There always seems like so much to do . . . and today is the dreaded task — laundry. At least I’ll get some exercise going down two flights of stairs to the basement and that will keep me warm! It has been very frosty the past 3 days — down to -6C (21F) at night. Generally, that is not cold to me but here on the coast, it is a very damp cold that cuts through to the bone. Today it is pouring rain! There is supposed to be sleet tonight, but we’ll have to wait to see how accurate the forecast is. When it is like this, my three cats love to crawl into bed with me at night. It sure does get crowded. I am going to a potluck supper at my church tonight so I’m getting this done early. My contribution will either be English Trifle or pie. Have a great weekend and I’ll be back tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:31 (average 6:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?
TC’s took me 4:01 (5:40 average). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Newsweek — “The floor of Congress is now going to look like an Islamic republic,” E.W. Jackson said on the radio show Urban Family Talk on Wednesday. “We are a Judeo-Christian country. We are nation rooted and grounded in Christianity and that’s that. And anybody that doesn’t like that, go live somewhere else.”
The pastor continued, adding: “It’s very simple. Just go live somewhere else. Don’t try to change our country into some sort of Islamic republic or try to base our country on Sharia law.”
Jackson’s remarks came in response to reports that Democrats were attempting to change legislation that bans the wearing of headscarves and hijabs on the floor of the House of Representatives. The proposal was made to accommodate incoming lawmaker Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, one of the first Muslim women to serve Congress in U.S. history along with Representative-elect Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. …
The proposed rule change was co-authored by Nancy Pelosi, the current House Minority Leader and likely the next speaker of the chamber when Democrats take back the majority in January. Along with the changes to the ban on headscarves, Democrats are also proposing rule changes to ban LGBTQ discrimination and the creation of an independent office to promote diversity when it comes to hiring House staffers.
A copy of his remarks as presented by Right Wing Watch .
While the rule change proposed by Democrats would exempt religious headwear, including yarmulkes, Jackson is outraged that it will be used to accommodate Ilhan Omar, a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf for religious reasons who was recently elected to Congress.
This man, although he holds a divinity degree, is not an authentic Christian. In the first amendment of the US Constitution, freedom of religion is guaranteed as is the call for the separation of church and state. Conservative evangelical pseudo Christians seem to think that if a person does not worship like they do, that person is impinging on their right to freedom of religion. Malarkey!!! This is not the first time that Jackson has stirred the pot. WWJD? The authentic Jesus would rebuke Jackson.
DC Report — You may recall that former FedEx Ground safety director and Chamber of Commerce favorite Scott Mugno was nominated by Trump in October 2017, has survived a Senate confirmation hearing and has been approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) committee (twice) on party-line votes. But Mugno’s nomination has never come to a final vote on the floor of the Senate.
Politico’s Morning Shift reminded us last week that the nomination of Mugno, as well as the nominations of Cheryl Stanton for the agency’s Wage and Hour Division, William Beach at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Gordon Hartogensis with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation continue to be mired in a fight over the confirmation of two Democratic favorites: Mark Gaston Pearce to be reconfirmed for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board and Chai Feldblum to be reconfirmed for a seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. …
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member of the HELP committee reemphasized last week that Democrats would continue to block the Labor Department nominees until the Senate confirms Pearce and Feldblum.
Click through for a Democrat strategy playing with the rules as they exist. Good play Democrats. As if EW Jackson isn’t enough, Senator Mike Lee is outraged with Feldblum’s reconfirmation to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, calling her a “threat to religious liberty and the institution of marriage.” There’s that religious liberty misnomer again.
National Law Journal — Some U.S. Supreme Court justices think “original understanding” is the “alpha and omega of every constitutional question,” Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday, but “there are other people on this bench who do not.” She and others indicated they would need more justification for throwing out a court-created doctrine in a case that has potential consequences for special counsel-related prosecutions. …
… counsel to Terance Gamble, an Alabama man who was convicted and sentenced in state and federal prosecutions for the same crime: felon in possession of a firearm. Gamble is asking the justices to overrule a 170-year-old doctrine that is known as the “separate sovereigns” exception to the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause. That clause prohibits more than one prosecution or punishment for the same offense.
Gamble’s case has drawn considerable attention because of its possible import for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and prosecutions of Russian interference in the 2016 election and involvement of the Trump campaign. Elimination of the separate sovereigns exception could bar states from pursuing certain prosecutions under their state laws. Mueller’s investigation did not come up during Thursday’s arguments.
If the exception was overruled, and a new precedent set (although as I understand from some of my reading, an exception can be made without setting a precedence under certain conditions, but don’t ask me what those conditions are as I cannot remember), this could mean that, for example, Trump could not be tried under federal laws and state laws, for example NY laws, for the same crime.
My Universe
Posted to Care2 HERE
21 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 08 December 2018”
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Breathtakingly beautiful lioness 5:40 [5:48]
Eagle 7:21 [5:40]
Newsweek – Sadly, anyone can be a vicious bigot. Being a victim of vicious bigotry does not prevent a person from turning the same kind of vitriol against another group.
DCR – Yes, that’s what passes for bipartisanship. I don’t fault Democrats; on the contrary, this position is a bold and necessary one. It is sad that this is the best we can do. But with Republicans acting like Republicans, we need to do everything we can to ensure the will of the people gets accomplished.
NLJ – I don’t think it’s necessary for us to remember the conditions under which an exception can be made without setting a precedent, because, if the Supreme Court decides to do so, they will make it clear in the decision that they are doing so and why. It is sad that Gamble, who has nothing to do with politics, has to suffer for the sake of Trump. I don’t know the facts in his case so I can’t opine what the court should do.
Universe – Yup, that’s what she said.
RESIST AND PERSIST !!!
Bigotry? I agree. However I expect better and more of a pastor. We should all lead by example, but pastor’s especially. But I suppose he is human.
“WWJD?”
WRT E.W. Jackson, I think one could make a good case for smiting.
Or driving out of the temple with a whip.
Good w/ that, too.
How about stoning . . . and not with cannabis either!
NW: Thank God, Pelosi (Dems), will change the atmosphere in the House. We don’t need white men dictating what a woman can wear or how to love either.
DCR: Good for the Dems!! WTG!!
Catoon: Aww…..
Going to the Christmas parade, in a few.. it’s not raining, but still wet, damp and cold. Hope you enjoy your church supper, Enjoy your evening, Thanks, Lynn.
Maybe we’ll see some Democrat backbone now!
Hope the parade was good and fun!
Newsweek: Well, these are the types of folks who will follow Dumpy into the fires of their imaginary hell!
DCR: I’m with the Dems, all the way.
NLJ: I do not, now anyway, need to see Trump prosecuted under both state and federal statutes, for the same crime, and, he’s probably chargeable for so many crimes, in so many jurisdictions, that if the full weight of “The Law” were to be brought against him, from possible charges of treason (federal) to collusion, to tax fraud, to who knows what, everybody will be able to get a piece. It might be like being drawn and quartered by the law itself!
My Universe: I do not want to be in the universe of terror that bird is probably in!!
Those cats do look hungry and focused don’t they!
Please don’t go out tonight if sleet is predicted, Lynn! There’s nothing more treacherous than sleet.
Big Yawn: 5:07
Heavy bird: 4:01
RWW: These are the gurgling sounds of right wing religious extremism in its death throes. Give over, Jackson, you’re outnumbered in the country and finally in the House.
DCR: So all these divisions have been flying by the seat of their pants for over a year, or is it two already, run by their former bosses or temporaries? And nobody much noticed? Perhaps they should be left to their own devices to 2020 then.
NLJ: I wonder if Mr. Terance Gamble realizes his future has been thrown in with that of Drumpf when he fought his way through the courts right up to SCOTUS. And while it may matter to Mr. Gamble a lot because there seems to be only one charge against him on the table, there could be so many different charges against Drumpf made that different states and federal institutes have to divide it all among them anyway.
MU: I’d hate to see the picture taken 2 seconds later. Those cats definitely have murder in their eyes.
I’ve been out and now back. Sleet is predicted for around midnight, give or take. But it is very wet right now and chilly.
I wish we could get some of that moisture here, even in the form of sleet (of course that’s easy for me to say, I seldom or never go out of the house), if it would build up our snowpack. What happened to our rivers last year was devastating, and it’s starting to look like it could happen again.Of course, we could still get snows in January, February, and March, and maybe heavy rains in March and April – that has happened – but just right now it’s scary.
Also BTW, I learned that at least in some places, meteorologists have a new term for when something is coming down but they either can’t classify whether it is snow, hail, sleet, water, whatever – or else it’s an un-analyzable combination: “P-type issues.”
Yeah, Trump has P-type issues too in Moscow!
Minus 6, YIKES i’d be dead!! ?
If you lived where it got that cold, you’d have learned to dress for it. You’d be fine. I’ve lived where it sometimes got to minus 40 (which BTW is the same in F and C) and I was fine. It was very dry there, though.
The coldest temps I have lived with is -75C (~ -103 F I think) including windchill. It only lasted a day and then it warmed up to -40C (-40 F). It was/is also very dry there so you don’t feel it the same. -6 was nothing, almost spring weather. Here on the coast, it is very wet so -6 cuts to the bone. But there is no doubt, you must dress appropriately.
Wow – I am now thoroughly impressed. Where was that?
Dawson Creek, BC . . . in the north of BC but that was an exceptional situation. -40C is the winter norm.
Perhaps if you went outside in shorts and a bikini top you might wish you were, but you’d be fine if you stayed indoors. Here we definitely dress for the weather with the exception of guys that wear shorts all year long and young ladies that wear very short skirts (my stepfather used to say they would have frozen ovaries.) and in a few cases, shorts. I always laugh at some getups — shot-shorts, knee high boots, bomber length winter jacket with hood and fur, and of course mittens.
Thanks all! Sorry I did not get to this yesterday — church went on longer than usual.