Yesterday was too overcast tto play with electricity, but if I can’t get it started today, I’ll rearch tonight and get a battery delivered tomorrow.
Cartoon –
Short Takes
Lucian Truscott is a sixth great grandson of Thomas and Martha Jefferson. He recently published in his newsletter blog a picture of himself with his sixth cousin, Shannon Lanier, a sixth great grandon of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. You can read the accompanying article at the link. I also took the liberty of adding his newsletter to our blogroll (on the left). You might also enjoy an article there entitled “Court-martial Flynn’s worthless seditious ass.” I certainly did. But there are many others as well.
The Hill – Experienced staff promote effective lawmaking
Yes, this is an opinion piece, but that doesn’t automatically make it fluff. And, yes, it’s a principle that most people who have ever worked at a so-called “low-level” job know intuitively: nothing that gets done is done by those at the top. Important accomplishments are never one-person jobs. It’s a point I’ve alluded to many times, most recently in connection with President Biden’s appoiontments. But it is more broadly applicable. And the authors of this are just the guys who have the facts and the statistics to prove it. Members of Congress are wrestling with the 97 bipartisan recommendations put forward last year by the newly reestablished Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Among them are proposals to increase legislative staff pay. Supporters argue that salary increases are needed to recruit and retain the best legislative aides. Yet, the public is skeptical about spending more on Congress, which they judge as not doing a very good job. At the Center for Effective Lawmaking, we know that with respect to congressional staff, we get what we pay for. We find that retaining experienced legislative staff is crucial to Congress doing its job better, in terms of lawmaking effectiveness. Click through for more.
This is the 77th anniversary of D-Day. In looking for some kind of retrospective, I discovered that there is a National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, which is just winding up a three-day commemoration. I don’t think anyone who reads here is close enough to Bedford to vvisit (besides the fact that it’s already 2/3 over), but you can find more information if you click through. And I find it gratifying that it exists.
So-called pro-lifers are among the biggest hypocrites and liars out there. They profess to be defending the sanctity of human life, when in fact they care about only the nine months (or less) between conception and birth. They are perfect examples of zealots, who redouble their efforts when they have forgotten their aim. They knee-jerk attack Planned Parenthood when that organization is about a lot more than abortion. They use all manner of sophistry to attack not just abortion, but birth control and sex ed in schools. The “right to life” movement is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The abortion debate is unusual in that it isn’t one end versus the other, but one extreme versus the middle ground. Pro-choice means exactly that – pro-choice. It’s up to the one with the “baby bump” to determine the outcome of the pregnancy. Pro-choice can actually be anti-abortion sometimes. This is because the real opposite of anti-choice is – anti-choice. One side says that every pregnancy should be carried to term, while its real opposite is that every pregnancy should be terminated. Unless you want humans to go extinct, you don’t want to harbor that attitude. If you are truly pro-choice, you support a woman who wants to carry her pregnancy to term when others tell her to terminate.
If you really examine both sides of the abortion fight, you realize that pro-choice is actually anti-abortion, while “pro-life” is pro-abortion.
Say what?
What.
Pro-choice activists by and large support better birth control, better access to birth control, and comprehensive sex education, all of which prevent abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place. Anti-choice activists oppose these measures for the most part. It is like opposing highway deaths while condemning seat belts, airbags, and defensive-driving training.
Self-appointed custodians of other people’s wombs may be sincere in protecting embryos and fetuses, but after the moment of birth their concern drops to zero. They may make the occasional pseudo-charitable gesture, crowing about giving one box of food to a homeless shelter; but their concern for human life that is not white, straight, male, fundamentalist Christian and wealthy is scantier than a stripper’s outfit. Where are they when people hold rallies against hunger, against war, against gun violence? Lots of things stop beating hearts, so why don’t the soi-dissant guardians of human life oppose them?
Not only that, many of them show no interest in providing for those babies that they want to “rescue” from the “abortion mills.” They want every ejaculation to get a Social Security number, but could not possibly care less whether those babies are fed, or housed, or clothed, or educated, or medicated when necessary. In fact, they don’t seem willing to make sure all pregnant women have access to affordable prenatal and perinatal care, or even to proper nutrition. Sure, sure, they’ll trot out one or two individuals they have “helped” – but are they willing to provide assistance for ALL expectant mothers? The people who oppose abortion are often the same ones who oppose providing affordable child care so the mothers can work and earn money rather than depend on public aid.
Sister Joan Chittister, a Roman Catholic nun, rather famously said, “I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.” Even though she was speaking from an anti-abortion viewpoint, she still gets credit for pointing out the hypocrisy of abortion foes.
The latest dirty tactic by anti-choice activists is hopping on the voting restriction bandwagon. In other words, they are willing to destroy democracy and civil rights in the name of safeguarding the unborn. Clearly they don’t want the poor and marginalized – those who suffer the worst when denied reproductive freedom – from having a voice in government.
Meanwhile, governors in solidly red states sign “heartbeat” bills that will abolish abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detectable. This often occurs before a woman even knows she is pregnant. Apparently, antis think that life is just a heartbeat. Could that be an indication of their intellectual capacity, or at least of their understanding of biology?
Outlawing abortion will never stop abortion, merely force it underground. Women facing unwanted pregnancies will try all manner of risky methods to self-abort. “Back-alley” quasi-clinics will pop up like mushrooms after a frog-strangler. Girls and women who can’t find a practitioner, or afford one, may simply abandon their unwanted offspring – one does hear stories about newborns found in trash bins or other places from time to time. The basket-on-the-doorstep cliché has some basis in reality.
Some parrot “Adoption not abortion!” Yeah, right – order women and girls to give birth, and then take their babies away. What if the fetus is racially mixed, or handicapped? Currently there are approximately 424,000 children in foster care in the United States. Unless they get adopted, as soon as they turn 18 their flimsy support vanishes, and they will wind up homeless, or exploited by human traffickers, or in prison.
The anti-choice crusade never has been, is not, and never will be about protecting the sanctity of human life. It always has been, is, and will always be about controlling women, about reducing half the population to the status of brood cows. Controlling women’s reproduction is the mark of a highly bigoted and patriarchal society. Such a society is a sick society, trying to fly with only one wing. Denying half of its residents many opportunities means that many great minds are forbidden to develop. To paraphrase Malcolm X, you can’t keep Woman down without staying down with her.
Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one. But don’t force your views on anybody else’s uterus. And while you’re at it, care about life AFTER birth.
Glenn Kirschner -DeJoy and Gaetz Sounds like a “Subpoena Duces Tecum.” I was served with one of those once. But the defendant accepted a bargain, so I didn’t have to go.
The Lincoln Project – The Real AntiFa (Just in time for D-Day)
MSNBC – Trump really thinks ….
Ring of Fire -Chauvin’s request for probation and time served. I frequently have nits to pick with Farron … but today he is right on.
Thom Hartmann “Is It Too Late For Democracy?”
Now here’s a product I could really get behind. (Wish it were real)
Beau – “Let’s talk about what Paxton Smith can teach Republicans….”
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’ve been sitting on this one for a while because other things were going on, but I knoew I’d get to it eventually, because it is another piece of the Saving Democracy puzzle, and this seems like a good time.
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States pick judges very differently from US Supreme Court appointments
This delay ultimately gave soon-to-be President Donald Trump the chance to seat conservative Neil Gorsuch as Scalia’s replacement. Four years later, though, Republicans rushed to fill the vacancy left by the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg less than two months before a presidential election.
In response to those calling for reform, Biden has created the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, whose mission “is to provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform.”
Following the model set by the U.S. Constitution, many state constitutions initially called for governors to appoint state judges for life with the advice and consent of the state’s Senate. Over time, many felt that this system empowered governors to award judgeships based upon party loyalty rather than judicial temperament and fair-mindedness.
In the mid-1800s, populism swept the country. This movement toward giving power to the public prompted several states to amend their state constitutions to allow for the popular election of judges.
In 1940, Missouri became the first state to adopt what is now called the “Missouri Plan” for selecting judges, which involves two elements: “assisted appointments” and nonpartisan “retention elections.”
Typically, for assisted appointments, a nonpartisan commission reviews candidates for state judgeships, creating a list of potential nominees based on merit. The governor fills vacancies on the bench by choosing from this predetermined list. In such a system, the governor’s pick does not usually need to be confirmed by the state legislature because the pick has already been vetted by the nonpartisan commission.
For retention elections, judges face no opponent and are listed on the ballot without political party designation. Voters are simply asked whether an incumbent judge should remain in office, which provides an opportunity to oust judges who regularly make unpopular decisions. Retention elections are often held in states that use assisted appointments. However, in some states that still elect their judges using partisan elections, such as Illinois, nonpartisan retention elections are used when it’s time for reelection.
Today, more than 30 states use some form of assisted appointments. More than 20 states use some variation of retention elections. More than a dozen states use both in some capacity. Notably, both “red” states and “blue” states have adopted one or both of these reforms, as have many “purple” states.
President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court sparked a partisan fight. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
If the federal government adopted assisted appointments, campaign tactics like Trump’s 2016 promise to appoint pro-life, conservative judges would be less relevant, because presidents would be limited in whom they could nominate for a court vacancy.
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Additionally, if voters could remove U.S. Supreme Court justices whose opinions differ from that of the majority of Americans, politicians might not feel as pressured to block the appointment of a particular justice for partisan reasons, as the judge would serve on the bench for only as long as they retained public support.
================================================================ Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, appointing judges can certainly be a partisan exercise. But surely electing them can be just as partisan, if not indeed worse. Most of the timre I am inclined to respect the opinion of an officeholder, even a partisan one, over the opinion of the voters, given that they mostly have no idea who these judges are, any opinion they do have is derived from cheesy TV commercials, and those voters who do know something about judges are often in that position as a result of life experiences which make them ineligible to vote, temporarily or permanently. Of course there are exceptions … like the so-called “President” we had who was easily as uninformed as the dullest voter. The thing is, if your only choices are appointment and election, there really is no way to ensure you get the best judges.
The “assisted appointment” system, depending, as it does, on a nonpartisan commission, really does seem like a lifeline here. At least two of Trump**’s three nominees to the Supreme Court would never have made it into a pool provided by such a commission. My state is one of the states which uses both assisted appointments and retention elections – which are not like a recall, where there is an opposing candidate, but simply an up or down. If a judge were to lose, the commission would have to supply a new candidate pool to replace them.
Most voters have no idea who their state judges are or how qualified or what temperament, unless theyhave been to court. So it’s rare for a judge to lose a retention election. In the case of the Supreme Court and a national vote, I suspect that would change (and IMO for the better.)
I am looking forward to reading the discussion on this topic. It’s not something which is discussed a lot, but maybe it should be.
Well, I got some charge into the battery, but I didn’t get the car started, and I ran out of time (and energy.) But I’m encouraged enough to keep trying. If I can’t get this done myself, I’ll have to find a roadside Assistance provider who will bring me a whole new battery. Thanks to the stimulus, I can afford that, it just pains my frugality (which I apparently inherited from my father, or so my mother often said.)
CNN – San Francisco’s ‘CAREN Act,’ making racially biased 911 calls illegal, is one step closer to becoming a law
This is great news, as far as it goes – it’s just a bill (or whatever they call it in a City/County – San Francisco is both), not a law (ordinance?) But oh, how it needs to be! And enforced!
VoteVets – Count on Gen. Eaton not to mince words and to lay out the right thing to do … and VoteVets to publish it.
Thom Hartmann on Traitors, Particularly Flynn
Robert Reich – How Fast Can You Read? Pro tip: Watch twice – watch Robert the first time and Sam the second time (oe vice versa.) You can also slow it down, but definitely watch each separately.
Beau – an analogy that this sports ignoramus can wholeheartedly endorse.
TGIF – although i don’t really know why I still say so, since after retirement most days are alike to me. If anything, my Fridays are busier than other days. Today, I’m going to be off line for a while. Since I haven’t driven since the pandemic started, my battery is so low that it won’t hold a jump. It’s possibe, even probable, that keeping the machine the pros use attached and charging it would bring it up to where it would at least hold a jump, and driving around a while would complete the charge. But we have been having electrical storms every day. I don’t think it’s paranoid not to want to be out playing with electricity with a storm in the offing. But today we are forecast nothing but sun all day. So I’m hoping – I have one of those boxes the pros use – to get out and charge it up. Of course I’ll be off line for a while (and the longer it is, the better news it is.) Thanks in advance for your patience.
If I could, I would make this an “Everyday Erinyes” article. But I can’t – it’s classified as an “essay,” and only “idea”s are available to republish. But, depressing as it is, I urge everyone to at least skim it. Because this is what we have to look forward to even if we do confront nationalism and all who embrace and push it. If we don’t – and we certainly didn’t, for instance, after the Civil War – it is not something we are good at – what we have to look forward to is likely even worse. I wish I knew how to get this through and into Americans’ heads.
