomena, a fleeting color video of a reflective spherical object speeding past a military fighter jet.... 'We have detected no emanations within the U.A.P. task force that is, that would suggest it's anything nonterrestrial in origin,' [the deputy director of naval intelligence Scott] Bray said, referring to unidentified aerial phenomena." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "A House Intelligence subcommittee summoned military experts Tuesday to provide the first testimony in half a century about the existence of UFOs, and in the process, lawmakers helped answer the question that has fascinated humankind: Is there intelligent life down here?... Lawmakers, once finished, kept the hearing going because [Elise] Stefanik [R-N.Y.], a committee member, was allegedly 'en route' to question the witnesses. But she never showed up. Was it an alien abduction? And, if so, where can we send the thank-you note?" MB: Not surprisingly, a fun read. I always enjoy it when Milbank reports on a committee hearing.
Eric Schmitt & Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "A Pentagon investigation into a U.S. airstrike in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of people, including women and children, found that the military's initial review of the attack was mishandled at multiple levels of command and replete with reporting delays and information gaps. But the inquiry also determined that most of the people killed in the strike, which was carried out by a shadowy Special Operations unit called Task Force 9, were probably Islamic State fighters, according to three officials familiar with the findings, and that military officials did not violate the laws of war or deliberately conceal casualties. The findings did not call for any disciplinary action.... [Secretary of Defense Lloyd] Austin appointed Gen. Michael X. Garrett, the four-star head of the Army's Forces Command, to lead the inquiry in November after an investigation by The New York Times described allegations that top officers and civilian officials had sought to hide casualties from the airstrike." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So Austin ordered an inquiry as a result of a Times investigation, and the Times now reports in its lede that the inquiry found that the initial military report of the incident was deeply flawed. Now here's the headline on the WashPo's report: "Pentagon inquiry rejects claims U.S. covered up civilian deaths in Syria." The Washington Post's lede: "The findings of a U.S. military investigation reject allegations that commanders covered up the killing of civilians in Syria, officials said Tuesday, even as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that a lack of transparency in such cases risks undermining public trust that the Pentagon will hold itself accountable for fatal mistakes." Emphasis added. You'd almost think you were reading about two different inquiries with two different results.
Susannah George of the Washington Post: "Paranoia riddled the most senior levels of the Afghan government, and chaos overwhelmed the country's security forces in the days and months leading up to their collapse, according to a U.S. government watchdog report released Wednesday, one of the first since the Taliban takeover in August. The latest assessment by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, examined the roots of the Afghan military's demise at the end of America's longest war. Many of the findings confirm previous reporting by The Washington Post and other outlets on Taliban-brokered surrender deals, but also shed new light on the intrigue and suspicion that consumed the Afghan leadership in its final days. As Taliban forces closed in on Kabul, then-president Ashraf Ghani feared his own military would turn against him and suspected the United States was plotting to remove him from power, the report reveals, quoting former Afghan and U.S. officials. Ghani also dismissed many of his senior security officials and key commanders on the ground, believing they were disloyal, moves that further undermined the morale of Afghan security forces, confused the war effort and culminated in the country's fall, the report concluded."
Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The Justice Department sued the former casino mogul Stephen Wynn on Tuesday, saying he had made repeated requests on behalf of the Chinese government to Donald J. Trump when he was president and seeking to force Mr. Wynn to register as a foreign agent. In 2017, Mr. Wynn pushed Mr. Trump to deport a Chinese businessman who had sought asylum in the United States, according to the lawsuit. At the time, Mr. Wynn was the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, a role he had been handpicked for by Mr. Trump.... The Chinese businessman is not named in the suit, but he matches the description of Guo Wengui, a billionaire real estate magnate and an outspoken critic of Chinese government self-dealing who formed an alliance with Stephen K. Bannon.... The effort to have him returned to China was ultimately unsuccessful, according to the lawsuit. The suit also paints Mr. Wynn as furthering his own interests in Macau, a region of China known for its casinos that was critical for Mr. Wynn's business." Wynn refused to register as a foreign agent, according to the suit. A Politico report is here. ~~~
~~~ David Kirkpatrick & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a businessman and longtime friend who acted as an informal adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, sought money from the United Arab Emirates in early 2017 for an investment fund that would seek both to boost Mr. Trump's agenda and to benefit from his policies, federal prosecutors said in a court filing on Tuesday. Prosecutors cited the effort in a superseding indictment in a case in which they charged Mr. Barrack last July with acting as an unregistered agent for the United Arab Emirates, conspiring with the Emiratis to influence the Trump campaign and the White House, and lying to investigators." A CNBC report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: We know Trump's friends are shady, sleazy bastids, but truth is, we don't know the half of it.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The White House will hold a coronavirus briefing on Wednesday after a six-week hiatus, as caseloads and hospitalizations climb around the country and the Biden administration signaled that it would extend its declaration of Covid-19 as a public health emergency. The briefing -- scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Eastern -- will be the first formal on-camera session led by President Biden's new coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Ashish K. Jha."
Carolyn Johnson & Laura McGinley of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators authorized a coronavirus booster shot Tuesday for school-age children, making a third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available to 5-to-11-year-olds as cases rise nationally. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the booster for use at least five months after children are fully vaccinated with the two-shot primary series.... Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet Thursday and are expected to recommend the booster, which was shown in laboratory tests to strengthen children's immune defenses -- particularly against the omicron variant." An NBC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. -- First Amendment, U.S. Constitution *
* Does not apply in Florida. ~~~
Florida. DeSantis, et al., Think of Another First Amendment Right to Abrogate. Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill Monday to outlaw protests outside private residences -- a move opponents say violates First Amendment rights." ~~~
~~~ Update. Turns Out DeSantis Did Not Forget the Press. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) considered pushing legislation that would have rolled back a critical First Amendment protection for journalists -- with an eye toward getting the Supreme Court to undo a landmark ruling that limited when reporters can be sued by public officials.... [DeSantis never filed the draft bill he considered.] According to the report, the ultimate goal of the legislation was to get the Supreme Court to overturn [the 1964 decision, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan,], allowing states to enact their own standards for when reporters can be sued for libel.... Prior to the Sullivan ruling, Southern states in particular used libel laws to terrorize and harass journalists attempting to cover the injustices of Jim Crow laws." The Sentinel story is here. It is firewalled.
Georgia. Matthew Brown & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The Georgia State Elections Board on Tuesday dismissed three allegations of ballot fraud brought by a conservative activist who falsely accused residents of the Atlanta area of illegally turning in other people's ballots in the 2020 election. The cases have gained attention across conservative social media following the release this month of '2000 Mules,' a movie promoted by right-wing activist Dinesh D'Souza that alleges that thousands such individuals participated in a vast criminal conspiracy to collect and return tens of thousands of ballots in 2020. The board's action Tuesday cast doubt on the premise of the movie, which claims to use cellphone tracking data along with video surveillance of individuals depositing ballots in drop boxes to make its case."
Michigan. Luke Vander Ploeg of the New York Times: "A Michigan judge has pre-emptively blocked enforcement of a 1931 law that would ban abortions in almost all cases if the Supreme Court takes an expected step to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Chief Judge Elizabeth Gleicher of the State Court of Claims issued an injunction on Tuesday as a part of a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood of Michigan that argues that the nearly century-old law violates the State Constitution.... The complaint was made against Attorney General Dana Nessel, who has said she would not enforce the 1931 law even if Roe were overturned. However, she is up for re-election in November, and those who support abortion rights are concerned that future leaders could enforce a criminal ban."
Wisconsin. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Three Democratic voters in Wisconsin, including two who served as electors for President Biden in 2020, filed suit Tuesday against 10 supporters of Donald Trump in the state, arguing the group engaged in a civil conspiracy to violate state and federal law when they declared themselves presidential electors in 2020 even though Biden won the state's popular vote. The group also sued two lawyers who worked with Trump's campaign and advised Trump's electors to meet in states Biden had won and declare themselves properly elected."
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Reader Comments (16)
Hey, so that paragon of truth and responsible governance, Madison Cawthorn, got the boot, eh? Well at least now he’ll have plenty more time for those cocaine and sex parties, right? Oh, wait. Those are Republican cocaine and sex parties. Yeah, I’m guessing McConnell and McCarthy have crossed him off the guest list by now. Sorry, Maddie.
According to Media Matters, the racist pigs over at Faux have stopped railing about replacement, blah, blah, blah. At least for now. The chief proponent of this incendiary racist lie, good ol’ TuKKKums, on his show, put the blame for the massacre in Buffalo squarely where it belongs: Democrats who have the temerity to criticize him. Hmmm…not sure how that works, but never mind, logic has never mattered to Faux or its drooling viewers.
But what is logical is the clear fact that racism is one of the four pillars supporting the whole shebang at Faux, the other three being treason, mendacity, and…money.
Just as with the Republican Party, practically every member of which is now on board with treason and election rigging, there is little problem with pinning the “racist asshole” tag on everyone in the Faux organization. KKKarlson has adopted the Republican Party’s “Racism Works!” motto and has made millions off it. If the Murdochs didn’t agree, they could have told their head pig to knock that shit off. But they haven’t. And they won’t. Racism=Big Bucks for the Murdoch empire.
And after the Buffalo thing dies down, as surely as Fatso Trump spreads lies on his morning toast, the Faux racists will be back beating that replacement drum. Hard. Cuz that’s what they do. And it makes them all rich.
In the Times pieces on KKKarlson, Nick Confessore, the head writer, pointed out that Faux used to rely on a small group of researchers and fact checkers (hard to believe, I know). Every now and then, KKKarlson’s producers would send his nightly screed off for a look-see. Almost invariably, the fact check guys would call back and say something like “Are you kidding? This crap has been cut and pasted from Stormfront, that psycho neo-Nazi site”. Pretty soon the KKKarlson producers stopped running his racist propaganda by the fact check guys. Why bother? Neo-Nazis, Stormfront, KKKarlson, Faux, they’re all the same.
Responsible journalism is for schmoes.
We are happy that Fetterman won, and daughter and I will proceed to the website to buy more Fetterman gear and signs... The bigot nutcase Kathy seems out-- there is a lovely choice of Oz or the Hedgefund billionaire and both are total neophytes in politics. Our man Shapiro, the PA AG, gets to face off with the Bald Ugly Fascist Militaristic Election-Denying Trump-Loving Piece Of Crap Theocrat Mastriano...I was afraid of that when I saw his signs popping up all over, although majorly outside the city limits. The map showed he did very well with the massive numbers of Alabamian-style hayseeds out in the boonies.
Can't wait for the next six months.
Did you hear it? Early this morning the noise was deafening! CAW,CAW, CAW from swarms of crows throughout the land celebrating the demise of that young punk whose name these birds took offense with along with being a thorn in their winged superiority. As we know, crows are pretty smart cookies ––they spot phonies from afar and do their best to ruffle these fuckers' feathers just enough so that they lose–-whatever they were setting out to gain.
And more good news which we grab with both hands and try to hold on to. Miles Taylor, the former Homeland Security official and author of the 2018 Anonymous op-ed in the Times, tells us he's had it! He has quit the Republican Party ––-says the GOP can't be saved.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/miles-taylor-quits-republican-party_n_628465f2e4b04353eb0acb73
And the question is can we?
Oh yeah, and one more thing…
After reading that Creampuff Casper Merrick Garland has awoken from his dogmatic slumber (thanks to David Hume for that great line), the dogma being nothing can be done about anything until Trump and his merry band of quislings and conspirators walk into his office and confess, and the slumber being, well, you get it, I have made the decision to self-moratoriumize (if I may be so lexically bold) my reading habits concerning the January 6 committee.
They bring in the traitors and they’re all just gonna lie. Creampuff Casper will never do anything about it. And the traitors will survive and thrive to enjoy future treasonizing.
Fuggedaboutit. If I see a headline “Fatty Cuffed and His Fat Ass Indicted”, I’ll skim the piece, otherwise it’s making my brain hurt. Not to mention my heart.
THE SUPREME COURT'S HISTORY OF PROTECTING THE POWERFUL:
Laurence Tribe's exchange with Isaac Chotiner. One of the best interviewers I've come across–-no holds barred with this guy. Worth a read.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-supreme-courts-history-of-protecting-the-powerful
AK: Your "Creampuff Casper" might just surprise you. I want to believe his methods. albeit slow as molasses on johnny cake, will result in firm indictments producing a mighty sweet taste in the end. And for someone like me who has lost so much faith and lately cries at the least semblance of humanity, I cling onto this outcome like I cling onto the little bit of optimism I have left for this country's tender hooks' hold on democracy.
@Jeanne: Thanks for letting us know Mastriano's full name. Funny how it just fits him.
I made a poster for my friend Judy's bookstore:
If you're afraid that reading a BOOK
might change someone's THINKING,
then you're not afraid of BOOKS,
you're afraid of THINKING.
Now what governors does that bring to mind?
Data collected from democracy's black box suggests that human input from the likes of DeSantis, McConnell and the SCOTUS he created are responsible for democracy's nosedive.
While it has not made contact with the ground, democracy's fiery crash could come at any moment, killing all aboard.
PD,
I certainly hope you’re right. I just haven’t seen anything from Garland that prompts much enthusiasm. He seems like a decent chap, serious and well versed in the law, and he might have made a fine AG in the 70’s or 80’s, but we’re up against an existential threat these days, traitors, liars, thieves, racists, authoritarian haters of democracy, scam artists, con men, supporters of gun violence and insurrection. That’s right, the Republican Party.
Maybe slow and steady wins the race but the other side never plays by the rules and laughs at the law.
Maybe his molasses manners will drown (some of) those creeps, but the Boss Man will never be brought to justice.
Jeanne,
I wouldn’t want to be in line waiting for that Mastriano schmuck to sign autographs. I’d suggest he just write “Best of luck, the Asshole”. While not as descriptive, much quicker.
Ken,
The truly galling thing about this is that none of this crap is a surprise. The traitors have been out in the open about their goal of taking over the courts, killing voting rights, and choking out democracy. But Democrats, for years, have been pretending that they can work with these people, and have taken zero steps to defend the country against this planned takeover. Biden only figured this out last week, fer crisssakes! In the meantime, confederates have littered the road around the American Experiment with land mines. They’ve done it in broad daylight.and the press sez “Oh, isn’t that nice. Mitch McConnell is planting flowers. Whataguy.” Democrats say “Surely those aren’t REAL land mines.
Next thing you know, Gorsuch. Bart, and Barrett.
Akhilleus,
You're right. Democracy's box ain't black. It's fully transparent.
It's the data collectors, the voters and to a large degree the press, whose receptors are opaque.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/17/correction-officer-buffalo-shooting/
Send this to John Roberts who believes racism is no longer a problem, and cc all those liars and morons trying to paint the Buffalo murders as an anomaly.
I’m tempted to say “unbelievable” but that’s not the case.
Sheer genius.
Black Republican Senator Scott on abortion:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/5/17/2098502/-Sen-Tim-Scott-R-SC-says-Black-women-cannot-be-trusted-to-choose?detail=emaildkre
@Ken Winkes: Thanks, Ken. Really, I don't know what we silly girls would do if we didn't have so many wise gentlemen mansplaining why we aren't capable or deserving of making our own decisions.
In the meantime, I do recall that at least one female state legislator, and possible others in other states, introduced legislation banning vasectomies. Why, with the fevered rush to pass anti-abortion legislation, have anti-vasectomy bills not surfaced? Maybe Senator Tim can explain that to me, too.
One of the dimwittiest arguments against abortion is that often an unwanted pregnancy can produce a child who grows up to become a productive human being. Kathy Barnette, who lost the Pennsylvania Senate race, for instance, claims that she is the product of the rape of her mother when the mother was only eleven years old. And thank god that eleven-year-old child didn't have an abortion because then there would be no Kathy Barnette! Wait, wait! Every day, billions of potential good citizens are not conceived. Their potential parents never even met, much less got together in the Biblical way. Is that wrong, too? Why not order fertile women to try to conceive every damned day with every damned partner who lives down the block or in the next town? Or wherever? We live in a Christian nation, after all, and isn't there something in the Bible commanding folks to be fruitful & multiply?