Sep 092021
 

Yesterday, I changed the ink cartridge in my printer, wich enabled me to print out instructions to do something else which I hadn’t beeen able to accomplish because I couldn’t see the instructions and the screens I was supposed to be performing them on at the same time. I still haven’t accomplished it … but I’m getting closer. Incidentally, I do apologize for not mentioning Rosh Hashanah until now when it’s over. But for those who celebrate, I do hope it was happy. And there are other occasions coming soon to observe.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

AP News – Shadow docket Supreme Court decisions could affect millions
Quote – Since Aug. 24, that truncated process known as the shadow docket has moved at astronomical speed, producing decisions related to immigration, COVID-19 and evictions and, most recently, abortion. Those three decisions, with the conservative wing of the court in the majority, have the potential to affect millions of people, in a fraction of the time and outside the normal scrutiny signed opinions can bring. “My memory is, typically, if the Supreme Court was acting in July and August, it was really that quintessential emergency appeal, dealing with something like a death penalty situation. It wasn’t like: What is immigration law going to be in our country? It wasn’t: Will tenants have certain rights? It wasn’t the big substantive questions,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School.
Click through for details.

The Hill – Texas abortion law roils businesses
Quote – Still, as of Tuesday afternoon, only a handful of companies have spoken out against the law. Corporate America has mostly remained silent, despite its vocal opposition to Texas’s restrictive voting bill that was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) Tuesday. “It’s not surprising because this is harder than a number of other issues,” said Sandra Sucher, a professor of management at Harvard Business School. “Abortion is particularly contentious because we know that it relates to people’s religious views, which is kind of a no-go zone for companies.”
Click through for full story.

The New Yorker (Borowitz) – Abbott Considering Other Measures to Prevent People from Ever Setting Foot in Texas
Quote – Although he acknowledged that new laws banning most abortions, restricting voting, and allowing citizens to carry a gun without a permit or training would dissuade many from visiting Texas, Abbott said that “there’s more we can do…. Just spitballing here, but what if we mandated that every visitor to Texas got bitten by a dog or poked with a stick of some kind?” he said. “I’ll be damned if that wouldn’t do the trick.”
Click through for the reat. Andy doing straight news again.

Food for Thought –

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  10 Responses to “Open Thread for September 9, 2021”

  1. You might already have tried it and it didn’t meet your needs, but from at least Windows 7 on there’s a built-in Magnifier App available that works pretty well.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/use-magnifier-to-make-things-on-the-screen-easier-to-see-414948ba-8b1c-d3bd-8615-0e5e32204198#ID0EBBF=Windows_7

    In the Settings you can change the length and height of the lens (or make it full-screen), and from the dashboard/toolbar (or keyboard shortcuts) you can +/- the magnification.  And you can still click on the links in the lens – and it will work.

    The only thing I dislike is that while you can minimize the the toolbar, the magnifier itself remains.  So either it’s active all the time or you have delete it.

    I got this Rosh Hashanah greeting from my best friend in medical school, and shared it w/ Mitch (although I think he said he’s not an overly devout Jew – but he got a kick out of it):

    About that Rosh Hashanah tradition of dipping a slice of Apple in Honey …

    Shadow docket Supreme Court decisions could affect millions

    And probably NOT in a good way!

    The term “Shadow Docket” was first coined by U of Chicago law professor William Baude in 2015 (although had been in use prior to that).  From his seminal paper:

    Supreme Court Term provides an occasion to look beyond the Court’s merits cases to the Court’s shadow docket — a range of orders and summary decisions that defy its normal procedural regularity. 

    I make two claims: First, many of the orders lack the transparency that we have come to appreciate in its merits cases. Some of those orders merit more explanation, and should make us skeptical of proposals to personalize the Court.
    Second, I address summary reversal orders in particular.  As a general matter, the summary reversal has become a regular part of the Supreme Court’s practice. But the selection of cases for summary reversal remains a mystery. This mystery makes it difficult to tell whether the Court’s selections are fair. 

    https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1961&context=public_law_and_legal_theory

    Sadly, we are now cursed with a majority of SCOTUS justices nominated by Republican presidents who didn’t even win a majority of the votes (Bush [50,456,002] vs. Gore [50,999,897] yet Bush was able to nominate Roberts & Alito) and (Trump [62,984,828] vs. Clinton [65,853,514] yet Trump was able to nominate Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett) …

    Then confirmed by a majority of Senators representing a very SMALL MINORITY of Americans:

    For example, L.A. County alone has a population of over 10 million. That’s more than the combined population of 10 entire states. Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming together have a total population of just over 9 million.

    http://metrocosm.com/election-2016-map-3d/

    And the TWO Dakotas combined represent FEWER people than the island of Manhattan – yet they get FOUR Senators ….

    https://libredd.it/r/MapPorn/comments/bqkgkv/comparing_the_population_of_the_dakotas_and/eo5fayk

    And yet they overturn a procedure (abortion) that is supported by a significant majority of Americans.

    https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/06/about-six-in-ten-americans-say-abortion-should-be-legal-in-all-or-most-cases/

    WRT the Texas’ SB 8 abortion-prevention law ruling, it was deliberated on for LESS than three days, had NO oral arguments, and the “majority” opinion was UNSIGNED and LESS than ONE paragraph long!

    If this tyranny by a minority of fascist right-wing republicans overturning rulings favored by a majority of Americans is allowed to continue, our nation will not be able to survive!

    So if you’re wondering how the Taliban will be governing in Afghanistan, take a look at Texas!

    Texas abortion law roils businesses

    We can hope it will have an impact!

    Abbott Considering Other Measures to Prevent People from Ever Setting Foot in Texas

    I suggest they change all those welcoming billboards at the state line to …

    • I do use that magniier a lot.  I have not tried it full screen (I have considerably widened it though) and I ceertainly have not tried it without the toolbar.  It works well for me most of the time, but it didn’t work for this because of all the overlapping.  I’m still not using 10 (still on 8.1) but I have noticed there are two ways to close it, and one doesn;t require the toolbar.  When it’s on, on the left of the screen, just under half way up, there’s a small magnifying glass with >> in its lens.  Clicking on that brings up its controls also.  I don’t know for a fact that they kept that in 10, but I don’t know why throy wouldn’t.

      The greeting is priceless!

      And thanks for that rant.  It is exceedingly righteous.  You might think about making it a diary at Daily Kos.  I’d llike permission to make it an OP (‘original post”) at Democratic Underground myself.

      • You most certainly have my permission to use my “rant” at DU.  (Although I do hope you tighten up a bit – it’s pretty rambling.  And please, no attribution necessary!)

  2. Hope that you have a good day, take care, and Thank you, Joanne for post.

    Cartoon: A great day!
    AP: Unfortunately, we have a conservative majority with SCOTUS. Boy, what a bummer! 
    The Hill: I’ve read that those in TX who want to get an abortion must get transportation and go to another state. How most unfortunate for those women, and those who have a hard time  getting there, and the cost. Sad! 
    NYer: Funny, not funny. AB spot on for those comments though. 
    FFT: Gawd, so true! 
    TJI:  “A gun shouldn’t have more rights than a girl.” ~ George Takei ~
    2. “Today marks the 1,000th day Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig have spent in arbitrary detention by the People’s Republic of China. The United States stands with our ally Canada in calling for their immediate and unconditional release.” ~ Wendy Sherman, DepSecState ~
    3. “My question: How are you going to get Democrats to agree on the reconciliation bill tied to infrastructure? President Biden smiled and said: “The sun is going to come out tomorrow.” ~ Yamiche Alcindor~

    4. “The New Math for AG Merrick Garland to use: 18 USC §§ 241 & 242 (KKK Act) + 18 USC §248 (FACE Act)+ 42 USC §§1983 & 1985 (Civil Rights Act) + 28 USC §1651 (All Writs Act) = counter-deterrent to TX SB-8.” ~ Lawrence Tribe ~
    5. “I’ll donate $5,000 to the charity of their choice of any investigative reporter who finds out who paid off Brett Kavanaugh’s $200,000 credit card debts and $92,000 country club fee.” ~ Jon Cooper~
    5.1 ” will add $50,000 to this.” ~ Don Winslow ~
    6. “Should we let millions of children grow up in poverty to protect offshore tax loopholes for the largest corporations? Should we allow climate change to devastate middle class and working families?My answer is no. That’s why I’m fighting to pass my Build Back Better Agenda.” ~ President Joe Biden ~

    • EXTRA TJI
      – 18 hours ago…
      WE’RE GO FOR SURGERY!
      “The surgery to remove the benign tumor at the base of my brain is set for Friday October 1st.Being only 3 weeks away and 3 days after my upcoming book launch, life is going to get crazy here but I’m feeling good and looking forward to beginning recovery!We have a great team of doctors, a good plan, and a wonderful group of family, friends, and this virtual community around us—and I am feeling grateful.People have been asking how they can support us from a distance. Honestly, in addition to positive thoughts, kind words/prayers, supporting the book would be huge, as I expected to be spending October promoting it—and that ain’t gonna happen! So appreciate you all.”
      Thank You!
      ~ John Pavlovitz ~ 

    • TJI #1 – For shizzle.
      TJI #2 – I should hope so!
      TJI #3 – If anyone can do it, it’s Joe.
      TJI #4 – I have a video, which will be up tomorrow (there’s been a lot available this week) explaining the first case Lawrence Tribe pled before the Supremem Court, and how it revolved around a State law (Massachusetts then) deputizing a non-government actor to make state decisions – and how uncostitutional that is. I haven’t looked up the references, but I’s guess that may be what he’s talking about.
      TJI #5 – Well, that’s nice … but a bounty shouldn’t be needed. This should be getting aggressively investigated anyway.
      TJI #6 – Well said.

  3. Cartoon: Great day.
    AP: Doesn’t sound good at all. Especially after reading what Nameless mentioned makes it even more questionable?
    The Hill: Glad to see a lot of businesses are standing up for Women Rights regarding the Texas adoration ban. I’ve been signing a bunch of surveys. Plus now seeing that the DOJ is suing them, we’ll see what becomes of that.
    NY: Good one Andy.
    Food for Thought: Shameful. Don’t understand women one bit.
    Glad you got your printer ink all taken care of. I can relate to sometimes not being able to read the print size etc. Will have to check out the magnifier that Nameless was mentioning. 
    Hope the rest of your day was pleasant for you.
    It was in the 90’s here and suppose to get warmer for the next few days. 
    Take care. Thanks Joanne

  4. If you have an old monitor somewhere in the attic/basement/cupboard, hook it up to your PC/laptop and run on two screens, Joanne.  It’ll save you time switching from one window to the next when doing research and copying for PP and you can “see the instructions and the screens I was supposed to be performing them on at the same time”.

    AP: We all knew that having a large conservative majority in the Supreme Court, which should be un-partisan, unbiased and objective, was going to be dreadful for both legislation and democracy. But now the conservative justices are accepting these shadow dockets as emergencies, turning the whole juridical process into a farce, allowing them not to do their job and forcing the liberal members to sit on their hands. This is unconscionable and unconstitutional.

    TH: Strange isn’t it? Those companies who do not dare to speak up against this insane abortion legislation because of “religion”, when those religious maintain they are the ones persecute for it. They force their religious views down the throats of Texan women while claiming persecution when someone disagrees. And then have the nerve to condemn the Taliban for enforcing their religious views on the Afghan people.

    TNY: Should there be anyone left who’d want to come in, Abbott’s suggestions would certainly prevent that. But what are his plans to keep Texans from fleeing and turn Houston and Austin into ghost towns after the brain drain, Andy?

    FFT: And soon some law will make the men chose the best gun for their female folk

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