Yesterday (OK, just barely, but after midnight) I read this article from Democratic Underground regarding the Special Counsel’s notes on the Insurrection case. The link to the New York Times is probably paywalled, but if you copy the URL into the home page of archive.is, it will tell you when it was last saved (and I’m sure it will have been) and you can read it there. Or, since it’s a “developing story,” you can save it yourself and see whether there is anything new. Also yesterday, Wonkette featured a graphic sourced from the New York Times which is essentially the Political Compass with different names for the axes – distinguishing between “fiscally” and “socially” liberal and conservative. Those terms were in common use in the 1980s, but I haven’t heard them much lately. Particularly for people who don’t spend much (if any) time on politics, they may well be easier to grasp. The graphic includes only US actual voters from 2016, and shows pretty clearly what kind of people are obsessed with money. Since Hillary won the popular vote in 2016, it looks to me that there was a disproportionate number of Republicans in the sample. But it’s still valuable information. For one thing, it shows even more clearly than Robert Reich can explain why the Democratic party should NOT “move toward the center.” Also, the whole article is packed with information, and I’ll link to it tomorrow.
Harry Litman of Talking Feds (which is on both YouTube and Substack – sorry but I didn’t check to see whether or not this was a transcript) addresses the subject of preemptive pardons, going into almost every one of the pros and cons and the ethics behind all of them. The one thing he doesn’t address, which has actually been bothering me, is that technically, legally, accepting a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt. Common sense would suggest that this would not apply to a “safe harbor pardon,” but the GOP as a group has not shown any common sense since the Eisenhower administration. Also, if the Tangerine Palpitine keeps his promise to pardon al the January 6 conspirators, the implication of confession is something we are going to want to use, and oh boy, does that ever have the potential to get ugly. Much of what Harry says refers, not to Biden’s current approval rating, but to the approval rating of his legacy (a metaphor, but one that is a thing.) I implied above that I have no faith in the common sense of Republicans, and that’s the truth. I certainly don’t have a very strong faith in the common sense of historians – but I do have more faith in them than I do in Republicans. Since I won’t be around to see history’s final judgment, I’ll never know whether any of my opinions are going to be justified. But I’m putting my thoughts out anyway.
From Wonkette on ASL interpretation. Normal human beings (it’s normal to have both common sense and compassion) would not call the use of ASL interpreters in news broadcasts and videos “tyranny.” They are more likely to be delighted by it, since frankly, it’s fun to watch. Charlie Kirk brings to mind the (way too many) people who, if they hear anyone speaking anything other than English, jump to the conclusion that the speaker is talking about them, and not in a friendly way. How insecure can you get? Insecure enough to call ASL “the tyranny of the deaf,” I guess. When I was working as a costumer, including for musicals, we had a deaf singing actress and a blind singing actor. We were thrilled. We didn’t whine, we got creative – and we had an ASL interpreter at every performance. Sighted and hearing audiences loved it. But then, we are talking about normal human beings with normal common sense and compassion. (I could also rant about CC, but Wonkette has that covered.)
This is a compilation, and I’m pretty sure the first one is a rerun, but the second is new.
