Thursday, I got a reply to my request for information on visitation. There’s no exemption for the pandemic to the rule that if you don’t visit for a year you have to start over with a new application. But I was provided with an email address, and I was prepared for that answer, so I emailed the application off as – actually, as three attachments – and got my email returned by the mail system. The error message included the phrase “too many hops,” and just in case that had anything to do with attachments, I started over with the app and credentials, got them into a single pdf, and re-sent – and got it back again. To make a long story shorter, yesterday I asked around, and part of the problem ended up being that DOC email addresses can’t read caps. Anyway, the application is at DOC now, and, since this is not my first rodeo, I’m confident it includes enough (possibly more than enough) information to sail through. And the DOC will notify me by email when it has.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-qanon-shaman-plea-negotiations-after-mental-health-diagnosis-lawyer-2021-07-23/
Reuters – Exclusive: ‘QAnon Shaman’ in plea negotiations after mental health diagnosis
Quote – In an interview, defense lawyer Albert Watkins said that officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons, or BOP, have diagnosed his client Jacob Chansley with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. The BOP’s findings, which have not yet been made public, suggest Chansley’s mental condition deteriorated due to the stress of being held in solitary confinement at a jail in Alexandria, Virginia, Watkins said. “As he spent more time in solitary confinement … the decline in his acuity was noticeable, even to an untrained eye,” Watkins said in an interview on Thursday. He said Chansley’s 2006 mental health records from his time in the U.S. Navy show a similar diagnosis to the BOP’s.
Click through for details. This is a situation of a type which explains why I don’t score a 9 or higher on being anti-authoritarian. The point of appealing to mental illness as mitigation is – though it’s seldom stated – the feeling we all share that a person should not be punished for something which is not, or not entirely, his fault. I feel that too. I feel it as a moral principle, not just as an emotional response. But the corollary is, if it is caused by a condition which is inseparable from the person, that person still meeds to be restrained somehow for the safety of the public. No, it shouldn’t be a prison. But – as, thanks to Ronald Reagan and other Republicans is currently the case in the US – prison is the only option, then prison it needs to be. Yes, we need to find better ways. But until and unless we do, that remains the hard truth.
Politico – Alabama governor says ‘it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks’ as pandemic worsens
Quote – [T]he remarks from the governor grew more pointed when she was pressed on what it would take for greater numbers of Alabamans to get their shots. “I don’t know. You tell me,” Ivey said. “Folks [are] supposed to have common sense. But it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”
Click through for more. Here’s proof there are still Repuiblicans who have not completely lost it. Just not enough of them. And they are still Republicans.
Daily Beast – Liz Cheney Is Saving Pelosi, the GOP, and Maybe America From Themselves {OPINION}
Quote – In applying this analogy to Jan. 6, Cheney represents one legitimate political worldview and Democrats represent the other. If Pelosi should name Rep. Adam Kinzinger—a Republican, Air Force veteran and member of the Air Force National Guard—to the select committee, as she is reportedly considering doing, she would be reinforcing this function and adding an additional check on Democrats who might be tempted to exploit the situation for their own political agenda. (And if you think Dick Cheney’s daughter is some sort of RINO now, that probably says a lot more about you than it does about her.)
Click through for his full argument. No, she’s not a hero. But I can respect a person who holds their beliefs with integrity, even if they are wrong. m And in this case – in this case – she is not wrong.
Food for Thought:
5 Responses to “Open Thread for July 24, 2021”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Reuters: IANAD, but I can empathize with his situation, considering placement is prison (for him) and it would be difficult for him. I don’t have the answer regarding his actions, or his history, but find it sad that he can’t go somewhere else for mental health assistance.
Politico: Shame that they can’t or won’t get the vaccine. Personally, if I knew that something would kill me..(COVID 19), I would get the shot to protect myself/family. Which we all did, and got both vaccines.
DB: Your last sentence says it all re: Ms. Cheney: Clap! Clap! Clap!!
FFT: Ugh! to Faux & Tucker Carlson!
Best to you in getting your request getting approved for visitation. Fingers crossed and prayers for you that all goes well. Thanks, Joanne for post.
This just in: TJI: Speaker Pelosi rejects Jim Banks and Jim Jordan from serving on the Jan. 6 select committee. ~ Jon Cooper ~ “Now call Jim Jorden as a witness in front of the committee.” ~ Aaron Parnas ~
2. “Investigating January 6 is a sober endeavor. One demanding good faith participation from both parties. Time after time, McCarthy has shown he is not up to that task. But we cannot allow him to derail our important work or appoint others who will. We will uncover the truth. ~ Adam Schiff ~
3. “We need to make sure that the guy that’s holding the gas can isn’t in charge of the arson case.” speaking about Jim Jorden being rejected by Nancy Pelosi. ~ Eric Swalwell ~
4. “Republicans are desperate to paint Mr. Swalwell as a compromised corrupt, privileged liar, but good news, he is not Don Jr.” ~ Mr. Newberger ~
5. “Bravo Lowe’s! Haven’t bought so much as a screw from Home Depot since Jan 2016!! ~ Janet M. ~
TJI #1 – Oh, yes indeed. Maybe not first, but definitely.
TJI #2 and 3 – Exact same sentiment, and both expressed so characteristically.
[NOTE: I misplaced this comment at another post, and then moved it here. It took over 15 minutes just to clean up all the formatting just to make it this legible. I don’t think I’ll try that again. I’ll just let it be.]
Hope your dealings w/ the DOC work out – sooner rather than later.
(Have you ever considered using a FREE FAX service online? Although they have some limitations on number of pages allowed and times per day you can use them, I’ve been very pleased with them.)
QAnon Shaman’ in plea negotiations after mental health diagnosis
A couple of observations WRT his lawyer’s comment:
“What we’ve done is we’ve taken a guy who is unarmed, harmless, peaceful … with a pre-existing mental vulnerability of significance, and we’ve rendered him a chocolate soup mess.”
Bless Alabama’s Gov. Kay Ivey’s heart! And I mean that in a GOOD way, not the usual southern way.
Liz Cheney Is Saving Pelosi, the GOP, and Maybe America
Well, I hope so!
I’ve been with efax for probably more than two decades. I don’t use it often, but they haven’t dropped me. My number is 208-485-1667. But I use my multi-function printer for outgoing. I’m on my third one of those now, but they’ve all worked well.
And WRT Chansley – if he weren’t a chocolate soup mess when he went into the prison he wouldn’t have been placed in solitary. They do that when someone is disruptive. But I grant that solitary can add cayenne pepper and maybe a little arsenic toa chocolate soup.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that your application is processed soon with the desired result and that you can visit Virgil soon too. A year is far too long.
Reuters: When scrutinised by professionals, most of the people who believed (still believe) QAnon and the former guy’s lies and let themselves be enraged enough by his speeches and those of his cronies to march to the Capitol and wreak havoc there on the building and those inside it, could come away with a mental disorder of sorts. And I’m sure many lawyers are already trying to get their clients off on some call on insanity. Where to draw the line when sentencing? Who is genuinely insane and who just has a very nasty vicious streak?
Politico: Governor Ivey may have shown some sense of reality here but nothing more. She doesn’t take it any further, take the matter in hand and try to get as many people fully vaccinated as possible. As long as she doesn’t do that, remarks like these are only made to boost her at the polls.
DB: Liz Cheney saving the world? C’mon, she’s Republican through and through but smart enough to see that continuing to bet on a losing horse isn’t going to work for the long electorate haul.
FFT: It is time Democrats realise it can, has and will again happen here. If the driving forces behind it aren’t indicted soon, it’ll happen sooner than they imagine.