Somewhere Glenn missed another day … but I see no need to apologize for this presentation.
Talking Feds – Trump INDICTED in BIGGEST CASE IN US HISTORY
The Lincoln Project – Frenzy
Thom Hartmann – Will Climate Change Turn The Day After Tomorrow Into A Documentary?
Robert Reich – 5 Crises Republicans Made up to Distract You
Dog Waits By Door For 2 Weeks To Meet This Cat
Beau – Let’s talk about Mitch McConnell and the future….
Glenn Kirschner – Regarding the indictments of Trump and company, Georgia DA Fani Willis says, “We’re ready to go.”
The Lincoln Project – The GOP is Racist
MSNBC – Trump braces for Jan. 6 indictment as Capitol officer blasts him as ‘a hitman’ – Inside w/Jen Psaki
Puppet Regime – MBS: A Barbie girl living in a Saudi world
Squirrel Visits His Rescuer Every Day For Years
Beau – Let’s talk about AMOC amok, currents, dates, and water….
Glenn Kirschner – Chris Christie says Mark Meadows appears to be cooperating with federal prosecutors against Trump
The Lincoln Project – If the Shoe Fits
A lot of crap at this site – but this one could slmost have been made by the Lincoln Project
Tell It like It Is PAC – Trump’s Choice
Puppet Regime – Putin’s moment of truth has come
Bald Dog Turns Into The Fuzziest Teddy Bear
Beau – Let’s talk about a trillion trees and the GOP….
Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letter from an American” for the previous night turned out to be a bit unsettling. Netanyahu has managed to push a measure through the Knesset limiting the power of the courts (to check excesses by the executive. It look like “Fascist Jewish State” is no longer an oxymoron. The letter also highlights, I’m sure without intending to, the superiority of the Political Compass, with its four directions, over the left-right distinction to describe political positions. Heather has to say “hard right” when what she really means is “authoritation right,” which I realize is longer, but has an exact definition, which “hard right” does not, and is therefore more clear. Also, as if that wasn’t enough, she touches on Abbott’s war crimes, Gym Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee, and Russia both bombing Odessa and raising the upper limit draft age. Here’s the link in case anyone wants a deeper dive (and hopefully isn’t too depressed already.)
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Common Dreams – Heatwave Chevron? As US Bakes, Former Meteorologist Names Heatwaves After Oil Companies
Quote – “I’m naming heatwaves to highlight this worsening climate problem and perhaps save lives by getting the public to focus on this weather threat,” [Guy Walton] wrote in an April blog post. “This year I’m naming major heatwaves after oil companies to shame them in the process and to identify culprits that are exacerbating these deadly systems.” Heatwaves are the deadliest type of extreme weather event in the U.S., according to The Weather Channel, killing more people on average each year than tornadoes or hurricanes put together. Yet they do not receive names like hurricanes or wildfires, and some experts have argued that changing this might help people take them more seriously and save lives.
Click through for story and evidence. The concept is not original to him – Seville in Spain has been doing it – but IMO it’s a good idea whose time has come.
The Inquirer – Why are Texas and Florida building their own large, sadistic armies?
Quote – This crucible of blood and bone is playing out against the cold slashing metal of barbed wire strung out along the Rio Grande River that divides the United States from Mexico in west Texas. The actors are a new breed of troops, accountable not to Washington but to an ambitious Republican governor in Austin, enforcing his Fox News bromides with brutal force.,,, In a story first broken by the Houston Chronicle’s Benjamin Wermund, based on a whistleblowing email from a state trooper complaining of inhumane conditions at Eagle Pass, and then amplified by the Times’ reporting, we’ve learned the past week that troops under the massive Texas state border operation dubbed Operation Lone Star are committing shocking acts that arguably add up to domestic war crimes.
Click through for details. The obvious answer to the question in the headline would appear to be that two governors (two for now, anyway) want to be absolute monarchs in their states and are forming armies to enforce that. But we can’t rule out the possibility that, unchecked, we could be looking at potential insurrection. And a possible shooting Civil War – again.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – DOJ changes course, will NO LONGER defend Donald Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation case
Thom Hartmann – New Hate Group Wants To “Liberate” Your Children
MSNBC – Florida suffers consequences of DeSantis political games with public health
Liberal Redneck – Sound of Freedumb
Chonkiest Tomcat Appears In Woman’s Living Room
Beau – Let’s talk about Tuberville and the Marines….
Yesterday, The Conversation’s newsletter included an article about what doesn’t work to prtect people from mosquitos – and what does – and if so, how long. If you live where there are mosquitos (and, thanks to climate change, every year there are more places which do) you might want to give it a look.
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The Daily Beast – GOP Lawmaker Banned From Wikipedia After Self-Editing Spree-
Quote – According to open source Wikipedia records, the edits were all made in 2021, while Lawler was serving as a New York assemblyman. Beyond authoring his self-made jump to his alma mater’s notable alumni, he made several more straightforward changes to his Wikipedia page. Lawler added electoral statistics from his victory in 2020 over a Democratic assembly incumbent, buffed up his resume to note that he “serves as the Ranker of the Government Operations Committee and as a member of the Aging, Banks, Education, and Housing Committees,” and changed his name on the page in one instance from “Mike Lawler” to “Michael V. Lawler.” The “V,” of course, is for Vincent.
Click through for details. I try to donate to Wikipedia yearly, since I use it so much. I think I’ll send them a little extra. Policing isn’t free.
The New Yorker – Reinventing the E.R. for America’s Mental-Health Crisis
Quote – It’s hard to imagine a less therapeutic environment for a person in crisis than an emergency department: crowded and windowless rooms; harsh fluorescent lights; the ceaseless ping of alarms; this patient retching, that one screaming. And yet, for every eight patients who present at an emergency department, one is there for a behavioral crisis such as psychosis, suicidality, mania, aggression, or substance use. Often these conditions have a years-long history and can’t be treated quickly or straightforwardly, in the way that a broken bone or a knife wound might be. In some cases, showing up at an E.R. can make things worse; patients who pose a danger to themselves or others may be sedated or kept in isolation, even tethered to bedside rails so that they cannot move…. The mental-health unit where Mitlyng works is one of only a few dozen Empath units, short for Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment, and Healing. Such units, which were invented about a decade ago, vary in size, staffing, and design, but the core concept is that, instead of leaving patients to languish in an emergency room, caregivers offer them a calm communal environment where they can receive a comprehensive evaluation, start therapy, and, if needed, receive medication.
Click through for article. It’s jaw-dropping how simple the concept is… and also how badly it is needed everywhere. The author has hospital ER experience themself, incidentally.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Special Counsel Jack Smith investigates Trump’s conspiracy to seize state voting machines
Meidas Touch – Former CIA Director BLASTS Trump in POWERFUL New Ad
MSNBC – U.S. attorney contradicts GOP and IRS whistleblower claims in Hunter Biden case
Armageddon Update – HOT BEE SUMMER!!
Cat Likes Dad More Than Mom
Beau – Let’s talk about Rudy, Trump, and a new direction….
Yesterday, our Mitch had a photo of a sunset over Tampa Bay picked up by Axios and used in their local newsletter. Congratulatons, Mitch! While we’re speaking of Florida, I think my favoride nickname for her Governor is still Ron DeSaster, but Steve Schmidt just came up with a grest contender – “The Tallahassee Mussolini.” Also, I learned that Wonkette is moving to Substack.
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Salon – Ecosystem collapse could occur “surprisingly quickly,” study finds
Quote – Yet humanity may not need to wait until the late 21st Century for climate change to bring about real-world apocalyptic conditions. This will especially be so if ecosystems undergo abrupt changes after too many extreme weather events occur, one after another after another. According to a new study in the scientific journal Nature Sustainability, that scenario might indeed occur sooner rather than later…. “We show that the combination of additional stresses and/or the inclusion of noise [such as variables like El Niño] brings ecosystem collapses substantially closer to today by ~38–81%,” Willcock explained. “We also show that, if you were focused on just one stress – because it was easier to measure, for example – the ecosystem collapse may occur at stress levels you thought were safe (i.e. due to the pressure of the stresses you are not observing).”
Click through for more information. I won’t say what I’m thinking, lest it sound like a sick joke.
Letters from an American – July 8, 2023
Quote – Reacting to that nomination, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) recognized the importance of the Fourteenth Amendment to equality: “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is—and is often the only—protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy….”
Click through for the letter, Heather puts it all together – from the Dred Scott decision , the 3th and 14th amendments, through originalism, and Ted Kennedy being prescient about Rbert Bork. (Does anyone besides me find it very expressive that “borked” now means broken, non-functioning, messed up?)
Food For Thought
