Glenn Kirschner – Georgia grand jury report re: Trump’s election crimes concludes witnesses lied, recommends charges.
Farron Balanced – Trump Lawyer Offers Dumbest Explanation Ever For Stolen Classified Document Folder
Really American – Chip Franklin SKEWERS Donald Trump for his obsession with public execution.
Brent Terhune – Satanic Ritual at the Grammys
Abandoned Lamb Runs To Human Mom
Beau – Let’s talk about Ohio, trains, coverage, and a lack of answers….
Yesterday, I heard from James on how he is doing after his amputation. He is working aain, and is taking his beloved dog, Cinnamon, for walkies every day. Last Monday, while the weather was pretty good, they took a walk of four and a half miles. Wow. I have long believed that how well one recovers after surgery, any surgery, is pretty much determined by the amount of work one puts in on recovering (bearing in mind, of course, that varous factors may affect one’s ability to do so.) James has worked hard both in prescribed and self-motivated physical therapy and I would say it shows.
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HuffPo – She Was The Most Powerful Woman In Ohio. But There Was One Big Problem She Couldn’t Fix.
Quote – Out of office, [Maureen] O’Connor hasn’t lost sight of the fight for fair districts. She says she’ll work to build support for a constitutional amendment in the state to create an independent redistricting process and “get the politicians, the elected officials, off the redistricting commission.” But for now, the product of the GOP-drawn maps is clear: It’s a stacked deck.
Click through for details. Unless we want to continue to live under permanent minority rule (and such a deluded minority at that), we need a new voting rights act. Among other things, in needs to require an independent commission to draw new district maps for every state (not necessarily the same commission, just that every state must have one.) Every state. The last I looked, Ohio was not in Alabama.
Wonkette – Could Anything Have Prevented Diabetic Child From Dying In Arizona Foster System? Guess We’ll Never Know!
Quote – Type 1 diabetics are insulin-dependent and require regular blood glucose monitoring. If they are deprived of insulin, they will go into ketoacidosis, which if untreated will result in brain swelling (cerebral edema) causing a coma and eventually brain death. It just wouldn’t happen if the kid had been getting his insulin. Does that really count as a natural death? Richard Blodgett says he believes the Arizona Department of Child Safety failed to take care of his son, which they obviously did. He would very much like to know if his insulin pump was removed, if his blood glucose was monitored, if his regular doctor was consulted. So far, the Department of Child Services has not given him any answers.
Click through for story. This is worse than a tragedy (in a tragedy, the hero brings his fate upon himself through a tragic flaw. Type 1 diabetes does not constituta a tragic flaw.) I would call it a travesty (in the metaphorical sense of destruction through absurdity, not in the original sense of cross-dressing.) I wonder whether there will ever be any accountability here. The author thinks not, and I fear she is right.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I kind of fell down the gas stove rabbit hole. I grew up with a gas stove, which my mom loved because of the instant temperature changes it makes possible (otherwise, heat is heat – that’s really the big difference.) The same autumn during which President Kennedy was murdered, we sprung a minor leak somewhere. It was so minor neither of us could smell it. Mom worked full time (and always overtime the closer it got to year end) whereas I was a sophomore in college and had a car, and a schedule with a lot of gaps, so I was home more. And when I started feeling a lack of energy, I spent even more time at home, and lost even more energy. My aunt smelled it when she and my uncle came for Christmas, and we got it fixed. I never felt the same about gas stoves, and after moving out (well, a lot of moves, since I went into the service) I learned how to use a gas stove, and that there are ways of gaining the control over temperature changes that so many people think you lose, such as using two burners, one set on simmer while you are bring the dish up to high hear, then moving it to the low temp one and turning off the hot one. As in making rice, and doing stir-fry or wok coooking. Since the Biden White House recently issued an alert on the danger of fumes from gas stoves, gas stove lovers on all parts of the political continuum are freaking out, and I’m afraid I fell into the rabbit hole in the comments at a couple of my sources. Amazingly, so far, no one has savaged me. I actually received one uprate on a tip (a gadget to warm tortillas ina microvave) and one reply thanking me for the two-burner tip. Amazing. Of course, both sources are left-leaning, and it shouldn’t surprise me that Democratic gas stove lovers, even though Democrats can get snarky, would be more polite than Republican ones.
I’m not going to talk about President Joe’s documents at this point. I have read a couple of very different artivcles I’d recommend, here and here, if anyone wants to go deeper into it at this point.
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Wonkette – Proud Boys Lose Lawyer, Fight For All White Jury, Manhood In Jan 6 Suit
Quote – Well, to be more precise, it’s a Batson challenge, although not perhaps as the Supreme Court envisioned it in 1986 when it held that it violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause for prosecutors to use their peremptory strikes to exclude jurors simply because of their race and lowered the threshold for proving that a strike was racially motivated. In plain English, in a criminal case, each side can strike unlimited numbers of jurors “for cause,” and a limited number just because they feel like it, i.e. peremptorily. Before Batson, it was standard practice in some jurisdictions for prosecutors to strike all Black jurors when the defendant was Black.
Click through for story. I believe the jury is set and oral arguments began yesterday, but I wanted to post a reminder of the “Batson challenge” and the bad old days. I also wanted to share Wonkette’s source which said the jury “is not bereft of white people.” That gave me a chuckle.
truthout – Privatization Scam Threatens to Replace Traditional Medicare Altogether by 2030
Quote – The incessantly repeated television ad for Medicare Advantage, which has often been narrated by 1960s quarterback Joe Namath, is full of disinformation — and it’s a profitable scam for health insurers. The disingenuously named privatized program has all kinds of disadvantages compared to the traditional Medicare program that dates back to 1965.
Click through for details. I’ve never felt a supplemental program, other than Part D, was right for my unusual circumstances. But i’m 100% good with some kind of supplement to Medicare (mine just happens to be a former-employer-funded HSA). A lot of us here have Medicare, some probably have a supplement, and you should have access to the knowledge of exactly what you are paying for.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, It had snowed, and, because the day was overcast, there was still a blanket of it when I got up. But the concrete (like my driveway) was just a lttle damp – except the parts that get no sun at all Those patches always linger. We are heading into a cold snap, so some of the snow.may hang around, but we’ll see There’s no new snow in the 10-day forecast.
I was looking up all the music parody and straight satire people for new stuff. There actually isn’t much – looks like everyone wanted to do something for Christmas and are now taking a break. Rocky Mountain Mike does have a new one, but it’s not a parody, but a straight cover of “Summer Wine.” But he clearly is looking to expand his work visually, because the visuals are a dramatization of the story of the song. It’s mostly black and white – color is used just at the end, and whe it shows up, it’s startling. There’s no CC, but the lyrics are available here (if anyone cares.)
If you haven’t already seen this, it may shock you – it did me! Among the few Republicans who have expressed support for Jamie Raskin is – wait for it – Marjorie Taylor Greene. Who would ever have thought she had it in her?
Finally, today is the day the House votes on the Speaker. I will be surprised, however, if there is any decision made today. In fact, it’s anybody’s guess how long it will take to come up with a compromise which is acceptable to everyone (this is a full house vote – it’s not just Republicans.)
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Crooks & Liars – Arizona Border Containerpalooza Sale!
Quote – Governor Ducey has agreed to pay AshBritt Management & Logistics $76 million to tear down containers they illegally placed on the southern border of Arizona to keep the brown folks out. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the containers were placed on federal land, and the DOJ has sued Arizona to remove them. So after paying $95 million to install them, they will need to be removed.
Click through for details. This would be funny, were it not such a waste of money – taxpayers money – for which there were thousands of better uses.
New York Times (no paywall) – Opinion: Anthony Fauci Quietly Shocked Us All
Quote – Days after the conference, I found myself in Dr. Fauci’s office, along with the ACT UP members Mark Harrington and Jim Eigo, hammering out the final details of our parallel track program, which would allow thousands of people to obtain experimental drugs outside of traditional clinical trials. Within days, a New York Times front page headline about Dr. Fauci read, “AIDS Researcher Seeks Wide Access to Drugs in Tests.” The F.D.A. quickly fell in line. ACT UP had scored its first major victory, with Dr. Fauci’s help.
Click through for OP. It’s not all sunshine and roses, but on balance, it’s a tribute.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – DC Bar counsel finds Rudy Giuliani committed ethics violation, recommends he be DISBARRED
MSNBC – Fauci Addresses Elon Musk’s Critical Tweets: ‘I Don’t Pay Attention To That’ (Ignore Mrs Greenspan – Fauci has something to say which needs to be heard.)
Robert Reich – How the Corporate Takeover of American Politics Began
Mrs Betty Bowers – Grooming Children with Bibles, Not Drag Queens!
Twitter Willow
Willow can’t get enough of her first Christmas at the White House with @FLOTUS pic.twitter.com/QyeQNqQMHd
— The Dodo (@dodo) December 16, 2022
Beau – Let’s talk about my son’s questions about Christmas cards….
Yesterday, putting this post together, I realized I had picked two good news stories. I didn’t set out to do that. It was just, having read so much legal-judicial stuff, I was looking for something new and different, and these jumped out. Besides being good news, the two have something else in common – both hark back to the Obama administration in some way.
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The 19th – 53 years ago, the White House sought to end hunger. Now it’s trying again.
Quote – “This conference is engaging all sectors — the public sector, the private sector, community-based organizations — all around shifting the conversation from just getting food into people’s hands to also making sure that we get healthy food into people’s hands and that it is seen as a public health issue, rather than just an emergency food issue,” said Jason Wilson, vice president of marketing and development for the Partnership for a Healthier America, a nonprofit organization created in conjunction with former First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign.
Click through for details. Fifty-three years ago most Republicans were human beings, and only a few were fascist monsters. Now, it’s the other way around. I widh the conference alll the luck in the world.
Wonkette -Schools Go Solar, Save Millions On Energy, Upgrade Classrooms, Pay Teachers More — Yes, In The USA
Quote – It’s been another crazy exasperating week, so we bet you could do with some really cool news about public schools that are switching to clean solar energy, saving millions of dollars in some cases, and using the savings to improve the schools and even their communities. This isn’t a proposal in some position paper about how we might create a wonderful clean energy future, either — it’s been going on for a while now, as the New York Times recently reported [There is a free gift link in the article but it’s too long to reproduce here]. The story notes that one in 10 US public and private schools in the US was using solar energy by early 2022, according to a report from clean energy nonprofit Generation 180 — twice as many as in 2015. That’s one more benefit of the rapid decline in the cost of solar panels in the last couple decades. Hey, if you’d like to say “Thanks, Obama,” you certainly could, since clean energy investments in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act helped jumpstart the widespread adoption of renewable energy and the resulting reductions in solar energy costs.
Click through for story – stories actually. It’s happening in states you would not ecpect. Amazing.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, the pickup got picked u – Yay! My body was still complaining, however, so I had to do some self czre. The right shoulder was probably not the worst, but it was definitely the most annoying. But – have traffic lanes again – and more room to start on the next one. Assoon as I feel up to it. Meanwhile, I’ll be seeing Virgil again Sunday
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Daily Beast – Conservatives Milk Story of Amish Farm Tied to Fatal Listeria Outbreak
Quote – Viewers of Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show were greeted Monday with dire news. The Biden administration, Carlson said, had launched a war on small farmers, starting with a U.S. Marshals “raid” on an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania named Amos Miller…. “Maybe if he promises to put more chemicals in the milk to turn kids trans, they’ll lay off,” Carlson said.
Click through for story. I’m actually in favor of natural foods in general – but that’s different from zero hygiene. Here’s more information on listeria if anyone’s interested.
Letters from an American – August 24, 2022
Quote – Republicans have warned that the massive investment the Democrats have made in the country during Biden’s term would rack up enormous deficits. But, in fact, today the Office of Management and Budget forecast that this year’s budget deficit will decline by $1.7 trillion, the single largest drop in the deficit in U.S. history. (The record deficit was $3.13 trillion in 2020, during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.) This number is simply a benchmark, and the deficit remains at $1.03 trillion, but it suggests that numbers are currently moving downward.
Click through for the full letter. The midterms, the deficit, and student loan forgiveness are tied together here.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, it was quiet enough that I was abke to get everything moved on the porch – not necessarily to where it is going to be, but enough that I could completely finish sweeping off the dust and dead leaves.That is a definite achievement (although it may not quite rise to the level of BFD.) After that, I decided to call it a day.
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Robert Reich – The Origins of Trumpism (Part 4): Gingrich
Quote – January 7, 1995 – The press is declaring Newt Gingrich [who has just taken over as House majority leader] the new king of Washington and according him the celebrity normally reserved for new presidents at inaugurations. I couldn’t help thinking how different it would be had Bob Michel remained. Bob Dole has taken over the Senate and is trumpeting his victory as well. Gingrich and Dole seem to have taken command of the United States government. In our system, power is found where the public seems to have conferred it, and the two of them are credibly claiming to have most of it.
Click through for the full column, which comprises two quotes from his diary. One thing Gingrich did when he became Speaker was to remove the requirement for members to maintain a residence in DC. Because it’s easier to diss and defame someone who isn’t your neighbor. That requirement was one of the last checks on the loss of decency.
The 19th – Experts debunk monkeypox myths as misinformation spreads
Quote – Daniel Uslan, co-chief infection prevention officer at UCLA Health and clinical chief of infectious diseases… said… that he is not aware of recorded cases where handshaking is the suspected route of transmission. But skin-to-skin contact with someone who has an open lesion can still occur if those lesions are on the hands, [Stephen Abbott, medical director at Whitman-Walker’s Max Robinson Center] noted — and some lesions are so small that patients don’t notice them
Click through for other misinformation, much of which is based on fear of non-binary people.
Food For Thought
