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| ST. LOUIS, MO - AUGUST 04: Missouri Democratic congressional candidate Cori Bush celebrates - https://www.forbes.com/sites/erinspencer1/2020/11/13/record-number-of-women-of-color-to-head-to-congress/?sh=462bcd3e19b8 |
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| https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-11-18/2020-election-most-women-of-color-2021-congress |
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2104 - Weekly Hodge Podge for 2011.21 - Thankful for the TRUTH, for diversity, and rational good sense - Pre-Thanksgiving Edition
"You can't have a democracy without truth and trust. Without truth, we don't understand what to do and where to go, and without trust, we do not know with whom we can do things and go places."
~ Tom Friedman on CNN
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Please ignore the social media block at the top of the page lost somewhere in the protoplasmic HTML soup and cannot be deleted.
In this pre-Thanksgiving edition of the Weekly Hodge Podge, I am thankful for many things that are the un-incinerated bits of goodness that have jumped out of the dumpster where the dumpster fire that is 2020 burns away.
I am thankful that more women of color than ever before have been elected to Congress.
I am grateful that Joe Biden enjoys the greatest number of votes ever cast in the history of America for a single president even though the number two record is currently held by that individual who believes he won that election, Donald J. Trump.
This edition of the HODGE PODGE that is the third week of November in the height of the second wave of the PANDEMIC features many thoughtful bits.
Starting with the importance of TRUTH and TRUST in democracy. The quote is not perfect but is more or less what Tom Friedman said to Chris Cuomo the other night on CNN.
Then Chris Cuomo reminded us of the great words of Voltaire because they are more true today than when Voltaire said them (maybe, I wasn’t alive in 1765... I am not quite that old). Voltaire said (or wrote) these words twenty-four years before the storming of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution. My home state of Michigan has already had ARMED PROTESTORS storm into the state legislature, and they were ALLOWED TO STAY holding their guns and shouting vitriol. That’s revolutionary. That’s civil unrest. Those people have no right to say word one about ANTIFA that opposes FASCISM though largely without guns.
The gun-toters are also showing up at #StoptheSteal protests in front of state capitols around the country as well as in Washington DC. These are the “absurdities” that Voltaire referenced. Will we next have the atrocities? We will if Trump gets his way. In the most grotesque and obvious case of psychological projection I have ever seen, Trump continues his tantrum, now two weeks after the election has been called for Joe Biden. He and his “legal aid” stooge Rudy Giuliani cry hoax, fraud, crimes a thousand times a day for the fraud, hoax, rigged election crime that they are trying to perpetrate. Giuliani actually called the alleged rigged election the greatest crime he has ever seen in HIS LIFE. I guess he forgot about 9-11 when he was mayor of New York. And so many people have been co-opted by Trumpery and “news” media brainwashing of Fox News, OAN, and others that they can no longer tell fantasy from reality.
It’s really pathetic what these Trumpists will believe with no evidence and no critical thinking of theirs or anyone’s who sells them this narrative; however, this deviation from reality situation is also worrisome since so many of these protestors have GUNS.
I hope Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have REALLY good protection. I am so very concerned for their safety.
And then my wife gets a book by Edmund Burke. I knew the name but needed to look it up.
Guess who said “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”?
Other great quotes, too. I added the and some links.
Then some GREAT social media. Shana Blackwell quits Walmart with a rant over the store’s sound system: “Attention Walmart shoppers...”
Michelle Obama wrote a beautiful post on Instagram for what she and Barrack did for transition in 2016.
But Biden is no magic, happy spell. Things are fucked up, and Trump is determined to poison the well and leave America on fire not just by not doing his fucking job (which he has rarely done given the reports I have read from White House insiders) but is actively trying to wreck shit and leave Biden with a whole city filled with burning dumpsters.
Given the horrors Trump has wreaked on the country and government he says he loves, I would not be surprised to see Biden and team write all kinds of protections and safeguards to limit a president’s ability to be such a colossal asswipe in the future. ESPECIALLY if the Democrats win in Georgia and take back the Senate from the MOST CORRUPT POLITICIAN IN THE HISTORY OF DEMOCRACY: Mitch McConnell. Worse than Trump, this man is evil and should be executed for treason by due process and the rule of the nation’s law (just so you don’t think I am advocating terrorism – not – like those even more unhinged traitors in my home state of Michigan).
Lots of good news and cartoons in this one.
This week the pandemic rates as more news worthy than anything else, even this election bullshit. It’s nearer the top.
The next secretary of state? Read on.
Good stuff this week.
Thanks for tuning in.
And remember as Chris Cuomo says in CNN: “Together, as ever, as one.”
Voltaire: “Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities, Can Make You Commit Atrocities”
Voltaire, the clearest of Enlightenment thinkers wrote those words in his 1765 essay, “Questions sur les miracles.” And they resonate as much now, 250 years later, as they did then.
Finally quit my toxic job that was making me absolutely miserable for a year and seven months. Fuck Walmart. pic.twitter.com/CHtXASwVDy
— shana (@shanablackwelll) October 31, 2020
As read here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/walmart-intercom-stocker-bosses-quit/
CAP 2 is one of the most physical jobs in Walmart. But we got paid the least in the store, and we got yelled at the most, criticized the most, watched like hawks the most. Managers would set an example but expect us to follow another one. They would come back and yell at us and tell us to go faster, then walk away instead of helping us.
The first thing that kind of started going downhill for me is the fact that I would put in so much work and it would not be worth it.
Then the men started getting creepy. They would say things like, “Take off your clothes,” or, “I like to check you out sometimes,” or, “Look at my dick.” It made me feel really uncomfortable. I’ve seen these things happen to girls in the past, but nothing happened, so I didn’t report it. All I did was awkwardly laugh, walk away, mind my business, and keep to myself for the rest of the day.
[Editor’s Note: In a statement, Walmart said it is “committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and we take every allegation very seriously.” The company said it had “spoken with the person in the video” and is “actively looking into her claims.” It did not respond to an offer to hear specific complaints of sexual harassment and racism made by Blackwell in this interview.]
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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP |
Religious Freedom Arguments Give Rise To Executive Order Battle
Key government policies on religious freedom and discrimination,
once set through legislation, are increasingly dictated by presidential orders,
meaning they shift capriciously from one administration to the next.
In 2014, advocates for LGBTQ rights cheered when President Obama
unilaterally issued an executive order prohibiting federal contractors
from discriminating in their hiring practices on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity.
Four years later, the Trump administration weakened that order
with another unilateral move directing that contractors
facing a discrimination claim under Obama's order should be entitled to a
"religious exemption."
That time, it was
conservatives who were pleased.
Such back-and-forth executive orders are now set to continue
under President-elect Joe Biden, who has promised to reverse President Trump's hiring directives.
Behind the dueling orders is
a deep disagreement over the meaning of the First Amendment guarantee of
religious freedom. Conservatives say the right to "free exercise" of
religion means people and organizations should be able to act on their religious
objections to abortion, same sex marriage, or accommodation policies for
transgender individuals.
Others say the First
Amendment's prohibition against the "establishment" of a religion
means that religion-based arguments should not be used to justify discrimination
or the denial of civil rights or basic human services.
Such conflicts in the past
have been resolved through legislative remedies. Congress passed the landmark
Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993.
Both measures had bipartisan support, but that consensus has since broken down.
Health care and nondiscrimination became so partisan," says
Holly Hollman, general counsel at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious
Liberty. "We've kind of lost our shared definition and commitment to
religious liberty in ways that make it harder to legislate."
The prospect of a divided
government in 2021, with Joe Biden in the White House and possibly a
Republican-led Senate, means that consensus around religious freedom issues may
continue to be elusive.
"Given the gridlock, we're going to see more unilateral
action from the executive branch, whether it be regulatory action or executive
orders," says Ryan Anderson, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation
who writes often on religious freedom issues.
Following his 2014 order
barring discriminatory hiring practices by federal contractors, Obama issued
guidance in 2016 that required schools to protect transgender students from
harassment and to accommodate their identities with respect to pronouns and bathrooms.
That guidance, however, was rescinded shortly after Trump was inaugurated,
when his administration told school districts that the relevant policies were
more properly established by state and local authorities.
Three months later, Trump issued a sweeping order "promoting free speech and
religious liberty." The order called for weaker enforcement of the Johnson
Amendment, which bars tax-exempt religious groups from endorsing political
candidates. It also instructed government agencies to consider new regulations
to address "conscience-based objections" to the provision of certain
health care services, and it directed the Attorney General to issue guidance to
all federal agencies on what religious liberty protections require.
Among the agencies responding
quickly to the order was the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
where a conservative activist, Roger Severino, was put in charge of a
"conscience and religious freedom division" under that department's
Office of Civil Rights, which Severino directs.
"Every
agency has a civil rights office in the federal government," Severino
noted last month in a video presentation. "Not every agency, until
now, had a religious freedom office. And now we do."
Over the course of his term
in office, Trump has taken a variety of unilateral steps to promote a
conservative view of religious freedom, many of which a Biden administration
might be inclined to reverse.
The American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU)
have both issued detailed lists of the executive actions they expect to see
Biden take in the area of religious freedom, perhaps beginning with a broad
order similar to the one Trump issued.
"We would like to see
the Biden administration sign an executive order to restore and protect
religious freedom for all Americans," says Rachel Lazer, the AU president,
"and make clear that religious freedom should operate as a shield to
protect us and not as a sword to license discrimination."
Some of Trump's executive
actions will be easier than others to reverse. The directive to weaken
enforcement of the Johnson Amendment could be countered simply by mandating
strengthened enforcement. Other issues could be settled through the courts.
An HHS-issued "conscience rule" that would allow health care
workers to refuse to provide medical services that conflict with their moral
and religious beliefs has faced several court challenges and is now on appeal
before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The AU's Lazer says a
Biden administration could simply decline to defend the rule.
"We would expect that
the Biden administration would not carry forward with any type of appeal,"
Lazer says. "[That] would cut that off at the knees."
Some of Trump's directives would be vigorously defended by
outside groups, however, particularly where they concern sexuality and
marriage.
"There are a variety of
religious traditions that hold viewpoints on this question," says Ryan
Anderson, of the Heritage Foundation. "Orthodox Jews, Roman Catholics,
evangelicals, Latter Day Saints, Muslims, and various people who accept the
Genesis creation story are going to have strong convictions about male and
female."
Under President-elect Biden,
Anderson says, "the government might be asking us to violate those
convictions. If we're going to be pluralistic, how do we navigate those
disagreements?"
Even if a Biden administration
manages to undo some of the government directives that reflected conservative
interpretations of religious freedom principles, other groups could go to court
with similar claims, using the same arguments.
"The undoing would give
rise to legal challenges," warns Louise Melling, the deputy legal director
at ACLU.
Such challenges are likely to
get a more favorable hearing, given the installation of more conservative
judges in federal courts across the country and a newly powerful conservative
majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The court is clearly in
the midst of reconceiving some of our religion statutes and the constitution, I
think," Melling says.
With that prospect, battles
over religious freedom are likely to continue, no matter the presidential
administration.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights presents Religious Freedom in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond, a virtual discussion on efforts to protect religious freedom domestically and abroad. The event commemorates International Religious Freedom Day on October 27, 2020. Speakers include
Roger Severino, Director, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services; Claire Murray, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General, U.S. Dept. of Justice; Samuel Brownback, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, U.S. Dept. of State; Andrew Bremberg, Permanent Representative of the U.S. to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva; and Kristina Arriaga (Moderator), Former Vice Chair for U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and Executive Director for Becket Law.
SO MANY STORIES
Italian police use their police Lamborghini to drive a kidney 300 miles in two hours. (Boing Boing)
I really wish people would stop writing about Substack, because I have to read each one and then I am jealous and sad :( (Thank you, all of you, for keeping Wonkette going, you are wonderful.) — Vanity Fair
This guy's halal restaurant has an open-door (and free meals) policy for homeless people, so people are sending him all the money. It's Nice Time! (Eater DC)
THE PANDEMIC
Oh sweet Jesus, management at this Tyson pork plant "organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19," a wrongful death lawsuit by the son of a deceased plant worker alleges. And you know what that means: Mitch McConnell won't do a stimulus unless it includes immunity for businesses that infect their workers and customers. (CBS) Tyson has suspended the managers. (AP)
The Minnesota GOP told its own caucus but didn't inform Democrats when its members got sick. "Pro-life." (Star Tribune)
This LA Times story thoroughly and well explains the Health Department contact tracing report of the wedding in Maine that killed seven people who weren't even there. Rightwingers' response isn't to read it, but to mock the very idea of "infectious disease." (LA Times)
Which makes this story about the private homecoming dance in Missouri, where the grown-ups go on Facebook and say the problem isn't the outbreak but the kids who "snitched" on their friends, and that if anybody tried to contact trace them it would be akin to the Holocaust and they'd reply with the "Second Amendment," even more fucking upsetting. (Daily Beast)
What is going on in hospitals all over the country during this unprecedented third wave. — The Atlantic
Listen to Connie Schultz: Please cancel your Thanksgiving so we can be here next year. — Creators
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer SHUTTIN' IT DOWN like a ... person who cares about the citizens of her state, good job Gov. Whitmer! (Twitter)
"This is how we treat each other? This is who we are?" A "bitch," "communist" county health director talks about the people following her to the park and taking pictures of her kids, for wanting her Missouri community to not die of coronavirus. — Washington Post
Hospitals in half the states facing massive staffing shortages. (Stat News)
THE WEEKLY PANDEMIC REPORT
If you prefer your data in a visual format, here's the current map from COVID Exit Strategy, using data from the CDC and the COVID Tracking Project.
I want to add this link to the weekly report. It's important to remember:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1983 - Is Coronavirus more contagious and more deadly than the flu? YES.
ALSO... I am seeing a big discrepancy between the Johns Hopkins data in death totals and WORLDOMETER data, which aggregates data from many more sources. Could this be the slow down due to the change in how the CDC obtains the data, having it filter first through Health and Human Services department.
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
Deaths:
Recovered:
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| https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/photos-new-women-of-congress/ |
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| https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ilhan-omar-foreign-policy-biden/ |
2021’s Congress will feature the most women of color ever
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| Pramila Jaypal - https://jayapal.house.gov/ |
SUSAN RICE - the next SECRETARY OF STATE?
I'm proud to endorse @JoeBiden for President.
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) March 2, 2020
Here he is comforting me on 1/4/17 just after my mother passed away. There is no one kinder, more empathetic and caring than @joebiden. He will lead America with the same deep compassion and decency. pic.twitter.com/4IBscj75VN
👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://t.co/y0NtSLn8gN
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) November 19, 2020
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) November 18, 2020
THE ELECTION
MORE BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The two low-level Republican officials in Michigan who, first, tried to block the certification of a portion of the state’s election results, and then agreed to certify those results covering the Detroit area ahead of the legal deadline Tuesday night, reversed course again Wednesday evening and signed affidavits asking to rescind their earlier certification votes. The two Republicans on the four-member Wayne County Board of Canvassers, chairwoman Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, now say they were pressured into certifying the county’s results and believe that Democrats have reneged on what they say was an agreement to audit the votes in Detroit. As a consequence, they now want to decertify the results in one of the most populous counties in the country.
“I rescind my prior vote,” Palmer’s affidavit reads. “I fully believe the Wayne County vote should not be certified.” Fellow Republican board member Hartmann signed a similar statement. A Democrat on the board, however, said that both Republicans knew exactly what they were agreeing to, that there was support for an audit as a form of compromise, but that it was ultimately at the discretion of the state secretary of state (who is a Democrat). Both Republicans came under intense pressure from the local community for attempting to block the certification of precincts that were majority Black, while confirming the counts in surrounding majority-white areas. Meanwhile, the entirety of the national Republican establishment, which has collectively lost its mind, has used the suspicions of the pair of Wayne County Republicans as proof of some sort of national conspiracy to defraud President Donald Trump, the rightful heir to the throne, out of office.
A FALSE NARRATIVE: It's pathetic what people are willing to believe because they want to believe.
Progressives Weigh Fight Over Biden’s Defense Secretary Pick
As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to shape a national security team in his image, few choices loom larger than who he will pick to lead the Defense Department. That decision will help determine how sharply Biden’s foreign policy veers from the chaos of Donald Trump’s presidency—and how much it diverges from the progressive foreign policy ideals increasingly gaining sway within the Democratic Party.
Michèle Flournoy, an Obama Defense official with decades of experience in Washington national security circles, is the leading candidate for the top job. Her selection would be historic, giving the male-dominated Pentagon its first woman leader. But it would also be divisive among progressives. She serves on the board of a major defense contractor and co-founded a consulting firm that’s done business with companies in the tech and defense industries, raising concerns that her appointment would secure more influence for weapons makers. Her foreign policy views, especially on China, have also attracted scorn from antiwar leftists, who consider her excessively hawkish. (A spokesperson for Flournoy declined to comment on the record.)
Trump All 'I Concede NOTHING' And 'RIGGED ELECTION!' After Briefly Admitting Biden Won
Early this morning, Donald Trump tweeted out something he didn't mean to tweet. He tweeted that Joe Biden won the election. Sure, sure. He said he won because the election was rigged, but nevertheless, he did say Biden won. That was enough to trigger an avalanche of "Oh so are you officially conceding now?" responses.
He was not pleased.
The tweet came attached to a "Watters' World" segment in which Jesse Watters claimed that his gut feeling that Trump had been screwed over was like a parent's feeling that their child had been hurt in some way, which seems legit since Trump is absolutely a child. I watched the whole thing, but you really needn't bother. It is mostly a lot of "This is just not possible because Joe Biden did not have a catchy slogan and how do you even win an election without a catchy slogan?" Clearly, he vastly overestimated the amount that people just wanted Trump to go the fuck away and also don't really give a crap about a catchy slogan.
Anyway! Trump wants it to be very clear that he has not conceded and that he still thinks he will win and will continue reenacting the final scene of Sunset Boulevard until he is carted out of the White House by force, which would actually be pretty amusing. I half expect him to start twirling around on a beach singing "I've Written A Letter To Daddy."
Grand dame guignol, but make it not fashion?
Of course, it doesn't really matter if Trump concedes or not. Concession is not necessary. Frankly, I hope he doesn't concede because I absolutely do want to see him dragged out all "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille"-like. It would be highly amusing and also apt.
Now, this is somewhat unrelated to Trump's loser-y denial phase, but last night he also tweeted out a video from noted phrenology enthusiast Andy Ngo purporting to show a video of mean lefties brutally attacking an innocent Trump supporter who was just minding his own business.
That, of course, was not the case. The Trump supporter attacked first, but that part of the video was cut off.
It seems like a very apt metaphor for, well, all of this.
Trump Flying Michigan GOP Idiots To DC, Gonna Ask Them To Do Him A Favor Though
Tucker Carlson Sorry For Accusing Living Woman Of Being Her Dead Husband
One of the ways that wingnuts have been self-soothing over the last couple weeks has been by insisting that the only reason Joe Biden won the election (for now, anyway!) was because a whole bunch of dead people voted for him. Generally, they have been proving their point by pointing out ballots cast by people with generic names and then finding dead people with those same names and then going "Welp! Looks like this Jim Smith fellow is yet another dead voter!" But in some cases, they've really believed they were onto something big.
That was the case this week with James Blalock. Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and many others were thrilled to announce that they had found proof that James Blalock, a Georgia man who had been dead for many years, voted in this election — thereby proving conclusively that they had been right all along. "Hooray!," they thought, "Now Trump can be president FOREVER!"
But alas. Dead James Blalock did not vote in the election. His wife, the very much alive Mrs. James Blalock, however, did. And 11Alive, NBC's Atlanta station, managed to even get an interview with her non-rotting corpse. Whoops!
Unless she's an extremely lifelike non-Romero-esque zombie ... it's pretty clear that she was not a Dead Man Voting. As such, Tucker was forced to issue a retraction, as only he can: by insisting that he's still right about tons of dead people voting.
Tucker Carlson Tonight 11/13/20 FULL | Tucker Carlson November 13, 2020youtu.be
"We've got some good news tonight, and an apology. One of the people who voted in last week's election isn't dead," Carlson gracefully explained. "So apologies for that, and of course we're always going to correct when we're wrong. And we were."
In Carlson's defense, he could have been confusing Mrs. Blalock with his childhood nanny, Mrs. Baylock.
He did not mention that Linda Kelser, another one of the people he and Trump said was a Dead Voter was also proven to be a Not Dead Voter.
He did, however, claim that he still absolutely proved that tons of dead people voted in the Georgia election, and that we know that they did because he told us their names. Just like he did with Mrs. James Blalock and Linda Kesler.
Princess Goya von Nepotism is SO MAD, YOU GUYS! How very dare those nasty reporters at the New York Times write true facts about her. The very nerve of those little people reporting that the Trump family businesses are under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and the New York attorney general!
"This is harassment pure and simple. This 'inquiry' by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage," she whined on Twitter, no doubt stamping her stilettoed feet. "They know very well that there's nothing here and that there was no tax benefit whatsoever. These politicians are simply ruthless."
Oh, yes, tell us more about the dangers of enraged partisans clamoring to LOCK HER UP their political opponents. Because the best way to make sure no one reads a story about your family business being the target of multiple investigations is to tweet it out to your 10 million followers.
And to be scrupulously fair to Her Nibs, she does have a point. Well, kind of.
There are probably a whole lot of family businesses with hinky shit on their books, including some where employees/children have side contracts as "consultants" raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars that are categorized as deductible expenses rather than regular wages which require daddy to kick up federal withholding. When it comes to hiding an illegal campaign donation in the form of a hush payoff to a pornstar in the family business and calling it a "legal retainer," the Trump family is probably unique. But they're certainly not the only ones with some fuckery in their files.
Most of those families will go about their business as usual without ever finding themselves in the sights of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Because most of those families aren't currently squatting in the White House pretending they haven't been handed an eviction notice by the American people.
If Little Miss Born on Third Base and the Royal Consort hadn't appointed themselves Grand High Ministers of Everything, despite having exactly no experience and being unable to pass a routine security clearance check, they could probably have gone on with their lives as before the election. But they couldn't leave well enough alone. They had to inject themselves into public life.
And now The First Daughter, who dutifully clapped along as her father led chants of LOCK HER UP about Hillary Clinton and hundreds of dedicated public servants who were just doing their goddamn jobs, is mad that she's getting attention from law enforcement?
BITCH, PLEASE.
If she didn't want to disclose her finances, Vanky didn't have to take a job in the White House. But she did, and that's how the New York Times worked out that she was probably getting paid consulting fees from her own family business.
Among the revelations was that Mr. Trump reduced his taxable income by deducting about $26 million in fees to unidentified consultants as a business expense on numerous projects between 2010 and 2018.
Some of those fees appear to have been paid to Ms. Trump, The Times found. On a 2017 disclosure she filed when joining the White House as a presidential adviser, she reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned, totaling $747,622, that exactly matched consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization for hotel projects in Hawaii and Vancouver, British Columbia.
With great power comes great responsibility, unless your name is Princess Vanky of the House of Grift, in which case you owe your subjects nothing. No tax returns, no need to refrain from using your position to endorse a political candidate, no deference to a century of democratic norms, and no heightened level of public scrutiny that comes with being a public figure endowed with the vast power of the United States government.
And so the Trump administration ends as it began, with childish tantrums about having to live up to the most basic obligations of public service by people who thought they were untouchable royalty blessed by God and genetics. But at least we get to laugh along with Walt Shaub, the former Government Ethics official who dedicated his life to the proposition that people who work for America should not abuse the public trust.
God Bless, Mr. Shaub! And as for Ms. Trump ... enjoy private life, and may it exceed all your wildest expectations.
[NYT]
POLICE BULLSHIT AND BLACK LIVES STILL MATTER
Acho, Emmanuel. “A Conversation With The Police - Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man Ep. 9” Youtube.com, Emmanuel Acho, 1 November, 2020
Emmanuel Acho sits down with police officers from the Petaluma Police Department in Petaluma, CA. They discuss polarizing topics like defunding the police, Black Lives Matter, and accountability in the police force surrounding the tragic deaths of black civilians. This is not a conversation you want to skip!
Uncomfortable Conversations the Book coming soon!
Preorder at: https://uncomfortableconvos.com/
Milwaukee Cop Who Shot 17-Year-Old Alvin Cole Earlier This Year Resigns
A Milwaukee cop responsible for fatally shooting three people over the last five years while on duty has resigned.
The Associated Press reports that Joseph Mensah has signed a separation agreement with the Wauwatosa Common Council on Tuesday night. As a result of that agreement, Mensah’s last day with the department will be Nov. 30. Mensah, who is Black, has been on suspension since July 15 due to the aftermath of his third shooting earlier this year.
In February, Mensah shot and killed 17-year-old Alvin Cole outside of the Mayfair Mall. Cole was running from the police with an allegedly stolen handgun. Cole pulled the handgun out while running from the police and accidentally shot himself in the arm. Cole allegedly pointed the gun at Mensah when he was told to drop it and that’s when Mensah opened fire, killing him.
Mensah’s record of police violence also made national waves, with rapper Jay-Z even attempting to put up billboards in Milwaukee calling for Mensah to face charges. In 2015, Mensah shot 29-year-old Antonio Gonzales eight times after he refused to put down a sword. Gonzales’s blood-alcohol level was .255, so apparently, it’s impossible to simply tase a drunk dude with a sword.
His next shooting happened only a year later in 2016 when he approached a parked vehicle where Jay Anderson had been sleeping. Mensah said that when he approached the car, he saw Anderson reaching for a gun and decided to open fire.
Very Little Stands Between the U.S. and a Technological Panopticon
This summer, when officials in a few cities started using facial recognition software to identify protesters, many cried foul. Those objections turned ironic when protesters used facial recognition to identify police officers who had covered their badges or nameplates during protests. Powerful technology beloved by police had become a tool for accountability: David defeats Goliath.
Possibly satisfying—but profoundly naive. Protesters, civil libertarians, and ordinary Americans have far more to lose than gain from the normalization of facial recognition software. These incidents simply highlight the pressing need for more comprehensive regulation of this increasingly cheap and powerful tool, one that threatens to alter the balance of power between citizens and their government.
'Act Like a White Person in a White Neighborhood,' Racist AF Karen Tells Black Family in California Suburbs
First of all, you’re racist. Second of all, ya dog is racist. Third, YOU GOT A WHOLE DOG AND ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT A DOG AND YOU CAN’T REMEMBER TO DOG WHISTLE YOUR BLATANT RACISM??
Anyway, Dean repeated the “act like a white person” line after Jones’ sister, Jarielle, heard the commotion and came to the door to see what was going on.
Advertisement“You know what? You guys are acting like Black people and you should be acting like white people,” she said again.
Listen: I’m really trying to give the Dean of Nazi Pride Technical College for Underachieving Bigots the benefit of the doubt and assume that by “acting like white people” she just means she wants more neighbors who bathe bi-weekly and bring green bean casserole and Triscuits to cookouts they weren’t invited to. But her sentiments were much more racist than that.
AdvertisementDean went on to tell the family—who were growing increasingly impatient, though they were still way better than me—that she was raised in Oklahoma City “where there were tons of Black people.”
Jarielle interrupted whatever white nonsense-infused anecdote Dean was about to tell regarding Oklahoma City negroes and asked her to repeat her earlier comments.
Advertisement“We’re acting like what?” Jarielle asked.
“You’re acting like niggers people who aren’t normal,” Dean responded.
Hey, this is cool, Pramila Jayapal and Ron Wyden introduced the Finding Alternatives to Mass Incarceration: Lives Improved by Ending Separation Act (FAMILIES Act) to keep from incarcerating parents and letting them stay home with their kids. It's based on successful programs in Oregon and Washington that reduced recidivism. (Jayapal)
RANDOM STUFF
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| https://kennerly.com/blog/story-photographs-by-david-hume-kennerly/ |
40 years after Jonestown, why writing about cults and the people who join them is never easy. (CrimeReads)
https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/11/20/2238204/deep-frozen-arctic-microbes-are-waking-up
Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up
It is clear that the warmer we make the Arctic, the weirder it will get, as temperatures at the surface become more extreme and thawing deepens. With the coalescence of microbes reawakening from the deep and surface conditions unprecedented in human history, it is challenging to assess risks accurately without improved Arctic microbial datasets. We should pay attention to both known unknowns, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and unknown unknowns, including the potential risks from the resurrection of ancient and poorly described viral genomes from Arctic ice by synthetic biologists. For all of these reasons, we must come up with guidelines for future Arctic research. As travel through the region increases, the likelihood of pathogen export and import rises as well. The planetary protection guidelines that space agencies follow to prevent interplanetary contamination can provide a framework for how microbial investigation can safely continue. Biosurveillance measures must be put into place to protect communities in the Arctic and beyond. As the Arctic continues to transform, one thing is clear: as climate change warms this microbial repository during the 21st century, the full range of consequences is yet to be told.
Astronomers Discover New 'Fossil Galaxy' Buried Deep Within the Milky Way (phys.org)
The remnants of Heracles account for about one third of the Milky Way's spherical halo. But if stars and gas from Heracles make up such a large percentage of the galactic halo, why didn't we see it before? The answer lies in its location deep inside the Milky Way. "To find a fossil galaxy like this one, we had to look at the detailed chemical makeup and motions of tens of thousands of stars," says Ricardo Schiavon from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in the UK, a key member of the research team. "That is especially hard to do for stars in the center of the Milky Way, because they are hidden from view by clouds of interstellar dust. APOGEE lets us pierce through that dust and see deeper into the heart of the Milky Way than ever before." APOGEE does this by taking spectra of stars in near-infrared light, instead of visible light, which gets obscured by dust. Over its ten-year observational life, APOGEE has measured spectra for more than half a million stars all across the Milky Way, including its previously dust-obscured core.
To separate stars belonging to Heracles from those of the original Milky Way, the team made use of both chemical compositions and velocities of stars measured by the APOGEE instrument. [...] Stars originally belonging to Heracles account for roughly one third of the mass of the entire Milky Way halo today -- meaning that this newly-discovered ancient collision must have been a major event in the history of our galaxy. That suggests that our galaxy may be unusual, since most similar massive spiral galaxies had much calmer early lives.The findings have been reported in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Whatever Happened to the National Enquirer?
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2011.21 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1968 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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