Glenn Kirschner – Is Ivanka Trump throwing daddy, Don Jr. & Eric under the bus in NY AG Tish James’s civil fraud case?
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – March 7, 2023
MSNBC – Another Norfolk Southern train derails in Alabama as CEO testifies before Congress
Brent Terhune – They’re Grooming Kids
Chocolate Lab Growls At Her Foster Until…
Beau – Let’s talk about an upcoming consumer protection SCOTUS case…. (probably a year away, but really important)
Yesterday, I slept late but woke up refreshed. In my emails, I found one from Lakota Law about a Two-Spirit Powwow held lastmonth in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unfortunately, there’s really nothing to link to, but I put up a remoinder for myself for (I hope) early enough next year that I will be able to find it and share links to live streaming. I also worked on some cartoons coming up
Added today at about 10:45 am Pacific – Mitch McConnell has been hospitalized following a fall at a DC hotel. Per a McConnell spokesman: “This evening [now last evening – JD], Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment.”
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Short Takes –
Robert Reich – Greed needs guardrails!
Quote – The Labor Department is still woefully understaffed, and penalties are still too low. Every time the department’s budget is up for review, members of Congress — mostly (but not entirely) Republicans — refuse to appropriate enough funds for inspectors or to increase penalties. So of course migrant children coming into the United States, fleeing violence and poverty, have ended up in dangerous jobs. In Delaware, Mississippi, and North Carolina, young children are working in slaughterhouses. In Michigan, young children are making auto parts used by Ford and General Motors. In Virginia, girls as young as 13 are washing hotel sheets. In Florida and Tennessee, 12-year-olds are doing roofing jobs. In South Dakota, children are sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts.
Click through for full argument – not that we don’t already kniw this, and know why, but he does say things so well.
Mother Jones – Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws Across the Country
Quote – The emails demonstrate close collaboration between groups working behind the scenes to push bills banning transgender health care, including [Alliance Defending Freedom]—which has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people in Europe—and the ACPeds—which has opposed adoption by gay couples and supported conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth. In recent years, ADF has drafted legislation banning trans children from using school restrooms or playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. (Both groups are also staunchly anti-abortion; ADF, which drafted the Mississippi abortion ban at the heart of the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, is currently representing ACPeds in a closely-watched lawsuit to ban an abortion pill, mifepristone, nationally.)
Click through for story. Back in the late seventies, when I was in my early 30’s and Bishop of Pueblo Charles Buswell was in his late 60’s, I met him as an informal gathering at my local church. Bishop Buswell was a truly good man (something which cannot be said about all bishops) and also a truly humble man (also rare – it’s easy to get caught up in all the ritual observabces and start believing one’s own PR.) I was chatting with him and the subject of transgender came up (at that time Trinidad, CO was about the only place in the country that a transgender could get gender-affirming treatment at all, and that was not as advanced as it is today.) He mentioned that a priest he had ordained, I don’t know how long prior, was transgender and the Bishop had released her and she had been treated in Trinidad. He then said, “I believe that in such cases the soul of a woman has been born into the body of a man,” and I replied, “That is my understanding too.” He grinned and said, “Well then, our diocese deserves the credit for having ordained the first woman priest.” He seemed qquite proud of that (as he had a right to be.) He died in 2008 (he would have been 95.) We need more like him – but I’m kind of glad he didn’t live to see all of this hatred.
Food For Thought
I have been so disorganized lately that I have not gotten around to sharing this website, not a new one, but one which has finally clicked for me: More Perfect Union. The name, of course, evokes the Constitution. But the “Union” they have in mnd in their name is a reference to labor unions. Their offerings include a YouTube channel called “The Class Room” with presentations which are sort of like TED talks garnished with documentary clips, only a little bit shorter. Notice that it’s not spelled “Classroom” but “Class Room.” tha “class” to which they are referring is not an academic class, but social class, as in Class Wars.
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Crooks and Liars – Trump Ordered Meadows To Leak Classified Docs To Discredit Adversaries
Quote – Brad Moss, an attorney specializing in national security law, explained to me: “Anything Trump had in his possession that was still classified and that he gave to a reporter or anyone else unauthorized to receive it, after 12:01 pm on January 21, 2021, was unlawful as a legal matter.” I’m sure this isn’t the only instance of Trump committing a felonious act with classified documents.
Click through for article. You can also click through to his source, Murray Waas, for a lot more detail (you may have to click “keep reading” on a popup). This behavior has never been litigated, because so far no one has ever been such an evil excuse for a human being as to do it, or so incompetent as to be caught doing it. As Pat would say, Holy cannoli!
The 19th – 99% of women-owned businesses say the federal government hasn’t done enough to support them, survey finds
Quote – That figure, from a new survey by Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Voices program, illustrates a frustration that is universally shared among women-owned businesses. The findings, first exclusively shared with The 19th, represent responses collected over the past week from nearly 900 women small-business owners across 47 states and Puerto Rico. As many as 89 percent of women small-business owners said they feel they are not on a level playing field with men who own businesses, and 72 percent said that if they had to grade the federal government on the effectiveness of its programs, services and resources, they would give it a “C” or below.
Click through for details. Ninety-nine percent is a substantial percentage. Anyone besides me remember “99 44/100% pure”?
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I did get my grocery order, along with some problems. One was nobody’s faukt – I woke up feeling as usual, but sometime between then and the order arrival. several body part involved in lifting and moving stuff decided to become really, really painful. But the other problem was unauthorized substitutions. In theory, they emailed me early enough that i was supposed to be able to get into the site and change them (delete them really), but I couldn’t. I tried more than once on more than one computer and nothing. So, besides the frustration, what with the pain getting everything in, it took me hours to put away perishables, and to just get non-perishables into the rooms where they will be put away (And it was a comparatively small order.) I took some extra OTC pain meds before bed, in the hope that sleep would help resolve the pains. (Those of you who pray, I’;; remn=ind youthat it is perfectly theologically sound to pray for an outcome which, at the time you are praying, has already either happened or won’t, provided that you don’t know which.)
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Civil Discourse – Judge Luttig Weighs In
Quote – It has become popular in some quarters for pundits to dispense legal opinions that are results-oriented—they figure out what political corner they want to land in and then shoehorn their views of the facts and the law to get there. Judge Luttig doesn’t indulge in that sort of gamesmanship here. As a former Scalia law clerk who has been dismissed by progressive groups as an ultraconservative who leaned too far right to be considered for a Supreme Court seat, you might expect him to. But lawyers and judges are trained in law school to evaluate the facts and the law from 360 degrees and come up with the right answer, not the expedient one. That’s what the best ones do.
Click through for details. You may remember Judge Luttig as the J6 committee witness who spoke so slowly many people assumed he was recovering from a stroke (He wasn’t – that was his wa of being passionate.) When a conservative says/does the right thing it’s newsworthy IMO.
Slate – If the “Abortion Pill” Gets Banned, There’s Still One Good Move
Quote – It’s an alarming possibility that underscores the recklessness of giving politicians and appointees full authority over the nation’s reproductive health: An unelected official could singlehandedly revoke the FDA’s approval of a safe, widely used medication—and the Supreme Court may be inclined to let him…. But there’s an alternative: Mifepristone is only one of two drugs consumed in a standard medication abortion. In higher doses, the second drug, misoprostol, can also terminate a pregnancy on its own.
Click through for article. Counting on right-wing ignorance (even as prevalent as it is) is proably not the best long-term strategy. But in the short term, this is good knowledge to have.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Jack Smith goes on offense, asks judge to preemptively order Mike Pence to testify before grand jury
Ring of Fire – Kyle Rittenhouse Hit With New Lawsuit From Man He Shot In Wisconsin
Robert Reich – The Biggest Economic Lies We’re Told
Puppet Regime – ChatGPT vs Puppet Regime
Tiny Kitten Meets His New Brothers And Falls In Love
Beau – Let’s talk about how social media is changing….
Glenn Kirschner – Grand Juror did NOTHING wrong by giving interviews about Trump criminal investigation in Georgia
The Lincoln Project – Freedom
Ojeda Live – Marge the Trainwreck Tweets for a National Divorce!?
Armageddon Update – G.O.P. = Grifting On Purpose
Dog Who Wasn’t Supposed To Survive Is Completely Transformed By Love
Beau – Let’s talk about divorce, nationally….
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was based on a novella of roughly the same name, as unfair as that name is to the protagonist, who is essentially reacting to being abused, not only by her husbamd, but by her father-in-law, and then by an employee of the family business with whom she has an affair which essentially begins with a rape. No, murder is never justified, but it really is not hard to have empathy for her. There is a revised version from 1962, which the composer felt was different enough to rename it “Katerina Izmailova,” but it’s the original version (and the original title) which is usually heard today. The opera is one of many of his works which got him into deep doodoo with Stalin (he used to keep a fully packed suitcase by his front door so that if the secret police came in the middle of the might he’d have some possessions to take with him.) As always, I’ll comment when I get back from seeing Virgil.
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Crooks & Liars – Why Hasn’t Russia Destroyed Even One US HIMARS System In Ukraine?
Quote – The HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) has been credited with changing the trajectory of the war. Though Ukraine only has about 20 of these systems sent from the United States, Russia seems to have no counter. And many have wondered why Russia has not managed to destroy a single one of them
Click through for article and video. I don’t know much about Czech history or culture. I would not have expected this. But, upon reflection, it fits very well with the little I do know. (And it’s most amusing.)
A Jim Crow–Era Murder. A Family Secret. Decades Later, What Does Justice Look Like?
Quote – It’s like “legal archaeology,” Burnham says. The students read old newspapers, travel to Southern towns to obtain court transcripts, and speak with surviving families. “It’s really not enough to say, ‘Those were horrible days,’ and let them pass,” Burnham told the Northeastern Law magazine in 2010. “The details matter. These stories are important, and to the extent these people are still around, their stories deserve to be told.”
Click through for story. I don’t really have words. I’m thankful for this project – but then I look at the complete erasure of reality DeSatan is perpetrating in Florida. I hope these stories do not disappear like the family photographs mentioned.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Proud Boys subpoena Trump to testify at seditious conspiracy trial. What could possibly go wrong?
The Lincoln Project – We’ll Name Them
Ring of Fire – Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Use Trump’s Legal Arguments Against House Republicans
Parody Project – King of the Con (This one actually had me singing along.)
Kitten Cries So Someone Will Rescue Him
Beau – Let’s talk about an alert to leave and some intelligence news….