Glenn Kirschner – Lindsey Graham’s ongoing legal tantrum, trying to avoid testifying about Trump’s Georgia crimes
The Lincoln Project – Liz Cheney: Flip or Skip
MSNBC – GONE VIRAL: The Political Ad Women Have Been Waiting For
Robert Reich – How Wealth Inequality Spiraled Out of Control
Shared from Twitter by In The Public Interest (ITPT) – How the Dutch built a tunnel under a highway in one weekend (No sound – the visual says it all.)
Beau – Let’s talk about spears and relief logistics…. (Beau was so hot on Monday that I am going to get a bit behind with his videos. If I need to, I’ll double up some.)
Yesterday, my radio station started its fall fund drive, so I started audio streaming, beginning with “The Score” – a one-hour program about music in film which I listen to weekly, generally during that one hour every weekday when there’s a program I don’t care for. This week’s theme was “mad scientists.” Timely for me, both because I had used that hour just the day before to watch a short biography of Thomas Midgley, Jr., called “The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History.” I thought of him when the host remarked that “mad scientists” in film seem to share a total disregard for the dangers of their creations. But throughout the program, I was also wondering if the whole mad scientist thing hd become so pervasive that the concept became part of the inspiration for QAnon, and other creations of the Alt-Right, with their disdain for actual science and facts. If so, it took long enough. In literature, it traces back to the 16th Century (Christopher Marlowe) and, considering actual science developed out of alchemy, almost certainly goes back to the dawn of humanity. Has anyone besides me ever wondered how humans, with all our crazy tendencies that are hard wired into us managed to survive this long at all?
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
The Daily Beast – Kremlin TV Exposes the Real Goal of Putin’s ‘Revenge-Bombs’
Quote – [State Duma Defense Committee’s head Andrey] Kartapolov urged Russians to unite behind Putin, and his desperate plea spotlighted the true reason behind Moscow’s barrage of missiles: to curb waning public support for Putin’s mindless war…. Konstantin Dolgov, the former Russian commissioner for human rights,… yearned for pained reactions from Ukrainians affected by the strikes, asking: “Are they whining yet? Are they howling yet?” Click through for the story. My visceral response is, “Republicans, everywhere, by any name, are all the same – the cruelty is the point.” However, Republicans everywhere, by any name, also lie. A lot. So who knows.
CPR News – Republicans hope to take back the House. Here’s what it could mean for Colorado’s representatives
Quote – While he’s not measuring any drapes, GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn said he would seek the chairmanship of the Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services committee. He was named the ranking member of that committee in January. The delegation’s longest serving Republican, Lamborn… also currently sits on the House Natural Resources committee[.] Click through for full article – or, even better, check out your own state’s representatives – not just yours, but all of them. Every state almost certainly has one or more reps whose presence, or chairmanship, on this committee or that committee could turn the House into even more of a horrorscape than their mere presence in the House suggests.
Yesterday, I overslept. That was certainly no surpise to me, and some of you may even have been able to read between the lines of yesterday’s Open Thread introduction that I expected to. But I didn’t expect how well it would work for me. I hope I can get a lot done even though the day may be a bit short. Also yesterday, I discovered that Faithful America is co-sponsoring a petition with Daily Kos. You mey remember last week I shared a new web page they have on “False {Prophets” and which they are co-sponsoring with a number of other liberal religious groups. Daily Kos is not one – it’s absolutely a secular group. Of course, I knew that Faithful America was willing to work with secular groups for common goals. But it encourages me that Daily Kos is willing to work with a faith group on common goals too. I can assure you that there are a few indvidual members of Daily Kos who aren’t. And – yes, I am aware that Russia bombed Kyiv (with non-nukes, which are plenty bad enough) but I haven’t had time to dig into the details.
Cartoon – (How TC knew in 2014 that David would die first and Charles would stand alone by 2022 is beyond me.)
Short Takes –
Wonkette – In 1886, When The Rent In New York City Was Too Damn High!
Quote – Henry George made one of the most important forays in solving the problem of industrial capitalism. George started his political life as a Lincoln-supporting Republican in the Civil War but soon came to criticize the growing system of industrial capitalism, especially the dominance of railroads over American life, as well as the influence of Chinese labor on white wages. In 1879, George published Progress and Poverty, arguing for the Single Tax as the surest way to bring corporations under control. The single tax was a basic property tax. At its core was the idea that people earned the value of own their own labor, but that land was a common resource for all and should essentially be quasi-socialized with very high taxes on large landowners. George’s ideas quickly spread beyond the US and were especially popular with the English and Scottish working classes, as well as the Irish resisting British domination. Click through for article – a little lesson in history. We are in a new Gilded Age, and there is still no “one way” to fix it – which should surprise no one. But it’s still true that, to fix it, we have to want to fix it.
[Business] Insider – There’s no such thing as an alpha male
Quote – As the writer Saladin Ahmed pointed out, the concept of “alpha male” wolves that assert dominance over their pack through aggression comes from a debunked model of lupine social groups…. David Mech introduced the idea of the alpha to describe behavior observed in captive animals. Alphas, he wrote in his 1970 book “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” win control of their packs in violent fights with other males. But, as he outlined in a 1999 paper, he’s since rejected that idea in light of research into the behavior of wolves in the wild. Click through for article. This is not new iformation, nor was it new in 2016, when this was first published. But it just won’t go away. You have to feel sorry for David Mach – and for everyone still deluded by this fake idea. Captivity is not the same thing as civilization.
Yesterday, I went to see Virgil. I set my alarm a bit earlier than I had been on days I was going to see him, and that turned out to be a mistake. We live and learn. So I’ll switch it back (after I set it for Thursday’s hearing, of course.) Virgil appreciates and returns all your greetings. The weather was fine and the drive both ways was uneventful. Also, I thought I had enough sleep Saturday night. However, I still felt pretty tired upon return. Oh, yes, and Happy Indigenous Peoples Day.
Cartoon – 10 1010Cartoon.jpg
Short Takes –
HuffPost – What The Weird Conservative Fixation On Electric Vehicles Says About Their Politics
Quote – The Biden administration has made support for EVs a top priority. The Inflation Reduction Act, the spending bill that Biden signed over the summer, included new tax credits for people who purchase EVs as well as businesses that open up charging stations. Greene has been critical of this effort from the get-go, and in February posted a 21-part tweetstorm calling the Biden plan ― which, at that point, was still under discussion ― “a one way ticket to hell.” Greene isn’t alone in making these sorts of arguments. On the contrary, the list of Republican officials who have attacked the Biden administration’s EV agenda in similar terms is long and includes everybody from Florida Sen. Rick Scott to Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Click through for three reasons why anyone with a functioning brain and who doesn’t hate Democrats could be expected to be ebthusiastic about EVs. But, Republicans … What do you want to bet that20 or even 10 years from now they will be all in favors of EVs, and will never admit they weren’t always.
CPR News – As the reparations debate continues nationally, some Denver organizations are stepping up now
Quote – Risë Jones is walking around TeaLee’s, her three-year-old tea shop in Denver’s historically Black Five Points neighborhood. Soft jazz plays in the main seating area with about 10 tables, and in the basement is a bookstore with some hard-to-find titles by Black authors…. Jones is among several Black business owners in Denver who have received grants from groups raising private funds to pay reparations for the centuries of abuse of Blacks forced into slavery…. Jones received an $8,500 reparations grant to open the shop, one of several that have been distributed…. There are several organizations that do precisely that kind of work. One of them is BRIC (Black Resilience in Colorado) a non-profit organization that officially opened on Juneteeth (June 19) of 2020. Click through and scroll down for the article – it’s below a podcast and the picture. Hey, they’re a radio outfit, of course they like podcasts. But they like articles too. There is so much in it for me as a Coloradan to be proud of (and that TomCat would have loved.)
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
I had wanted to share an article about popular culture this week, but thrn this analysis popped up and it’s just too inportant to ignore – and too complicated for a short take.
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The Supreme Court is back in session, with new controversial cases that stand to change many Americans’ lives – here’s what to expect
As a close observer of the court, I think this term’s rulings will continue to reject the court’s previous liberal decisions and instead reflect a conservative interpretation of the historical meaning of the Constitution. At least three of those upcoming rulings are likely to profoundly influence people’s everyday lives in the United States.
One of the Supreme Court’s most publicized cases this term focuses on whether Harvard University unfairly discriminates against Asian American student applicants. Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Affirmative action
College admissions and scholarships can alter the trajectory of a life.
College administrators want diverse student populations but are less clear about which categories – including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity and wealth – should influence admission and financial aid decisions. When it comes down to the specifics of which people are underrepresented in higher education, and which are overrepresented, the questions become thorny.
Many different groups feel that they are being mistreated when their specific circumstances and histories are taken into account.
The Supreme Court will hear two lawsuits on Oct. 31, 2022, brought by the anti-affirmative action organization Students for Fair Admissions. This group argues that Harvard and other schools blatantly discriminate against Asian students. But the claim is a proxy for all other preferences grounded in identity, including those in favor of Black applicants and those disadvantaging whites.
The two cases – one against Harvard and the other against the University of North Carolina – address private as well as public institutions.
Universities justifying their diversity policies argue that the 14th Amendment and its guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” encourage giving an advantage to historically oppressed groups.
The opponents of affirmative action argue that the 14th Amendment was meant to uphold racial neutrality, meaning all individuals should be treated the same, regardless of race. In this view, the Constitution forbids considering race in almost any decisions that influence individual advancement.
If is it equality – the same treatment of all races, regardless – this supports the argument that universities may not give preferences to applicants of one race over another.
If the 14th Amendment is found to guarantee equity – or trying to create equal outcomes for all by favoring historically disadvantaged groups – this supports the argument that affirmative action policies are constitutionally sound, and perhaps even required in public institutions.
The current court, with a conservative majority, almost certainly favors the argument that the equal protection clause endorses equality, not equity.
Another major case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, asks the court whether state law can compel a private business to serve LGBTQ clients – or whether the First Amendment protects business owners who violate those laws on religious grounds.
The controversy focuses on a website designer who wants to expand her business to offer personal wedding sites – but not for same-sex couples, as required by Colorado’s nondiscrimination laws.
The case comes close to addressing the long-standing conflict between a person’s free exercise of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, and a state’s power to enforce the equal treatment of all citizens.
But the question presented in this case focuses on the website designer’s free speech and artistic expression, rather than the religious motivation at the heart of the conflict.
The somewhat arcane question is whether only the U.S. Constitution controls state legislatures’ decisions regarding federal elections rules within their states or whether state constitutions and courts can also oversee the election laws that apply to national elections.
In this case, the court will rule on whether the North Carolina Supreme Court can strike down and replace the Legislature’s congressional map, which the state court found was gerrymandered in violation of the North Carolina Constitution.
In an atmosphere of political distrust and accusations of election fraud, the court will determine who controls federal election law within each state.
The constitutional text on this question is admittedly unclear.
Supporters of the independent state legislature theory argue that because the Constitution states that congressional election rules “shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof,” this power applies solely to state legislatures.
This interpretation means that election rules are not constrained by state constitutions, which often have additional protections of “free and equal” elections, enforced by state courts. Instead, only the U.S. Constitution could constrain state legislatures – and only federal courts, including the Supreme Court, could review these decisions.
Critics of the independent state legislature theory argue that even though the U.S. Constitution tasks state legislatures with overseeing election law, ordinary checks and balances that constrain those legislatures still apply. This would mean that other state officials and state courts maintain their usual role in limiting the power of the legislature, which was not meant to be fully independent.
Concerns about independent state legislatures are partly driven by two fears. One is that if legislatures are truly independent, they may impose discriminatory laws that benefit their party – often Republicans at the state level.
The other fear is that Republican legislatures may attempt to alter the final slate of electors in the 2024 presidential election if former President Donald Trump runs and loses the popular vote in states with GOP legislatures.
This case is partially about trust – whether Americans trust state legislatures or state courts to oversee legitimate elections. And trust among the American public is in short supply.
The year at the court
The outcomes of this term’s cases will deeply influence American lives and values, especially for college applicants, LGBTQ citizens and people with strong religious beliefs.
The state legislature case is the most difficult to understand, and also perhaps the most influential, because it reflects the broader decline of trust in elections and the growing suspicions of fraud along many dimensions. I believe that this case – however resolved – will lower perceptions of the legitimacy of many future election outcomes.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, it isn’t pretty. But we need to look at it, and not put our heads in the sand. And, to the best of our ability, be ready to respond to it. So, ladies, please also be ready – to share your righteous indignation with us when it’s needed – and your determination not to allow evil to stand.
Glenn Kirschner – Three former Oath Keepers/military veterans testified at trial today. Here’s why it left me hopeful
Meidas Touch – Fox News Guest STUNS NETWORK says Biden was RIGHT on Marijuana LIVE on TV
The Lincoln Project – Mitch Found Out
MSNBC – Oath Keepers Trial Is DOJ’s ‘Biggest Case And Biggest Challenge
Steve Schmidt – trailer for documentary AMERICAN THEOCRACY. He encourages all to share it widely before the midterms because it won’t be released until January and we can’t wait.
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump packing the boxes himself….
