Glenn Kirschner – Georgia grand jury report re: Trump’s election crimes concludes witnesses lied, recommends charges.
Farron Balanced – Trump Lawyer Offers Dumbest Explanation Ever For Stolen Classified Document Folder
Really American – Chip Franklin SKEWERS Donald Trump for his obsession with public execution.
Brent Terhune – Satanic Ritual at the Grammys
Abandoned Lamb Runs To Human Mom
Beau – Let’s talk about Ohio, trains, coverage, and a lack of answers….
Yesterday, the sun was shining and the temperature got up to the mid-40’s, so I was able to get to the mailbax and get my package and a letter from Virgil with some paperwork. He wanted me to see it because he didn’t understand it, and he wasn’t able to explain it to me on the phone. In all honesty, i don’t know how much of his failure to understand it was because he didn’t want to. It was the results of his parole board hearing from fall of 2022. That was either his second or third hearing, and he was turned dow (again) for exactly the reasons I keep telling him about – and which, when we discuss them, he admits I’m right. The bottom line is that, between his old head injuries, his years as an active alcoholic, now the incipient dementia, and I think there must be at least a little bit of not wanting to, he does not have the discipline to create a parole plan which would satisfy the board. (And if he did, he would not have the discipline to carry it out.) That’s the bottom line. On acount of his age they also looked at types of special release programs, so it isn’t like they are not trying. However, before he can qualify for consideration for that he must have served 20 years or more, and he doesn’t have quite 12 years yet. Also, they note that what his physical and mental issues are do not fall into a category such that they cannot adequately care for him. He doesn’t need heavy pain meds, or MRIs,or any kind of treatment which requires special equipment or special knowledge. They are actuall better positioned to care for him than I would be – their staff doesn’t have mobility or energy issues (it’s a full time job for me to take care of myself). There is actually nothing in these documents which I haven’t gone over with him before, multiple times. And I expect to be going over it multiple times again. He might be able to remember it if he wanted to – or he might not – but he doesn’t, so he won’t.
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Short Takes –
Mother Jones – Meet the Religious Crusaders Fighting for Abortion Rights
Quote – If state courts don’t grant the plaintiffs relief, their decisions may indicate a judicial bias in which the freedom to exercise one’s chosen religion only applies if it is congruent with the court’s religious preference. On the flip side, if courts judge these religious freedom cases in a manner consistent with how the US Supreme Court has been interpreting other religious freedom cases in recent years, the lawsuits could roll back some of the nation’s harshest abortion restrictions in the states where they are being argued, and serve as an instructive guide for religious groups in other states to follow. “If the recent understanding of free exercise holds,” Micah Schwartzman, a constitutional law professor at the University of Virginia, tells Mother Jones, “I think there are really powerful claims in these abortion cases.”
Click through for full story. Frankly, it bothers me that decent people need to cite their – our – religious beliefs in order to bring decency to government. GFovernment should have no truck with any religious beliefs – those are personal. But if we must fight fire with fire, then we must.
The Nib – The Black Radical You’ve Never Heard Of
Quote – In his 1884 book “Black and White,” [T. Thomas] Fortune railed against the concentration of wealth as the enemy to black and white laborers alike. “I am opposed to aristocracies and so-called privileged classes, because they are opposed to the masses. they make inequalities, out of which grow all the miseries of society, because there is no limit to their avarice, parsimony, and cruelty.”
Click through for full graphic. I certainly had never heard of him. Has anyone? Maybe it’s time we did.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – DOJ won’t charge Matt Gaetz for alleged sex-trafficking: how fed prosecutors make charging decisions
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – February 14, 2023
Thom Hartmann – Is Neo-Fascism Taking Over America?
Rocky Mountain Mike – Bang Bang (Joe Biden Shot It Down) – Featuring Mary in Ann Arbor
Feral Cat Hated Everyone Until She Fell In Love With Another Kitty
Beau – Let’s talk about McConnell pushing Scott out there…
Yesterday, when I checked around noon, the sun was bright, and a ggod deal of snow had melted, although the temperaure had not yet reach freezing (and would not all day.) I would have had a dry path from my door to the driveway, but not all the way to the mailbox. So the small package which was delivered Tuesday had to wait. Freezing temperatures shouldn’t hurt it as long as it’s dry. Also, it occurred to me that tday, February 17, is my PEBD (Pat will remember that acronym.) In plain English, it’s the day I signed the contract which both entitled and obliged me to report to Officer Candidate School to learn to be a Marine officer. The acronym stands for “Pay Entry Base Date,” I took my oath that day, and all my pay raises based on longevity went into effect that day in whatever year. And that original day was 57 years ago this year. Amazing. One more thing – I doubt anyone missed thepartial release of the Special Grand Jury report in Georgia, but just in case, here it is.
Cartoon – 17 0217Cartoon.jpg
Short Takes –
The 19th News – An Oklahoma judge just transferred a lesbian mom’s parental rights to her son’s sperm donor
Quote – Legal experts warn that the case could have substantial implications for marriage equality nationwide. Advocates battled a number of cases to enshrine same-sex marriage protections after the Supreme Court granted those rights nationwide in 2015. Among those fights was the right of parentage. The 2015 Supreme Court case Pavan v. Smith found that it was unconstitutional to treat queer couples differently than heterosexual couples when it came to presuming parentage. If married heterosexual couples were presumed to be parents of children born during their marriage, the same must be true for LGBTQ+ couples. However, laws vary state to state.
Click through for story. This case is so unusual I would hope it would not be much of a precedent – but with MAGAts you never know.
Letters from an American – February 12, 2023
Quote – On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Exactly 100 years later, journalists, reformers, and scholars meeting in New York City deliberately chose the anniversary of his birth as the starting point for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)…. The spark for the organization of the NAACP was a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, on August 14 and 15, 1908. The violence broke out after the sheriff transferred two Black prisoners, one accused of murder and another of rape, to a different town out of concern for their safety.
Click through for full letter. The NAACP is still around; over a hundred years later, it is needed as much as it has ever been.
Food For Thought
Just one from a remarkable set of photos – Five-year-old girl recreates photos of influential black women.
From Euronews.next. By Camille Bello & Laura Llach
Spain has just passed a law allowing those with especially painful periods to take paid “menstrual leave” from work, in a European first.
The bill approved by Parliament on Thursday is part of a broader package on sexual and reproductive rights that includes allowing anyone 16 and over to get an abortion or freely change the gender on their ID card.
The law gives the right to a three-day “menstrual” leave of absence – with the possibility of extending it to five days – for those with disabling periods, which can cause severe cramps, nausea, dizziness and even vomiting.
The leave requires a doctor’s note, and the public social security system will foot the bill.
The law states that the new policy will help combat the stereotypes and myths that still surround periods and hinder women’s lives.
Equality Minister Irene Montero, an outspoken feminist in the leftwing government, hailed “a historic day of progress for feminist rights”.
“There will be resistance to its application, just as there has been and there will be resistance to the application of all feminist laws,” she told parliament.
“So we have to work (…) to guarantee that when this law enters into force, it will be enforced”.
“The days of (women) going to work in pain are over,” Montero said last year when she unveiled her government’s proposal.
But the road to Spain’s menstrual leave has been rocky. Politicians – including those within the ruling coalition – and trade unions have been divided over the policy, which some fear could backfire and stigmatise women in the workplace.
Worldwide, menstrual leave is currently offered only in a small number of countries including Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Zambia.
Italy flirted with the idea in 2016, proposing a bill that would have given three fully paid days off to workers who obtained medical certificates, but the proposal failed to progress before the parliamentary term ran out in 2018.
“It’s such a lightning rod for feminists,” Elizabeth Hill, an associate professor at the University of Sydney who has extensively studied menstrual leave policies worldwide, told Euronews Next.
The debates around menstrual are often intense, she said, with concern focused on whether such a policy can help or hinder women.
“Is it liberating? Are these policies that recognise the reality of our bodies at work and seek to support them? Or is this a policy that stigmatises, embarrasses, is a disincentive for employing women?”
According to the Spanish Gynaecology and Obstetrics Society, around a third of women who menstruate suffer from severe pain known as dysmenorrhea.
Symptoms include acute abdominal pain, diarrhoea, headaches and fever.
Some Socialists have voiced concern a menstrual leave could backfire against women by discouraging employers from hiring them.
“In the long term, it may be one more handicap that women have in finding a job,” Cristina Antoñanzas, deputy secretary of the UGT, a leading Spanish trade union, told Euronews Next when the draft bill was first unveiled.
“Because we all know that on many occasions we have been asked if we are going to be mothers, something that must not be asked and that men are not asked. Will the next step be to ask us if we have period pains?”
Spain’s other main trade union, Comisiones Obreras, has supported the idea of menstrual leave. But it has raised concerns over the details of the policy, and whether women would have to prove they suffer from a condition known to worsen period pain – such as endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome – to claim this menstrual leave.
“How many women are we leaving out?” Carolina Vidal, its confederal secretary for Women, Equality and Working Conditions, told Euronews Next last year.
“In many, many cases periods become unbearable and disabling, but they are not considered illnesses”.
In the end, it will be up to doctors to judge whether the pain is disabling and also how many days of sick leave would be needed.
The law states the right to a “three-day medically supervised leave, with the ability to extend to five, for those with disabling periods: severe pain, cramps, cramping, nausea, dizziness and vomiting that some women suffer every cycle”.
Menstrual leave is part of sweeping new legislation introducing new reproductive rights. Under the new laws, Spain will also roll out free feminine hygiene products in certain public facilities, such as educational institutions and prisons.
When it was first unveiled last year, the draft bill also aimed to scrap or slash VAT on specific feminine hygiene products. That provision was ultimately left out but is expected to be revived in the government’s next general budget review.
Teenagers as young as 16 will now be allowed to seek an abortion in any public hospital without needing their parent’s or legal guardian’s consent.
The law also includes a new paid prepartum leave from the 36th week of pregnancy up to the moment of birth, the provision of free contraceptives and the morning-after pill, as well as the prohibition of surrogacy, declaring the practice a form of violence against women.
I posted this article to show how rapidly things can change in a nation in the hope that changes in the opposite direction will be of a very short-lived nature and common sense will prevail in America.
Spain dropped the fascist yoke that it acquired in 1936 under Franco as late as 1973, but it continued under the stringent rules of the Catholic Church, which had supported Franco in a close relationship, even though it was abolished as the state religion in 1978. However, like Ireland, Spain became more secular over time and now only about one-third of Catholics in Spain are practising members of the church. This led abortion to be decriminalised in 1985 and further liberalised in 2010. With these additional laws, Spain has transformed into one of the most progressive countries in Europe.
Glenn Kirschner – Mike Pence will fight a grand jury subpoena to testify about Trump’s election crimes, & he will lose
Twitter – Shannon Watts. It was just a matter of time before there was a two-time survivor.
A survivor of the Sandy Hook School mass shooting in 2012 is a student at Michigan State University: “I am 21-years-old and this is the second mass shooting I’ve lived through. We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent.” pic.twitter.com/Jcafl57tmZ
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) February 14, 2023
Thom Hartmann – Biden’s Shocking Net Worth Revealed!
Liberal Redneck – Ohio Train Derailment and Corporate Greed
Brent Terhune – Chinese Spy Balloon
Pittie Begs His Mom To Keep A Pittie Puppy Half His Size
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump’s laptop problem….
Yesterday, yes, the ground was white. And the sun was shining. And the snow which was being predicted for this time next week had disappeared from the forecast. Just another day in Colorado weather. Also, I learned that Sarah Silverman is a contender to be the new host of The Daily Show. Apparently, in her first “Guest host” appearance, she skewered Fox (among other things.)
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Robert Reich – The death of shame
Quote – Shame once reenforced social norms. Through most of human history, survival depended on extended families, clans, and tribes. To be shamed and ostracized for violating the common good often meant death. Charles Darwin, in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, thought shame may have evolved as a way to maintain social trust necessary for the survival of a group and, therefore, of its members…. But today, shamelessness has gained a certain elan. Audacity, insolence, and impudence are welcomed. Irreverence is celebrated. We hoot when someone gives society the bird. Many Americans love Donald Trump’s loutishness.
Click through for full opinion. I remember during the eighties some psychologists working with addiction decided that shame was a contribuying factor to addicton, and encouraged and facilitated eliminating it. I don’t remember ever being comfortable with that. Certainly what anthropologists call a guilt culture is more advanced than a shame culture – but for a guilt culture to work, a sufficient number of its members must be ethically advanced enough to accept responsibility. When has that ever happened, outside of a few small, self-selected communities?
CPR News – What one ‘red flag’ case in Denver says about how the city removes guns
Quote – The first time John walked into Richard’s townhome he found a night-vision scope pointed at the door. The place was littered with pistols and rifles. There was a trip-wire attached to shotgun and flash-bang shells. Soon, Richard started showing off a pistol — pulling back the slide and trying to chamber a round — all while pointing the barrel at John. The family had always been familiar with guns and John himself is a concealed carry permit holder. Still, he was alarmed. “Very alarmed,” John explained. “Anybody would’ve been.” Richard had recently shot his own computer with one of his pistols, his brother said. And he had previously made “vague implied threats” to the board of his homeowners’ association, though no one had wanted to file criminal charges, according to court records.
Click through for details. Note that this is specifically about Denver. You cannot assume this transfers to all of Colorado. Too many Sheriffs, including mine, have refused to enforce red flaglaws. When you see on the map which accompanies the story that there have been enforcements in El Paso County, assume that they have occurred within the City of Colorado Springs rather than in any unincorporated portion of the county, such as where my home is.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – New ruling by Georgia judge brings Donald Trump one step closer to being indicted for Georgia crimes
Sen. Whitehouse Joins Lawrence O’Donnell to Discuss Supreme Court Ethics
Politicsgirl Enough of the Lies
The Ring of Fire – Lauren Boebert Loses Her Mind During Twitter Hearing
Rescued Kitten Becomes One Of The Girls
Beau – Let’s talk about something that didn’t happen in Baltimore….