The Conversation -- November 5, 2023
Now, Class, Today's English Language Lesson, according to Merriam-Webster, via George Conway, via RAS: ~~~
TRUMPERY: "Trumpery derives from the Middle English trompery and ultimately from the Middle French tromper, meaning 'to deceive.' (You can see the meaning of this root reflected in the French phrase trompe-l'oeil-literally, 'deceives the eye' - which in English refers to a style of painting with photographically realistic detail.) Trumpery first appeared in English in the mid-15th century with the meanings 'deceit or fraud' (a sense that is now obsolete) and 'worthless nonsense.' Less than 100 years later, it was being applied to material objects of little or no value. The verb phrase trump up means 'to concoct with the intent to deceive,' but there is most likely no etymological connection between this phrase and trumpery." M-W's list of synonyms is great, BTW, and anyone who wishes to refer to The Former Guy as "President* Codswollop" will be understood here.
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Liz Goodwin & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: House Speaker Mike Johnson's "opening moves have set him on a collision course with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), as both Republican leaders simultaneously struggle to manage their own fractious conferences.... McConnell -- an 81-year-old Republican of a different political generation than Johnson, 51, with a reputation for fiercely pursuing party goals -- has in recent years broken with orthodoxy and sided with President Biden and the Senate Democratic majority on key domestic and international priorities. McConnell and much of his conference hope to pass bipartisan bills to fund the government and send aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan to defend their democracies.... The new speaker suggested that if the Senate sends back an Israel aid bill that does not include spending cuts, he won't put it on the floor.... The bill, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says would add to the deficit, has been declared dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The suggestion here is that Joe Biden's generosity has turned the Turtle into a fair-minded conservative. Two more miracles, Joe, and you're a candidate for sainthood.
Mike Johnson, Christianist Phony. Michael Kranish & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "For more than a year, [Mike] Johnson -- the dean of [a] not-yet-opened [Christian] law school -- had been telling donors and the public that the institution, which would focus on training Christian attorneys in northwest Louisiana, was not only achievable, but inevitable. 'From a pure feasibility standpoint,' Johnson ... told the local Town Talk newspaper in 2010 after becoming dean, 'I'm not sure how this can fail because ... it looks like the perfect storm for our law school.' But he had still not actually seen a feasibility study commissioned by the parent school, Louisiana College, a private Southern Baptist college in Pineville, La., now known as Louisiana Christian University.... Six months later, in August 2012, Johnson resigned as dean of the new school, which never opened even though the college spent $5 million to buy and renovate a Shreveport headquarters.... The feasibility study was a 'hodgepodge collection of papers,' with 'nothing in existence' related to the need for the new law school, market studies, or 'funding sources and prospects,' Johnson wrote the following year, describing the episode in what he called a 'confidential memorandum' responding to questions from the Louisiana College Board of Trustees[.]" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Let me just say here that any legislator who thinks this is a "Christian nation" cannot uphold his oath of office because s/he doesn't understand the U.S. Constitution or the history of a country that was founded at least partially on the premise of separation of church and state.
Presidential Race 2024. Trump Cult Members Heckle GOP Presidential Candidates. Myah Ward of Politico: "A combative Chris Christie was loudly booed as soon as he took the stage and throughout his remarks at the Florida Freedom Summit in Kissimmee, as Trump maintains his dominance in the state amid a string of fresh endorsements. Before the former New Jersey governor had his time at the podium, Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, faced similar jeering when he evoked Trump&'s legal troubles. Even Vivek Ramaswamy was heckled -- the crowd chanting 'Trump' -- when he said the GOP needs a younger, non-traditional nominee."
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Indiana. Maria Paul of the Washington Post: "Shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) accused a doctor who had helped a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio terminate her pregnancy of being an 'abortion activist' with 'a history of failing to report' similar procedures to state officials. Those comments, which Rokita made about OB/GYN Caitlin Bernard during a July 2022 appearance on Fox News, amounted to 'attorney misconduct,' the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday. According to the opinion, Rokita violated two state professional conduct rules by making a statement that 'had a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding and had no substantial purpose other than to embarrass or burden the physician.' As a result, the court publicly reprimanded Rokita in a six-page decision and ordered him to pay $250 to the clerk of the court. As part of a settlement agreement between Rokita and the court's disciplinary commission, Indiana's top prosecutor had to admit to the violations." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Doesn't appear Rokita learned his lesson. In comments to the Post, he defended his remarks & said the court forced his "admission," which therefore is no admission at all. The court at least should fine him again.
Maine. Colby Edmonds & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The gunman who fled after killing 18 people and injuring 13 others at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, last month was most likely alive during much of the sprawling two-day manhunt that had forced thousands of residents throughout the region to remain in their homes. The assailant, Robert R. Card II, 40, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound eight to 12 hours before his body was found in a trailer at a recycling plant where he once worked, the Maine medical examiner's office said on Friday.... The time estimate suggests that the lockdown in and around Lewiston was justified."
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Israel/Palestine
The Washington Post's live updates of developments in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah on Sunday to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, marking the highest-level visit by a U.S. official to the West Bank since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack. Blinken's previously unannounced trip came amid discussions about the future of Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007. Blinken told a Senate hearing last month that 'an effective and revitalized' Palestinian Authority would be the best-placed entity to administer Gaza and eventually be responsible for its security. But the group has long been seen as out of touch and irrelevant by many Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here. CNN's live updates are here.
Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "Barack Obama offered a complex analysis of the conflict between Israel and Gaza, telling thousands of former aides that they were all 'complicit to some degree' in the current bloodshed. He urged his former aides to 'take in the whole truth,' seemingly attempting to strike a balance between the killings on both sides. 'What Hamas did was horrific, and there's no justification for it,' Mr. Obama said. 'And what is also true is that the occupation and what's happening to Palestinians is unbearable.'"
New York Times: "... tens of thousands of demonstrators crowded the streets of American cities on Saturday to denounce the scope and scale of Israel's military campaign in Gaza in response to last month's terrorist assault by Hamas. The day's protests, within sight of the seats of American power in Washington but also in places like New York, Nashville, Cincinnati, Las Vegas and even Orono, Maine, extended and amplified demands for a cease-fire and an end to the siege in Gaza. The demonstrations came a week after vast protests in Asian and European capitals, and a day after the Israeli government appeared to rebuff the United States' call for 'humanitarian pauses' in the bombardment."
Edith Lederer of the AP: "The average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour the United Nations had stockpiled in the region, yet the main refrain now being heard in the street is 'Water, water,' the Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday. Thomas White, who said he traveled 'the length and breadth of Gaza in the last few weeks,' described the place as a 'scene of death and destruction.' No place is safe now, he said, and people fear for their lives, their future and their ability to feed their families." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Seems to me a rational person with no skin in the game would say, "This is not working. Bombing people to death, starving the survivors or letting them die of thirst is not going to win any hearts & minds. Maybe we should try something different, like rounding up the Hamas fighters, trying them as the terrorists we say they are, and doing all we can to make life paradise on earth for the rest of people of Gaza." Sometimes there is no choice but to go to war; given the history, this does not seem to be one of them.
Ukraine, et al., Andrew Kramer & Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "The office of President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday chastised Ukraine's top military commander for publicly declaring the war at a stalemate, suggesting the comments would help the Russian invasion. It was a striking public rebuke that signaled an emerging rift between the military and civilian leadership at an already challenging time for Ukraine. Speaking on national television, a deputy head of the office of the president, Ihor Zhovkva, said Gen. Valery Zaluzhny's assertion that the fight against Russia was deadlocked 'eases the work of the aggressor,' adding that the comments stirred 'panic' among Ukraine's Western allies."
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Reader Comments (11)
Trump's latest speech (make that latest rant) in Florida, in part:
"for four years we had no terror, we put in a terror ban, we did things
that nobody's ever done before, we had no problems for four years."
Methinks he might be forgetting a few things that happened during
his four years in office, like ignoring Covid, raising the national
debt by about 8 trillion dollars, cozying up to a number of dictators,
leaking classified information and on and on.
But those Christians still say forgive and forget. Apparently they
mostly forget.
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1720937065896955983
Trumpery
The Guardian
"Virginia white voters’ mail-in ballots face fewer challenges, Democrats say
Ballots from voters of color are being flagged for rejection at much higher rates ahead of election day this month, party analysis says.
Statewide, 4.82% of ballots submitted by Black voters have been flagged for rejection as of Friday, compared with 2.79% for white voters, the party’s analysis showed."
It's a Sunday without a Sermon, so I borrowed this one:
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-founding-fathers-religious-wisdom/
I get so tired of this Christian Nation crap.
Johnson and his ilk are as poor a set of historians as those guys on the SCOTUS that RAS pilloried yesterday.
They just make stuff up.
In other words, they lie, despite lying being something that they've been told "thou shalt not..."
The Guardian article on VA ballot rejection does not explain how election officials know which voters are what race. Perhaps VA zip codes and precincts are so overwhelmingly populated by one or the other that they can make justifiable inferences by neighborhood?
Followup:
Had the same ?, Patrick...
and on Deism: Have always been partial to it. If one has to believe in some mysterious, over-arching power, Deism might be my choice, because it's essentially harmless.
If all were Deists, both the America and the Middle East we know would be far different....and much better.
That Obama guy makes so darn much sense, it's not wonder the Right hates him...
And this one should have been published on Halloween:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/politics/biden-trump-2024-poll.html
@Ken Winkes: You might be right. According to the Virginia Democratic party's press release, the party conducted a "precinct-level analysis," and it's likely the party knows the demographic make-up of each precinct.
However, this Black/white disparity is not a problem only in Virginia, as this 2020 ProPublica/WRAL (Raleigh, N.C.) News story attests. There's no suggestion in the story that the study was conducted at a precinct level, but it does suggest ProPublica and WRAL reporters interviewed mail-in voters whose ballots were rejected. So maybe their research was, you know, visual. It would be helpful if they had let on to their methodology.
The trouble with deism is that it relies more on rational thought and less on "belief" or "revelation" as the basis of proof of the existence of a god-creator. IOW, what can explain the creation of the universe if some deity did not do the work? But science seems to be getting in the way of the rational deist, as scientists come up with rather more rational theories of creation.
As for me, I'm a Pastafarian, and I have the hips to prove it.
Codswollop is a good one, but I'm partial to blatherskite and
taradiddle.
HokeyPokey is also good, but that's a dance we used to do back in
the day (many, many days ago).
@Forrest, you should try doing the Time Warp so as not to be chronologically constrained.