I'm in Charleston and it's effing hot (Open Thread)

by Ugh

It's SCOTUS Armageddon this week, where we learn if we can keep it.  Good on ya', CJ Roberts (probably the incorrect turn of phrase).

USWNT won today, although likely didn't deserve it.  Nevertheless, woo!

I watched Brightburn and it needs a sequel (in fact the concurrent credits scenes are some of the most compelling of the movie).

Did I mention it was hot in SC?  A perfect time for dinner on the USS Yorktown with no AC...."feels like" 103 degrees.

Anyway, I've been neglecting my duties here for a variety of reasons, so, open thread............................

Comments

[bobbyp]

Roberts Court: The New Deal State is in the dock, and the verdict is foreordained, Alito sneaky concurrence in Grundy notwithstanding.

The conservative movement will not be satisfied until they have the whip hand and all the goodies.

[Hartmut]

To-morrow (technically already to-day since it is after midnight here) temperatures in Berlin (Germany) are expected to easily break the record of highest since the beginning of reliable recording about 120 years ago. The main question is: will it go beyond 40°C or stay just shy of that?
I'd rather prefer 40 degrees Fahrenheit at the moment (outside, not necessarily in here).

[Michael Cain]

Glad it's hot somewhere. Highs here (West Denver suburbs) on Saturday and Sunday just past were 58 and 61. Some of the roads over the high mountain passes were snowed in again, drifts up to five feet deep. There's enough snow up in the high country that Denver Water's reservoir system is going to hit 100% full even if it doesn't rain again for a couple months. Bureau of Reclamation says there will be enough water flowing into Lake Powell to allow extra to be released into Lake Mead, putting off the Lower Colorado River Basin water emergency for another year, maybe two.

[CharlesWT]

Here in the middle of Texas and passed the middle of June the temperatures are having trouble even getting near the mid-90s (95°F—35°C). Didn't even reach 90° today.

[wj]

Northern California is actually cooling down, to highs in the low 80s. (vs over 195 a week ago.) But it won't last.

And thanks to heavy rains last winter, we are looking towards a wild fire season for the ages. Until next year....

[wj]

Meanwhile, it's in the mid-90s this week here in Marrakech. What kind of loon schedules a conference in Morocco in summer??? But here we are.

Well, as they say in Phoenix, "at least it's a dry heat." Ha!

[cleek]

expecting mid 90s all week in NC. currently 90% humidity (but's it's early AM)

[Girl from the North Country]

Meanwhile, back in the land of the blind leading the blind, we haven't had a summer yet but have now jumped straight to quite warm (75F), humid, airless and sunless (at least in London). It seems appropriate somehow.

[wj]

I read that first as "humid, airless and soulless". Which seems appropriate, too. Even if it's not what you wrote.

[Ugh]

Are you going to get to anywhere else on Morocco wj! Fascinating place.

[Girl from the North Country]

The medina in Fez is pretty amazing, the closest I can imagine to being in the middle ages. I stayed in a wonderful place there, called Dar Seffarine (which I can wholeheartedly recommend), and loved almost everything about Fez (which I am told is much less touristy/westernised than Marrakesh). Of course, I was less freaked out by e.g. the extremely graphic nature of the butchers' stalls because of my childhood in HK and other travels, but you ObWiers are a pretty cosmopolitan bunch, I don't think you'd be too freaked out either. Well worth a trip, if anybody is considering it.

[hairshirthedonist]

...and loved almost everything about Fez (which I am told is much less touristy/westernised than Marrakesh).

Going off on a small tangent here, but this struck me funny because Fez and Marrakesh are the names of the two Moroccan restaurants I've been to in Philadelphia. The roles are kind of reversed, though. Fez is more prominent and easy to find, like a typical restaurant, whereas Marrakesh is in a little alley, has no sign or windows, only accepts people with reservations, and you have to knock on the door to be allowed in - only after they verify your reservation, of course. It's like going to a Moroccan-food speakeasy. (At least that's how it was when I was there. It's been a number of years.)

[wj]

'Afraid not. Looks to be bouncing back and forth between the hotel and the conference center (once a day) -- all 4 days run meetings 8 AM to after 7 PM. Plus from and to the airport, of course.

I'm doing lots of business travel these days. But the trips tend to be jam packed. With a bunch of to-dos generated to discourage staying on after. Sigh. Maybe after I retire....

[Nigel]

“Any child is free to leave at any time”...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/children-border-locks-michael-burgess.html

[cleek]

“Any child is free to leave at any time”

-- Count Olaf, waiting for the Baudelaire kids to show themselves, knowing they're the only ones brave enough to try to make an escape through the desert.

[John D. Thullen]

Michael Burgess is outfitted with an ankle tracing bracelet.

I know where he is at all times.

Once he is in my clutches, he ain't going nowhere.

[John D. Thullen]

Existential:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/magazine/hypersonic-missiles.html

There needs to be a top secret international organization, a militia completely independent of all governments, corporations, and international bodies, with highly trained sleeper operatives devoid of all ideology and loyalty to anyone or any leader or any country, placed in every country on Earth, which springs into action when an app alerts them and murders any leader and all of his lieutenants and all of their families immediately when any plan is hatched to launch these missiles or when the missiles are launched.

The killers, leaving no traces of their movements, can make up for lost time by slaughtering anyone, anywhere on Earth who has requested, designed, funded, and manufactured these weapons up until now.

As a backup to this manually-operated doomsday machine for fucking murderous leaders, every leader and all of his family members, upon his or her assumption of a country's leadership, will be outfitted with tiny nuclear warheads and detonators, worn as a stylish hat, never to be removed while in leadership, even while sleeping, and anchored with bolts drilled into their skulls, which will be detonated immediately upon any attempt to place these weapons into operation and/or to use them.

Or, we, all 8 billion of us powerless proles on Earth, can go on permanent strike by simultaneously killing ourselves and leaving no one, not a single bugler, not a single cadet, not a single cute chick on a fucking military float, to have a parade for whatever murderous subhuman leader happens to win the next war.

This last provision of course would not faze many of the world's dear leaders, especially our American numero uno, narcissistic, egomaniacal piece of subhuman litter box liner, who is a one-man parade for himself, so he needs a hat tout suite, without delay.

[John D. Thullen]

Placing sanctions on the already dead:

https://juanitajean.com/all-wound-up-and-ready-to-holler/

I'm happy to see Iran's leaders eschewed political correctness, as all conservatives in the world do, and called p "retarded".

Goes well with deplorable.

[John D. Thullen]

I kinda of wish, actually I would wholeheartedly endorse John McCain's North Vietnamese fascist captors dispensing with the torture and tiger cages and just thoroughly gelding him, and warning him not to enlist Sarah Death Panel in his Presidential aspirations, and sending him ball-less on his way home after his capture:

https://splinternews.com/meghan-mccain-makes-the-child-detention-scandal-all-abo-1835847246

Who knew rank, malignant dumbocity would be the main beneficiary of America's long corrupt tradition of unearned, qualification-free nepotism.

[wj]

Well at least the already dead won't go dissing him by pointing out his mental deficiencies.

[John D. Thullen]

Mike Pence will get the same treatment from p when the two of them are impeached, arrested, tried, and executed, though there are a couple of steps in there that could be skipped, thus saving money, in our now rule-of-the lawless country:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-border-chief-resignation-john-sanders

[Tony P.]

On SCOTUS Armageddon:

This week, Roberts has the opportunity to go down in history as America's last Chief Justice.

If the Caller of Balls and Strikes joins with the Pervert, the Perjurer, the Receiver of Stolen Goods, and the SOTU Headshaker on his side of the bench in effectively ruling that once Republicans grab power The Law says they can keep it forever (the American version of "One man, one vote, one time") then the SCOTUS will have established itself as just another fascist think-tank -- a purely political instrument of the would-be dictatorship He, Trump and his lickspittles have wet dreams about.

And if Roberts does that, I would renew my call for RBG, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan to resign en masse. Not quietly or politely; not with civility or decorum; but with enough noise and invective to drive home the point: the American experiment in democracy was good while it lasted.

--TP

[bobbyp]

TP,
I feel your pain, but I don't believe these resignations would make the GOP pay a political price for what they are doing to this country. If the Court says gerrymandering is just hunky-dory, then within 6 months there should be absolutely no GOP legislators left at the state or federal level in WA, CAL, ORE, NY, NJ, MA, etc. They should be gerrymandered out of existence.

Will this mean that states like Wisconsin would respond in kind? Little bit late there, I'd say.

[Girl from the North Country]

Tony P, since you have a great fondness for the civilised invective of a bygone age, I may have told you before about the famous barrister F E Smith, who became the first Lord Birkenhead. He was a great friend of Churchill, and at least as famous a wit, and certainly rather brave in insulting judges before whom he was appearing. If I have posted this small selection before, forgive me, but I cannot resist in case I haven't (the penultimate one is my favourite):

Judge: You are extremely offensive, young man!
Smith: As a matter of fact we both are; and the only difference between us is that I am trying to be, and you can't help it.
Quoted in F.E. : The Life of F. E. Smith First Earl of Birkenhead (1933) by Frederick Second Earl of Birkenhead, 1959 edition, Ch 9.

Judge: What do you suppose I am on the bench for?
Smith: It is not for me, Your Honour, to attempt to fathom the inscrutable workings of Providence.
Quoted in F.E. : The Life of F. E. Smith First Earl of Birkenhead (1933) by Frederick Second Earl of Birkenhead, 1959 edition, Ch 9.

Churchill has spent the best years of his life preparing impromptu remarks.
Quoted in A Politician Must Watch His Wit by Clayton Fritchley in The New York Times Magazine (3 July 1960), p. 31.

Judge: I've listened to you for an hour and I'm none wiser.
Smith: None the wiser, perhaps, my lord but certainly better informed.
Quoted in "London Letter" by Francis Cowper in New York Law Journal (28 August 1961), p. 4.

High Court judge presiding in a sodomy case, seeking advice on sentencing: "Could you tell me, what do you think one ought to give a man who allows himself to be buggered?"
Smith: "Oh, thirty shillings or two pounds; whatever you happen to have on you."
A 1924 entry in Evelyn Waugh's diary, cited in The Times 23 May 2006, Law supplement p.7

[John D. Thullen]

When those right wing filth try to cross the Oregon State line to return to their burned out homes, the Democratic Governor of Oregon should dispatch liberal militia to shoot them dead in their heads.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/oregon-climate-change-bill-apparently-defeated-gop-senators

[John D. Thullen]

Yes, but will butt hurt conservative filth Erick Erickson take his wife's shotgun with him, and goddamned use it, to enable delivery of the charity he wants to deliver to the immigrant kids:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/25/1867106/-Border-Patrol-officials-in-Texas-are-turning-down-diaper-and-toy-donations-for-jailed-kids

If the government was run by Obama or Clinton, he would threaten violence. Well, he'd push his wife in front of him and issues threats of what SHE might do, he being a vermin right wing Christian and all.

But a government run by fascist, violent conservative authoritarians, well, now, by God it's sacred law.

[Michael Cain]

...then within 6 months there should be absolutely no GOP legislators left at the state or federal level in WA, CAL, ORE, NY, NJ, MA, etc.

Several Dem trifecta states -- CA, CO, NJ, NY, and WA at least -- would require state constitutional amendments, or state supreme courts willing to rule maps that clearly violate the relevant state constitution are okay. My own opinion is that at least in the western states, you couldn't get the amendments passed or get the supreme courts to play along.

[Tony P.]

I have long thought that gerrymandering (and voter suppression, and outright ballot-box stuffing) are akin to cheating on your pilot's license exam. Sure, you obtain a certificate that says you can fly the plane. But do you really want to?

He, Trump and his praetorian guard of Republican miscreants and Federalist Society royalists in black robes imagine that they can pilot a democracy as long as they get "certified" to do so, by hook or by crook. They assume that the passengers will sit still for it even after they realize they outnumber the cheats and swindlers in the cockpit.

The terrible thing is that EVERYBODY dies in the crash.

--TP

[John D. Thullen]

The only depredation of fracking, according to capitalists: investors and the sucker landowners and local gummints who either gave or were suckered into giving over their property for the practice, were screwed:

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3473637-fracking-revolution-disaster-investors-says-former-eqt-boss

"The terrible thing is that EVERYBODY dies in the crash."

Flight 93 provided a heroic example when the right wing religious and ideological conservatives who took over the cockpit were challenged by their captive normal people, we passengers.

Probably what will happen is we crash, but the conservatives die with us, one micro-second before we do, and don't reach their ultimate target.

[CaseyL]

The terrible thing is that EVERYBODY dies in the crash.

But they die with the most toys.

[John D. Thullen]

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2019/06/25/open-thread-duncan-hunter-gop-poster-boy-of-the-week/

The Republican Party grooms and finances psychopaths and creeps to run for political office and destroy our government and America. If they have a history of abusing their families, perhaps even raping some of them, this is an important bullet point on their resumes which catapults them to the top of the candidate heap because it illustrates their qualifications for destroying government and the raping the country.

It is important to generalize about all conservatives from these supposedly isolated examples. After all, that's what conservatives have done to us all my life, the scum.

[John D. Thullen]

How many isolated examples do we need to prove the massive generality of republican/conservative perversion and evil:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/25/trumps-chief-of-protocol-pulled-off-the-job-ahead-of-g-20.html

They still observe protocol?

In what?

The finer points of pussy-grabbing?

Statecraft?

Diplomacy?

Lying?

Cheating?

Normalizing all of the above?

It should be quite easy to normalize nationwide violence against the conservative movement.

I think the NRA prints off-the-shelf how-to manuals on it, but you just have to change the names of the targets.

The violent Malheur provacateurs are at it again in Oregon.

The Obama Administration and our useless conservative courts normalized those filth by first, not sending in armed military to slaughter them several years ago, and second by then absolving most of them instead of sentencing them to savage death penalties.

Finally, I've become a law and order republican.

It's so liberating.

[John D. Thullen]

If only the Supreme Leader would write a beautiful letter to p, praising his hair and the bulge in the front of his pants, we could have peace in my lifetime.

https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/we-dont-need-no-stinkin-exit-strategies.html

All 20 Democratic Presidential candidates who are going to participate in the 20-car train wreck the next two days, should make it their business to praise dear leader to the American God in the skies in every answer they give the next two evenings, no matter the subject matter of the question.

They should chant "Lock Her Up!" in harmonies at the end of the debates, when asked about Hillary Clinton.

Maybe p would let all of them move into the White House, vote be damned, which it is anyway.

[John D. Thullen]

Duncan took time out from literally fucking EVERYONE, all nice republican christian whores, to do this:

https://hunter.house.gov/press-release/hunter-recognizes-%E2%80%9Csanctity-human-life-day%E2%80%9D

He also sponsored legislation to have his dick displayed at the Smithsonian in the Hall of Very Small American Artifacts, sharing a case with p's brain, and the heads of Louis Gohmert's children.

It wasn't specified whether this will occur before or after Hunter's extremely timely death.

[John D. Thullen]

Three and a third out of ten republicans believe it fine and dandy to discriminate in everyday America against Muslims, and its pretty close for the other OTHERS as well.

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/06/a-third-of-republicans-think-its-ok-to-refuse-service-to-muslims/

The folks coming into the land of the free under the three out of ten democrats totally open borders plan should inform those fleeing to our shores that we are as full of shit as where they came from, but exceptionally so, if you include the bragging that ten out of ten conservatives like to do while they are refusing you service.

[Nigel]

The base.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/06/26/asia-pacific/one-third-americans-back-nuclear-strike-north-korea-even-killed-million-civilians-survey-shows/
Over one-third of Americans would back a preventive attack by the U.S. on North Korea — including one using nuclear weapons — despite knowing it would kill some 1 million civilians, an innovative new survey has found.

According to the survey, published Monday by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in collaboration with U.K.-based research firm YouGov, one of the most “disconcerting” findings was that “a large hawkish minority lurks within the U.S. public; over a third of respondents approve of a U.S. preventive strike across the scenarios and appear insensitive to informational cues that most security experts would expect to reduce such levels of support.”

Surprisingly, the researchers found, little changed when the scenarios were switched from a conventional to a nuclear attack. Rather, it said, “33 percent preferred a preventive nuclear first-strike.”

“Even more disturbing: There is no significant change in the percentage who would prefer or approve of a U.S. nuclear strike when the number of estimated North Korean fatalities increases from 15,000 to 1.1 million, including 1 million civilians,” the researchers behind the survey wrote....

[cleek]

more from the article:

To better understand the hawkish minority of the US public, we examined a number of key demographic traits and belief systems. Across all scenarios, Republicans expressed greater preference for the use of military force than Democrats. This trend becomes even more stark when we tease out those who support President Trump specifically. A majority of Trump supporters prefer the US strike in every scenario, except when confidence in the effectiveness of the US conventional strike is 50 percent. Still, it is important to note that preference for the strike even in this scenario remains at 44 percent among Trump supporters, compared to only 8 percent among non-Trump supporters (see Figure 3).

[wj]

One has to wonder: is it just North Korea? Or would they say the same about Iran? About China? About Russia? About Mexico?

That is, are they generally fine with a nuclear strike on anyone we have a dispute with? Or just any non-nuclear country? (Thus justifying, whether they realize it or not, Kim's quest for nuclear weapons.) Or is it just North Korea that they are down on for some reason? (And I'm assuming they don't know, or don't care, about the millions of casualties in South Korea which the North would inflict in response.)

[John D. Thullen]

A plurality are generally fine with a nuclear strike on California.

[John D. Thullen]

Not sure about Russia.

That might shut down their fake news services.

[wj]

Not sure about Russia.

That might shut down their fake news services.

Ah, but do they know that?

[John D. Thullen]

The theme of the Democratic debates on how to move America off its diet of conservative shit is:

Beyond Meat.

[wj]

Beyond Meat**

But what Fox, Trump, et al. feed their fans isn't real meat (raw or otherwise). Think of it as flavored tofu, merely claiming to be prime rib.

** Would I be correct that the acronym was deliberate?

[John D. Thullen]

Not sure what you mean by "acronym", but if it's what I think you mean, thank you for adding some double to the entendre.

Beyond Meat is the hot little new issue in the stock market at the moment. It soars one day, plunges the next as bullshitters on both sides manipulate the thing.

They produce patties of vege burgers, for the most part. It's hot, hot, hot, the very latest let me tell ya. Like an app, only you eat it.

Jim Cramer issued both buy and sell recommendations one morning last week and then revered himself in the afternoon with sell and buy ratings.

I don't quite understand why vegetarians need to have the form and shape of a burger maintained to get their vege jones on.

This trend is a little like McDonald's serving ground beef in the shape of carrots or peas and calling it "Meat By Any Other Name", so that somehow beef eaters are convincing themselves they are consuming plants.

Elon Musk is cogitating about creating a new Tesla model out of ground beef shaped like an aerodynamic eggplant, then shooting it into orbit around Mars, where alien life forms can try to figure how genuinely fucked up and self-delusional human life is on Earth before invading us while disguising themselves as meat patties made of palatable bean paste.

This speaks to Russell's points about human migrations and immigration:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/june/world-refugee-day-uscirf-resettlement-persecution-us.html

Apparently Evangelicals are rightly concerned about this trend, but want to tow the overall p line just the same on account of their agreement with his pussy-grabbing ways.

If they could figure out how to disguise pussy-grabbing as humane outreach to human migrants, or vice versa, they could sell it.

Every product in entrepreneurial America should be trademarked under the logo: "It's Not What You Think. Or Maybe It Is. Whatever."

[John D. Thullen]

Cramer did in fact revere himself while reversing himself.

[cleek]

I don't quite understand why vegetarians need to have the form and shape of a burger maintained to get their vege jones on.

i think about it in the other direction: it's better as a way to get meat eaters off the bone, and onto the stalk.

[John D. Thullen]

Why not breed cauliflower to look like cows and moo, from the get go right out of the ground?

Cowiflower. Ughelicious!

How bout a stalk of celery shaped and gene-manipulated to taste like a Snickers Bar?

Or a cigarette?

And what of the cannibal market?

Human flesh-flavored gummy bears for those survival treks into the wilderness.

Or perhaps, a brussel sprout flavored and scented suntan lotion to keep your cannibal friends at bay, or conversely, to enhance their diet when the chips are down.

Everything in America is pure presentation.

Nothing is real.

It doesn't matter much to me.

[John D. Thullen]

This is the new FOX meme: Mueller has not read the Mueller report and knows nothing about what is in it.

https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/06/26/fox-friends-brian-kilmeade-robert-mueller-does-not-know-details-mueller-report/224045

I suppose in the same sense that Kilmeade and company know nothing about the insides of their colons despite their heads being firmly up there studying it in detail with their tongues for most of this century.

Or kind of like if God, having hired a holy ghost-writer, found out what was really in the Bible, he'd disavow nearly all of it except the begettings, because they are rather fun to ponder.

They, like some here, are still stumped that Mueller is a loyal Republican, not Emma Goldman.

[John D. Thullen]

Ya know, if I'da known the republican party was a sex cult rather than just a sado-masochistic death panel cult, Ida stayed registered as a republican just for the swag, because apparently FOX blondes do have more fun:

https://juanitajean.com/all-the-best-sexy-people/

Another isolated incident in the hopper.

This keeps up and we are going to have to convert the Presidential Seal into a dic pic.

And they say liberals are the only ones interested in the plumbing.

[cleek]

This is the new FOX meme: Mueller has not read the Mueller report and knows nothing about what is in it.

times like this i feel that Fox News must be part of a giant psychological experiment. the Fox News component is there to sift through the public and, by slowly increasing the level of ludicrousness in its programming, isolate the top 0.1% of the most gullible.

one that filtering is complete, the next stage will begin. but what that stage is, is yet to be disclosed.

[John D. Thullen]

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2019/06/26/unhinged-open-thread/

Maria Bartiromo, the talent- and merit-less know-nothing political operative, but not terrible looking, for a guy, which is why the money shot honey was hired by CNBC in the first place all those years ago to bat her eyes at the floor traders in pursuit of tips, has submitted to p's every kinky political request and demand, but you can tell she really doesn't know quite how to respond when he cums in her mouth right there on the air.

She obviously has not been charging enough for her services to her steady "date".

Didn't Ailes groom her for exactly this moment.

[John D. Thullen]

To the contrary, the bar employee is a fine, patriotic American and should be honored with his likeness in statuary in every town square in America.

After all, Daddy p shits all over the flag and America and Americans every day and there HE is in the rancid flesh.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/eric-trump-spit-chicago

That there was not a second spitter on the grassy knoll shows that there is still too much politically correct tolerance in America.

Meanwhile, the lady should consider all of the Whoppers and Big Macs going to waste:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-fight-women-soccer-white-house

Why not wear an NRA-emblazoned leather jacket and
try to carry into the White House for the ceremony?

Surely, that would be acceptable to conservatives.

[cleek]

still wondering why Megan Rapinoe would prompt him to start shouting about black unemployment.

does he just assume she's black?

[hairshirthedonist]

This is certainly not an original thought, but one that somehow struck me today when reading about the father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande, obviously out of desperation to flee terrible circumstances. I thought of the previous generations who came here to flee whatever circumstances, back when we were more in line with the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, at least policy-wise if not culturally. I then thought of the so-called "Greatest Generation" and how many of them must have been immigrants or the children or grandchildren of immigrants.

I guess they were, if not all considered "white" at the time, at least whiter.

The Greatest Generation...

[hairshirthedonist]

does he just assume she's black?

Anthem protests = support for BLM = Rump defending himself with unemployment numbers.

(Not my math, but Rump's, probably subconsciously)

[wj]

Mueller has not read the Mueller report and knows nothing about what is in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mynzbmrtp9I

Oh wait. that was ghost writers not riders....

[Michael Cain]

Anthem protests = support for BLM = Rump defending himself with unemployment numbers.

My time working for the legislature in a western state has permanently damaged my brain. I am never going to see BLM in print and not immediately think "Bureau of Land Management."

[CharlesWT]

You need BLM(Buzzword Lifecycle Management).

[Nous]

times like this i feel that Fox News must be part of a giant psychological experiment.

Fox would never make it through the preliminary IRB application to begin human tests.

[Hartmut]

Any professional literary or art critic* knows as an axiom that the person who knows least about a piece of art or literature is the artist/author him/herself, so his/her opinion on it can be completely ignored as irrelevant.
So, of course Mueller knows nothing and the FOXies everything.

*or schoolteacher that demands that the kids come up with the exact same interpretation as his/her own (or the one (s)he found in a textbook) and get very angry when they form their own opinion or, worse, get an explicit statement by the author contradicting the teacher's

[hairshirthedonist]

I am never going to see BLM in print and not immediately think "Bureau of Land Management."

Does it stand for something else? What did you think I meant?

[bobbyp]

Blog Literacy Metrics

[russell]

Bacon, lettuce, and mango

[wj]

Bacon, lettuce and mango provides a counterexample to the thesis that everything is better with bacon. Bacon and mango? Doesn't really work.

[cleek]

i bet they're awesome together!

[Girl from the North Country]

Given the American habit of eating bacon with sweet things (maple syrup and pancakes for example), I can't see why mango would be such a stretch. After all, prosciutto with melon or peaches is a thing...

[cleek]

google "bacon mango" and all sorts of yummy stuff shows up.

[cleek]

SCOTUS - "partisan gerrymandering? nope, nothing we can do about that!"

[wj]

Have to wonder why "equal protection" doesn't encompass having one's vote accurately reflected in the legislature.

And if the courts "have no role", then drawing maps at the individual address level, even if that results in polka dots, and one district 100% one party while others are 51% for the other, would be OK. Traditionally, one of the purposes of the courts is to restrain unfairness by the other branches. Guess that's a dead letter for now.

Roberts has been supposed to care about the reputation of the Court. This makes clear that he's ok with being totally and visibly partisan. Sad. It will take the Supreme Court as long to reclaim its credibility with the nation as it will take the US, Post Trump, to rebuild its credibility with the rest of the world.

[wj]

SCOTUS - "partisan gerrymandering? nope, nothing we can do about that!"

No, that's not what they said. What they said was, "We don't want to deal with that." And "besides, we mostly like the results" (Maryland notwithstanding)

[wj]

Well, at least they blocked the citizenship question. For now. But given what the Census Bureau says is their printing deadline, that's enough.

[John D. Thullen]

Apparently, limiting access to voting rights for the Other is so sacrosanct that it must be left unmolested by an august Federal body with the word "Supreme" in its title:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dc/scotus-wont-rein-in-partisan-gerrymandering

However, the unsolicited exchange of individual free speech human expectorant is apparently the province of unlimited Federal powers, meaning the Federal Secret Service:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/lara-trump-spit-eric-waitress-pregnant

What's the SS going to do next, round up comedians who do spit-takes onstage after reciting p's latest tweet?

By the way, upthread, I said the alleged patriotic spitter was male, instead she is a she, but we need more heroic monuments to patriotic women in the public square, so this is doubly good.

We require something along the lines of a militant National Spit Association to lobby for our rights.

I don't see that Dana Loesch, now apparently out-of-a-job with the NRA, would have to alter her on-screen delivery one whit to threaten massive retaliatory expectoration on our behalf, since she had to wipe her mouth with her sleeve after her spittle-flecked threats directed at us regarding the fact that she might just have to shoot us one day.

Perhaps a King Cobra as the organization's mascot in the logo.

We can split hairs regarding the legal disposition of automatic versus semi-automatic expectoration as the Civil War advances apace.

Odd that the Founders said nothing about spitting in those sacred documents, a weapon that has not been technologically enhanced or changed since their momentous era, but we assume they knew all there is to know about modern military-grade weaponry in the hands of the citizenry.

The SCOTUS decision has my salivary glands stockpiling ammo and they can take it from my cold, dead mouth if they dare.

Unlike guns, which can now shoot much farther and accurately than they could in the past, spitting has pretty certain human limits in those areas, and besides if you believe we should trust conservatives about as far as we can spit, we'll want to shorten the spitting distances considerably because doing so won't damage spitting efficacy in their case.

[John D. Thullen]

But Roberts gave the Census Bureau broad authority to add the question .... and more ... later, writing that expected non-participation in the Census, a goddamned fucking specified Constitutional function, was not a concern.

Eliminate the Census altogether would be one of my many first acts as President.

If some don't count, no one counts.

Fuck these filth.

[cleek]

but to be fair, Clinton the deplorable neo-liberal would have filled the Court with people like Gorsuch and Kavenaugh. so really, it's a good thing we heightened the contradictions.

[wj]

Roberts gave the Census Bureau broad authority to add the question .... and more ... later

But plenty of time, in the next 10 years, to write a law preventing that. Just so the Democrats don't get distracted, next time they're in control, and fail to get that done. It's not as sexy as they great plans they are talking about on the campaign trail. But ultimately far more important.

[cleek]

JDT: meat-based plants!
https://laughingsquid.com/arbys-megetables-meat-based-vegetables/

[John D. Thullen]

Heh.

This is one of many moments in my life when I realize I'm in the wrong line of business.

[Tony P.]

wj: plenty of time, in the next 10 years, to write a law preventing that

When the Framers gave us the Senate (Affirmative Action For Small States), maybe they were NOT indulging in a bit of constitutional gerrymandering. But it sure has worked out that way. So let's not put TOO much faith in the idea that "write a law" is congruent with "pass a law".

BTW: The Caller of Balls and Strikes seems not to know that when you shoot at the Republic you have to kill it. Wounding it will not tame it, just make it mad.

--TP

[John D. Thullen]

I love that there is a Jimmy Dean's ad smack dab in the middle of cleek's link.

[byomtov]

Roberts apparently wants to leave the elimination of partisan gerrymandering up to its beneficiaries.

That'll work.

[Tony P.]

Notes on the 1st night of the Democratic candidates' debate:

An actual debate almost broke out, despite the best efforts of Chuckie Todd et al. Candidates actually argued with each other at times.

He, Trump got off too easy. But what's left to say about Him, anyway? Sane people already know He is a crook and a pig; MAGA maggots don't care. But I admit to disappointment at Mitch McConnell not being called out as His lickspittle every 5 minutes.

If the Democrats nominate Senator Professor Warren's dog, I will vote for him (her?) over He, Trump any day and twice on Sunday. So I'm not interested in who "won" the night. Still, I wish at least one of the candidates had explicitly put He, Trump's capos, consiglieri, and button men on notice that they'd better not count on the next Democratic president to "look forward, not back".

--TP

[wj]

Accountability. A foreign concept for Trump et al. And those are people who hate all things foreign. (Well perhaps excepting trophy wives.)

[Pro Bono]

The five far-right Supreme Court justices see it as their primary duty to further the interests of the Republican Party, with which they have a symbiotic relationship.

Hence they voted to allow partisan gerrymandering. Roberts, perhaps fearing what the others might write, sacrificed another piece of his remaining reputation by trying to justify the decision.

However, judicial practice is not to tolerate being lied to, and Wilbur Ross blatantly lied about his motivation for the citizenship question. Roberts decided not to put up with that. The other four decided that the principle of not interfering with a Republican executive was more important.

It cannot be right that the Supreme Court has a highly partisan majority which acts in the interests of the political party which almost always loses the popular vote. The party which almost always wins the popular vote should make it a priority to reform the Court to make it less partisan.

[byomtov]

judicial practice is not to tolerate being lied to, and Wilbur Ross blatantly lied about his motivation for the citizenship question. Roberts decided not to put up with that. The other four decided that the principle of not interfering with a Republican executive was more important.

Well, maybe. But Roberts is apparently prepared to give Ross a chance to come up with a better lie. How many strikes does this umpire plan to give Ross?

[wj]

Why is this not a surprise?

President Trump said Thursday that he is seeking to delay the constitutionally mandated census to give administration officials more time to come up with a better explanation for why it should include a citizenship question.

Anyone want to bet we see a court case later this year on account of him trying it?** Who cares about a Constitutional mandate anyway?

** Although the "deep state" may just tell the printers to roll....

[cleek]

the Rule Of Law party sure ain't what it used to be.

[Girl from the North Country]

It cannot be right that the Supreme Court has a highly partisan majority which acts in the interests of the political party which almost always loses the popular vote.

A (neatly put) SOBO (statement of the bleedin' obvious). The corollary is exactly right, however. I look forward to proposals from the said party, and from the crowd of candidates lining up to lead it.

[John D. Thullen]

Meanwhile, Soviet agents in the employ of the conservative movement living among us use the "I" word to describe what should happen to Roberts because of the temporary hold on perverting the Census.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/gop-trumpers-roberts-vote-census-citizenship-question

I worked for the Census Bureau during the 2010 survey, not actually involved in the Census itself, but in another capacity, and the shame is that all of the people who work there are patriotic, decent people who unfortunately believe in following orders, even p's.

They should resign in protest en masse if p is successful in delaying the fucking thing, most are contract employees, not career, thereby making the carrying out of this Administration's Constitutional duties a moot, dreadful failure.

Failing that, they should remain in place and cooperate together in the massive sabotage of the survey, informing non-citizens or those who are afraid to fill in the Census forms that lying about their status is perfectly justified and moral in the light of the fact that lying is now the stinking, fucking, conservative, animal-spirited, red-in-tooth-and-claw way of life in this country, exampled from on high and protected by the First Amendment.

Also helpful would be to learn which forms are filled in by conservatives and republicans and change their answers to the citizenship questions to "No, I and my family are in this country illegally" and when compiling the results, alert Homeland Security to ready the cages and the freeze lockers and get rid of any soap, and toothpaste they may have on hand and take these tens of millions of subhuman vermin into custody for processing their removal from my country, by catapult, slingshot, waterwings, and bayonet-assisted pushes to permanent exile abroad.

[John D. Thullen]

I agree with this but it doesn't go far enough.

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/06/boycotting-the-federalist-society

Attend their soirees and disrupt them with violence.

Follow Leonard Leo and other officers into public venues of the piece of piece anti-American, foreign funded organization, and deposit massive quantities of launched saliva upon their persons, that would be the first salvo, and follow up with hardened cream pies.

Should they be carrying lethal weaponry and make a false move, self-defend with righteous constitutional fury.

[John D. Thullen]

Decent answer to one of the conservative Soviet agents hating on Roberts:

https://juanitajean.com/ouch-thats-got-to-sting/

But not nearly definitive and final enough.

[wj]

I wonder if Schlapp and friends will be so enthused about removing Roberts once there's a Democrat in the White House. ;-)

[John D. Thullen]

Who cares?

[John D. Thullen]

Following in p's tiny footsteps, here's an accusation I've been keeping to myself for awhile.

I follow the markets closely, being a capitalist with Soros tendencies, and I hereby charge Mnuchin and the Treasury Department and Lawrence Kudlow and the Council of Economic Manipulators with using their vast influence and connections in the worldwide octopus of the financial industry to use that industry as proxies to purchase vast quantities of Treasury securities and stock market futures contracts, all illegally and secretly, with taxpayers dollars to support p's poll numbers by manipulating interest rate and stock market averages.

This could very be done via channels outside the surveillance powers of the Fed, the SEC, and other institutions, which are under threats to stand down.

It would be just like them, these corrupt, lying mofos.

I'm happy to make money in the money, but never in the last 40 years have I seen such funky, unexplained action, odd, sudden reversals in overnight foreign futures trading, etc.

I hereby charge them also with front-running those under-the-table orders for their own personal interest, which seques seamlessly with their corrupt, Ayn Rand life philosophies.

Remember when every conservative, every one, during the Obama years, demanded the Fed's quantitative easing program halted completely.

Now they, to a lying, cheating man and woman, are pressuring, with brutal threats, our institutions
to do the opposite.

Executions. Years of them.

In public. On the Mall in Washington, among the monuments. Run the reflecting pond red.

[John D. Thullen]

Money "in the markets"

[John D. Thullen]

Kudlow said today "he was merely following the markets" in his demands for rate cuts.

No, the markets are following his and Mnuchin's corrupt, secret moves in them on p's behalf.

[John D. Thullen]

This guy sums it up:

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28212049/supreme-court-gerrymandering-john-roberts/

[John D. Thullen]

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/06/27/after-losing-nra-spokesperson-job-dana-loesch-goes-fox-falsely-claim-only-1-americans-want-stronger/224073

I'll see her one percent and raise her with the five percent of the American people who would like to personally cut her threatening tongue out of her vermin head.

[hairshirthedonist]

Meanwhile, Soviet agents in the employ of the conservative movement living among us use the "I" word to describe what should happen to Roberts because of the temporary hold on perverting the Census.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/gop-trumpers-roberts-vote-census-citizenship-question

Is it safe to assume the people who are so terribly upset about the ruling are at least 69 years old and that they've been terribly upset for most of their lives? Has no one but them cared who was in the country illegally and has everyone else been in favor of open borders for the last 69 years?

[John D. Thullen]

Karl Rove: We create our own reality:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-trolls-reddit-4chan-tulsi-gabbard-debate-polls

Everything is on the table.

[John D. Thullen]

via BJ:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/24/i-do-have-values-i-swear-i-just-cant-recall-what-they-are/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4cea49c3bf70

Value-added.

Value-subtracted.

Millenniums from now, in a far-off galaxy, the laugh track for the stand-up routine that was America, will be found on a piece of intergalactic junk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPY4yOmNw7w

Premise: If you can keep it.