Yesterday, I put most of my day into a comment on yesterday’s thread, hoping to be able to post what I had already tentatively picked out without much editing. And here it is
This from Chris Bowers is exactly why we can just forget about the 25th Amendment. It was not written for the situation which we have. Impeachment comes closer to the situation we have, but – as we should have learned from his first term – it’s not in fact close enough. If we really want him out, we need an amendment which authorizes a recall election. The kind of recall election where we vote, not just for recxall, but for one of a handful or so of candidates to replace him. (Or her. Sometime in the 23rd or 24th century, we MAY just possibly be able to elect a woman. Or not.) Also, it can’t be Congress which authorizes such an election. It would have to be initiated by the people somehow. And it would have to be a general election so that everyone could vote. And if you think that’s going to happen – I’m confident that it won’t in my lifetime. Even if I live to be 100, which I don’t expect. The 25th was not designed or intended for a situation like Fascism. It was designed for situationd more like Woodrow Wilson (though it was far too late for that one – or at the present, for something more like the Canteloupe Caligula’s “annual physicals” which appear to happen every month or so. Either the 25th needs to be amended, or it needs to be replaced, or we just need a new and separate Amendment. (Or a recall election.)
I didn’t even know that Gavin Newsom spoke at DAVOS – there was so much focus on Mark Carney and on the Saffrom Sauron. That’s too bad. Newsom’s speech is a lot more fun than any of the other speeches.
This from the 19th refers to ICE, but it might be one or more Border Patrol agents. They are often mixed in to ICE occupations.
I could already see on Monday that term limits were going to become a hot topic again this year. Judge Hellerstein, who has been conspicuous in several previous cases involving the God-Emperor and his cronies, is a proven no-fear-or-favor tiger. He is 92, and, had some kind of term limits been in place, we would not have him. On the other hand two terms (or even one term) is more than enough for the God-Emperor. Yet, had a two-term limit on the presidency been in effect rather than just a custom in the 1930s, we would not have had the liberal consensus which kept not just us but the world more liberal up through 2024. I can’t prove this – no one can – there’s never been a dedicated study, and there are simply too many people in our history who have held office for anyone to hold that much information in one brain at one time – but I am strongly inclined to believe that for every elected crackpot from whom term limits would save us, there is an elected official whose inability to be re-elected would harm us. This is not like the electoral college argument, where one can review all the presidential elections (62 of them if my math is correct, but there would be fewer in which the electoral college overrode the popular vote.) The only one I can be confident of without more research where the electoral college was both different from and better than the popular vote was in the election of John Quincy Adams, and that really is not a good enough record to defend the College on. Instead, there would be hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of races to review, and that’s not even counting appointed judges and justices. On principle, I’m not comfortable with term limits for elected officials because they limit the power of the people. Appointed judges and justices are different – the power limits there is that of elected executives, not that of the people, so it is more democratic. But still, there’s Judge Hellerstein, who clearly has a better understanding of the Constitution, and other law, than most people half his age – and the courage to uphold it. And those are qualities which we desperately need right now.
Yesterday, Malcolm Nance hosted a video on Substack with a couple of other guys. It’s a bit rough to listen to because, in the first place, Malcolm has a lot of hearing loss from his military service (possible also from CIA service) and tends to over-talk the others. Jacob is I guess Danish, and his English is excellent, but with an accent. Dean, the third guy, is Canadian; he doesn’t talk much but what he has to say about Canada and airspace is fierce. Also, their discussion about what would happen if the current US stooges actually attempted to occupy Greenland – well, it’s so absurd they can barely stop laughing. But it will, if you can overcome all of that, give you a pretty good idea of what would really happen if we attempted to invade Greenland. And, honestly, if it could happen without making Greenland and/or Denmark and/or NATO hating the sane ones among us – I wish they would try. I was lucky enough to catch it live, and a recording was not immediately available, but some hours later it popped up. If y’all can call attention to Greenland among friends and family, please do.
As if I didn’t have enough to piss me off, now there’s this. Which happened in the seat of the county I grew up in. Grrrr. I’m beyond being shocked by hate, but it still makes me angry, especially so close to home. At least they fired the SOB – but I didn’t see anything about preventing him from working in law enforcement elsewhere.
This is a podcast from The Conversation – or, I should say, it is the first episode of a six-episode podcast on how an autocrat becomes one. Lately, I’m not accomplishing much of anything – but I am finding that sources which can be listened to are at least letting me get some knitting done. Being from the Conversation, you know it is well researched. But by all means feel free to ignore this.
This is from Instagram (referred by the 19th), so I can’t see all of it either. Trinette knew about it before I did – we talked about it on Sunday. It is tragic indeed, but I honestly don’t know how how to prevent it from happening again, to any female medical professional (and, yes, dammit, she was a professional, regardless what the regime says.) The reason we need to have professionals to deliver babies is that there are parts of a woman’s body she cannot reach herself, and sometimes those parts need to be reached tp deliver a baby safely. A mother who knows exactly what needs to be done still can’t do it herself because of physical limitation. There are some things we could do to help close the childbirth mortality gap – but the current regime not only won’t do them, it also won’t allow anyone else to do them. And that’s the tragedy we need to address.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Mason Bates. It’s (pretty obviously) based on the book, and there’s also a movie, a play, and a miniseries. So there’s virtually no end of resources to know what it’s about. I’ll just say that it’s aggressively anti-fascist. It was recorded last September when it opened the Met season. It’s not Nates’s first opera – that was based on the life of Steve Jobs and was included in the summer series several years ago. Not to disparage the first one, but this one is even more listenable – and also more tragic – which is to be expected from an oera which touches on the Holocaust. Also, just to clarify, the cartoon today is for Epiphany, which is January 6, which is not a Sunday. Today is the closest.
I’ve previously shared news about Mackenzie Scott’s philanthropy. But at the end of a very tough year, The Root found it appropriate to publish a reminder of how she keeps stepping up, and I agree. And the quotation from her at the end of the article – needs to be a meme.
This from the AP (referred by Daily Dose of Democracy) is absolutely flabbergasting. I have never heard before of an ectopic pregnancy coming to term. My mother almost died from one 8 years before I was born – hers was (like most) in a Fallopian tube, which burst, and she almost bled to death. This would have been around 1937, and blood transfusion was barely out of the dark ages, but her OBG found a way to transfuse the blood she was losing back into her and saved her life (and that too amazes me. Technically, I probably shouldn’t be here.) This snippet of my family history is a big part of the reasons I have so little patience with abortion opponents.
Referred by Daily Dose of Democracy, archived from The Guardian, this story reminds me that you cannot judge anyone by any factor as superficial as the country they are from. Individual people are individual people, and make individual choices, and good people from anywhere need to be valued.
Yesterday, I received an email from Catholics for Choicea addressing the myth that the Catholic Church “cannot change,” which is historically, demonstrably false. I won’t do a rant on this, but for anyone who cares about women’s rights, I’ll provide the link.
Pro Publica takes a deep dive into what the regime is on to about “mortgage fraud.” It’s about what constitutes a primary residence. Apparently, in many cases claiming two primary residences is perfectly legal. I don’t know what the criteria are for that, but I can certainly see it in the cases of “snowbirds,” who have a primary summer residence and a primary winter residence. Yeah, most people couldn’t afford that, but in thse cases that really is how they are using their properties. But even if some of these case aren’t technically lawful, anyone he attempts to prosecute will have a great “selective prosecution” defense, since three of his Cabinet members have multiple primary mortgages.
Steve Schmidt from The Warning. Yeah. That ship we just attacked was carrying drugs exactly like all those men we sent to CECOT were MS-13. Right. I’m positive of that.
Joyce Vance shares an analogy made by a federal judge and presented by NBC News. The anonymous judge, along with other quoted in the episode, was anonymous for self-defense. Theres a link to the (print) article in Joyce’s post. All of the article is onsistent with what I see and probably most hee ee, which eans that it may not be encouraging, but it does appear accurate.
Yesterday, after Saturday was rough, I slept till 2 pm- and started nodding off at about 4 pm. Normally, Trinette would have been by, but she has had a cold and doesn’t want to expose me to anything. If and only if she feels well enough, she’ll come today. Also over the weekend, a really beautiful fundraising email for Zoe Lofgren, authored by Liz Cheney, was sent out. Of course there’s no link. But Liz called Zoe “an unsung hero” for the Constitution, said she is “a thoughtful and serious member, and she operates with zero ego ‑‑ a rarity in Congress,” and that she “has been a source of wisdom and good judgment for me and many Members in Congress.” Her closer was “Although we don’t share many views on politics or public policy, I can assure you that we need Zoe in Congress and on the frontlines as we continue to protect and secure the future of our democracy.” Knowing, as we do, exactly how much they do disagree on policy, that’s one glowing recommendation.
From the Root. If you thought this was over, it isn’t. Chance may be gaining weight, but his respiratory issues are likely to be lifelong – however long that may be. I don’t even know what to wish for little Chance and his heroine of a grandmother.
This from The New Republic was referred by Daily Dose of Democracy. I think everyone here has a pretty good idea of what makes an economy healthy and why – but it isn’t necessarily all that easy to explain to people who for one reason or another have it backwards. I think this is a helpful analysis. I seldom if ever read The New Republic, but I checked that is has a strong reputation with the watchdogs for publishing just the facts.
Yesterday, I noted that Wonkette is stoked that Mallory McMorrow is running to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate – to the point that the owner/editrix is holding a fund raiser for her on September 21st. It will be at her home, but can also be attended via Zoom. Well, I’m stoked too, and not just because I appreciate alliteration. McMorrow’s voice is fierce, and we need fierce voices in the Senate (and in the House.)
This is a Substack post by Dr. Shannon Fleck, who is (since April) the Executive Director of Faithful America. It points out that gerrymandering wasn’t enough for Texas – they had to get their sticky fingers into women’s health care as well, and tie their meddling to faith. I think this pretty well has gone under the radar, so I’m glad they had a link for us (they usually don’t.)
Yes, I know this from Wonkette is from Thursday. But it goes well with the other article. And the analysis may help explain why Evan calls his side project “The Moral High Ground.” I believe that “uncompromising” is incompatible with morality for humans (God or the universe or Karma may be able to stick to it, but the point is that they are supposed to be omniscient, whereas our human brains are not built to contain enough knowledge to never compromise.)
On Monday, I finally remembered to re-add images like Lona’s hedgehog and Freya’s angry cat to the media library late enough in the day that the should be the last thing added in June, to make them more convenient to find. Speaking of Freya, has anyone heard from her? It’s been a very long time, not just since she posted here, but since I (and also Evelyn, who is also concerned) got a newsletter from her. If you know anything, please put it into a comment or email me. Then yesterday, I got the news that Jimmy Swaggart has died. I won’t speak ill of the dead, and I assume everyone knows what that is code for.
There have been lively debates in comment sections about this case – which is now over – the baby, a boy named “Chance” was removed by C-section (and while the case it over for the courts, it’s not over for him, poor thing.) But this from The Conversation is about as complete an analysis of the ethics of the case as you are likely to find.
This is from The Brennan Center for Justice on the topic of the Supreme Court. I know in the past some have had issues getting to that site, so here is an archive link in case anyone needs it.
Here is an extra video which left me literally speechless:
Yesterday, Bowers News Media reported “n a welcome development, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled against the provision in the House-passed version of the Republican megabill that would have made it more difficult for federal judges to enforce contempt charges. This means that, at least right now, there are no provisions in the megabill that would reduce the power of the courts.” I don’t think he can fire her – but I hope she has security.
Since this from The Intercept is an ex post facto analysis, I figured it could wait a few days. Also, there’s little if anything we don’t already know. But seeing it in print kind of gives it an authority it would otherwise not carry. And that is why the betrayal of the mainstream media is so tragically important.
This is an “Oregon leads the way” story from Democratic Underground. I don’t know whether the poster is the writer, and DU is strict about copyright infringement, so I am “printing” it to a pdf. Let me know if the link is broken and I’ll send that to you.
I’m afraid I think this is a good idea – and maybe not just now. They are obviously out to get anyone who in any way makes like more bearable for non-billionaires, and they are out there regardless of who is in office, and too many of them are armed.
