The Ledes

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Washington Post: “ John Amos, a running back turned actor who appeared in scores of TV shows — including groundbreaking 1970s programs such as the sitcom 'Good Times' and the epic miniseries 'Roots' — and risked his career to protest demeaning portrayals of Black characters, died Aug. 21 in Los Angeles. He was 84.” Amos's New York Times obituary is here.

New York Times: “Pete Rose, one of baseball’s greatest players and most confounding characters, who earned glory as the game’s hit king and shame as a gambler and dissembler, died on Monday. He was 83.”

The Ledes

Monday, September 30, 2024

New York Times: “Kris Kristofferson, the singer and songwriter whose literary yet plain-spoken compositions infused country music with rarely heard candor and depth, and who later had a successful second career in movies, died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. He was 88.”

~~~ The New York Times highlights “twelve essential Kristofferson songs.”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Tuesday
Jul052022

July 5, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Democrats are sleep-walking into a disaster by failing to keep pace with the number of judges who are retiring. President Joe Biden's staff boasted at the end of last year that he had nominated and confirmed a historic number of judges to start off his term, but the president and Senate Democrats could leave more than 60 judicial vacancies at the end of this year -- and they may not have a chance to fill them once a new Congress is sworn in, argued legal expert Christopher Kang in a new column for Slate." MB: Yeah, well, let's hope Biden doesn't nominate any of Mitch's faves.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A Georgia grand jury has subpoenaed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and members of Donald Trump's campaign legal team. In addition to the South Carolina Republican, the Fulton County special grand jury investigating Trump's efforts to overturn his loss has issued subpoenas to Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesbro and Jenna Ellis, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The subpoenas were filed Tuesday and signed off by Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the grand jury and must approve summons for individuals who live out of state."

U.K. Bye-Bye, Boris. Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Two of Boris Johnson's most senior cabinet ministers resigned on Tuesday, raising serious questions about Johnson's leadership and how long the British leader might cling to power. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sajid Javid, the health secretary, announced their departures within minutes of each other, making it clear they had lost confidence in Johnson's leadership." The AP's report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Paul Waldman of the Washington Post has had it with the vaunted Founding Fathers: "And now it's time for us to declare our own independence, from Founding Father fetishism.... As we've seen recently, the American right has found in the framers an extraordinarily effective tool with which they can roll back social progress and undermine our democracy.... It has gone from an affectation to a weapon, and a brutally effective one.... Originalism was a scam from the start, a foolproof methodology for conservatives to arrive at whatever judicial result matches their policy preferences.... This is the conceit of today's right: The Founders were essentially perfect, and only we conservatives are capable of interpreting their will.... I've never been more fearful for the future of America than I am today; there are good reasons to believe that the democracy we began to fashion two and a half centuries ago may not survive the next decade." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There is a reason confederate judges turn to the Founding Fathers for all interpretations of the Constitution & laws: the founders were white, propertied, Christian men whose property included their chattel wives & enslaved men, women & children. They had little respect for the environment & no experience in running or living under a centralized government. So they were inclined to give short shrift to the rights of the rest of us & to many matters that can best be organized & regulated by a national government at a time when we can all move from state to state in a matter of hours, not days, and technology connects us in seconds.

There is not anything in the Constitution that says that the Court, the Supreme Court, is the last word on what the Constitution means. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, oral arguments, Dobbs v. Jackson ~~~

~~~ The Supremes Are Not So Supreme, Ctd. Joshua Zeitz in Politico Magazine: "... Sotomayor's primary intent was to argue that rights and prerogatives need not be explicitly delineated in the Constitution for them to exist. The right to privacy -- more specifically, the right to terminate a pregnancy -- does not appear anywhere in the document, but neither does the Supreme Court's power of judicial review. Both exist by strong implication.... Liberal critics of today's judicial activism are right when they note that the Supreme Court essentially arrogated to itself the right of judicial review -- the right to declare legislative and executive actions unconstitutional -- in 1803, in the case of Marbury v. Madison.... In the same way that Congress or the Supreme Court can rein in a renegade president, as was the case during Watergate, the president and Congress can place checks on an otherwise unconstrained court, if they believe the justices have exceeded their mandate.... The Constitution also grants Congress the power to strip the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction over specific matters.... In theory, Congress could very easily pass legislation denying the Supreme Court jurisdiction over a new voting rights act, a law codifying the right to privacy (including abortion rights), and other popular measures.... To save the Supreme Court from itself, Congress might first have to shrink it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, it is not impossible to imagine -- even within the constraints of that document the beloved Christian, propertied, white-guy Founders cobbled together -- a United States in which the Supremes issued opinions that were just that: opinions. Congress and the president then would decide whether or not to accept a majority opinion or go in another direction. Congress & the prez also could decide whether or not to accept past opinions that squeezed or overturned rights previously granted: like the limitations the Supremes have placed on voting rights over the years, or overturning the rights to women had to health care. Congress might jigger some laws to meet some objections criticss raised, or said opinions might end up in the dustbin of history. There is a way for the will of the people, as expressed below, to prevail.~~~

~~~ At the Glastonbury (England) music festival Olivia Rodrigo & Lily Allen tag the confederate Supremes. Thank you to Nisky Guy for the link:

Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A US judge has asked the Biden administration to weigh in on whether Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, should be granted sovereign immunity in a civil case brought against him in the US by Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist who was killed by Saudi agents in 2018. John Bates, a district court judge, gave the US government until 1 August to declare its interests in the civil case or give the court notice that it has no view on the matter. The administration's decision could have a profound effect on the civil case and comes as Joe Biden is facing criticism for abandoning a campaign promise to turn Saudi Arabia into a 'pariah'.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Meryl Kornfield, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a blow to claims that drug companies fueled the opioid crisis, a federal judge ruled Monday that the nation's three major drug distributors did not cause a public nuisance by shipping millions of addictive pain pills to a West Virginia community that was among the hardest hit. In a legal win for AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, Judge David A. Faber dismissed the argument made by Cabell County and its seat, Huntington, that the distributors bore responsibility for the consequences of an inundation of opioids, according to the judge's order filed in the U.S. District Court in West Virginia. The distributors have denied wrongdoing and have said the painkillers they shipped were prescribed by licensed doctors and filled by pharmacies. They argued they had no way of telling that those prescriptions were not legitimate and that any of the drugs may have been funneled to the black market." MB: Faber, a senior judge, is a George H.W. Bush appointee. So, you know, business as usual.


Republicans Cheat on Everything. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "More than a year after Congress approved a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, Republicans in nearly two dozen states have ratcheted up efforts to tap some of those funds for an unrelated purpose: paying for tax cuts. The moves have threatened to siphon off aid that might otherwise help states fight the pandemic, shore up their local economies or prepare for a potential recession.... Congress ultimately laid down few conditions for how local leaders could use the pot of money, which totaled $350 billion nationally. But they were clear about one thing: The federal government would not subsidize state tax cuts.... Since then, however, GOP leaders have challenged the tax cut prohibition in federal courtrooms and state capitals. Attorneys general in 21 states have fought to overturn the Biden administration's policy, federal court filings show, backed at times by powerful groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce...."

Beyond the Beltway

There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families celebrating a holiday with their community.... Prayers alone will not put a stop to the terror of rampant gun violence in our country. -- Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.), remarks in Highland Park, Monday ~~~

~~~ Illinois. Mark Guarino, et al., of the Washington Post: "A gunman perched on a rooftop fired dozens of rounds at spectators at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb on Monday, killing at least six people and adding yet another name to the list of American towns caught up in a countrywide wave of mass-casualty shootings.... Eight hours after the shooting, at about 6:30 p.m. local time, police announced the arrest of a 'person of interest' and presumed suspect. Police identified the man as 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III of suburban Chicago.... Bobby Crimo ... performs as a Chicago-area rap artist under the name Awake the Rapper.... Some of the videos attributed to the rapper depict violent imagery, including a heavily armed shooter entering a school.... So far this year, the United States has recorded more than 250 mass shootings, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.... Darren Bailey, the Republican candidate for Illinois governor, posted a video on Facebook about two hours after the shooting, asking supporters to pray for law enforcement and the families of the victims, then return to celebrating the holiday." Related reports in yesterday's News Ledes. ~~~

     ~~~ Bryan Piesch & Gerrit De Vynck of the Washington Post: "The man detained by police as a 'person of interest' in the shooting in a Chicago suburb ... was a local rapper whose online presence contained tinges of violence and a haunting monologue depicting a troubled young man.... Crimo -- known online as 'Awake the Rapper' -- is like many internet performers, with a modest following, amateur music videos on YouTube and tracks on Spotify.... Videos with a voice-over show a computer-drawn image of a figure wearing what appears to be tactical gear and shooting a rifle, with a person kneeling, hands raised apparently begging for mercy, and another lying on the ground. Another clip shows a person appearing to be Crimo wearing a helmet and vest inside a classroom next to an American flag ... [accompanied by a] voice-over...: 'I need to leave now, I need to just do it. It is my destiny. Everything has led up to this; nothing can stop me, not even myself.' In another video, Crimo says: ... 'I hate when others get more attention than me on the internet.'... Photos that appear to show Crimo attending a rally for former president Donald Trump have also surfaced, but it is not clear from his online postings that he was a supporter of Trump or any other political party or candidate." ~~~

     ~~~ Ben Collins & Safia Ali of NBC News: “Robert 'Bobby' E. Crimo III, the person of interest identified by police after Monday's shooting in a Chicago suburb..., left a long trail of tributes to mass shootings and public killings on social media platforms, according to numerous profiles that appear to belong to him..... [His] recent music videos included depictions of mass murder.... Crimo had his own Discord server, where fans and people who knew him would chat. The community featured a politics board filled with nihilistic political memes.... Crimo also posted frequently to a message board that discussed graphic depictions of murder, suicide and death. His most recent post to that message board came last week, when he posted a video of a beheading."

Way Beyond

Ukraine., et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here.

Jake Russell of the Washington Post: "WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February on drug charges, wrote a letter to President Biden that was delivered to the White House on Monday morning, her sports agency said. In the letter, Griner, 31, expressed fear over not knowing how long she will be detained and urged Biden to work for her release and that of other Americans detained abroad. 'As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I'm terrified I might be here forever,' Griner wrote in an excerpt of the letter shared by Wasserman, a talent agency that represents the basketball star." An ESPN report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Griner made a calculated decision to go to Russia to earn money after the U.S. warned American citizens not to travel to Russia. I get that outstanding professional women basketball players don't make nearly as much money as male stars. And I get that people make stupid mistakes. I've made some of my own. Perhaps she thought her fame would render her too exceptional to jail on trumped-up charges. Perhaps her talent agency talked her into going. So too bad Griner doesn't have her Olympic jersey to protect her. I'm sorry for her, but not so sorry I think the U.S. should trade a high-profile Russian criminal for her.


Israel/Palestine. Patrick Kingsley & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "The bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American journalist shot in the occupied West Bank in May, was most likely fired from Israeli military lines but was too damaged to say for sure, the State Department said on Monday. The damage to the bullet made it difficult to draw a definitive conclusion about the gun it was fired from, according to a State Department statement. But shots fired from the position of the Israel Defense Forces were 'likely responsible for the death,' it added.... Palestinian officials have said that Ms. Abu Akleh was intentionally killed by an Israeli soldier. The Israeli government ... [has said] that she was hit by either an Israeli soldier or a Palestinian gunman. Israeli officers have said that an Israeli soldier from Duvdevan, an elite unit, fired in Ms. Abu Akleh's direction, but that it was impossible to determine who shot her without examining the bullet." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Politico's report is here.

News Ledes

AP: "The gunman who attacked an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago fired more than 70 rounds with an AR-15-style gun that killed at least six people, then evaded initial capture by dressing as a woman and blending into the fleeing crowd, police said Tuesday. Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli told a news conference that the suspected shooter, who was arrested late Monday, used a high-powered rifle 'similar to an AR-15' to spray bullets from atop a commercial building into a crowd that had gathered for the parade in Highland Park.... Investigators who have interrogated the suspect and reviewed his social media posts have not determined a motive for the attack or found any indication that the shooter targeted anyone by race, religion or other protected status, Covelli said." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Highland Park massacre aftermath are here.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

A Supreme weekend in Chicago!

71 people shot, 8 dead (so far)!

Ain’t Freeeedom great? And of course, they bear no responsibility for any of the many gun deaths over the holiday. They only bear arms.

More guns for everyone! Whoopee!

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

To continue with Ak's comments: Here's a rundown of ALL the shootings–-some of them mass–-that occurred on this country's celebratory day with its fancy fireworks in competition with the other deadly fire works that kill and maim. Fitting for this country's salute to our "God bless America"?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/04/us/chicago-shootings-parkway-gardens.html

I was most impressed by Gov. Pritzker's angry response–--a bit of the old bull dog persona that is mighty needed these days. No more of the hang dog look of sorrow along with prayers and thoughts added on like verbal fragments hanging in the air––-FURY is what's needed to fuel that flame of getting rid of those kinds of guns that can kill dozens in minutes and tear the bodies apart.

And somewhere a congress critter who voted against the recent gun bill is enjoying his vacation. musing about this and that but ignoring the THIS that happened once again in full flower on this Fourth of July.

"Another glass of the bubbly, dear? she asked.

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

And yes–––thank you Nisky for the video–––Awesome! as they used to say back in the day.

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

And in Orlando, the sound of firecrackers started a panic in a Fourth of July crowd. What does that say about the world that confederate gun knobbers and their bobble heads on the Supreme Court have given us, that on the Fourth of July—FOURTH OF JULY!—a crackling sound signals, not celebratory fireworks, but yet another Mass Murderer (™ Republican Party/Confederate Supremes).

Remember those famous Norman Rockwell paintings, the Freedoms? They will have to be adjusted for our current world controlled by bigots, gun nuts, Christianists, and fat cat donors to Republican Nazis.

The painting “Freedom from Fear”, showing parents lovingly tucking the kids in at night will have to be changed to “Freedom from Safety”, parents hiding their kids under the bed as an R sponsored gun nut shoots up the neighborhood.

How is it that, in a nation awash with deadly weapons, the most important mission of the Supreme Court (after taking rights from women who fight the idea that they live in a theocratic patriarchy) is to make sure more guns can be carried anywhere and everywhere because of a warped interpretation of the Second Amendment?

Oh sure, we have other huge problems, like environmental disaster. But they’ve addressed that too: “You can’t do anything to stop it!”

Speaking of fireworks, I took my kid out to buy some that we could set off in the yard. At the fireworks tent in town, at least half a dozen boxes of explosive devices had Trump’s fat face on them showing him blowing up Fake News Media, another showing him blowing up Biden, and another with him holding a machine gun in one hand and a rocket in the other. Cuz nothing says Independence Day in Red State Amerika like pictures celebrating a narcissistic traitor murdering his enemies.

Hope you all had a safe Fourth.

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Our son and the grandbabies live about 20 minutes south of Highland Park, in Wilmette. The news was attention-grabbing from the get-go. Son texted "active shooter" and then later that everything closed. They were supposed to go to an Evanston parade, and had even taken their chairs there to save a spot...son went back for them, and that was before the "person of interest" was caught. So, do we just go back to going nowhere from now on? I am a big fan of bringing back the draft for 18-year-old incels...Where was this guy's family while he was being a rapper and lover of mass shootings? Apparently no one noted he was bloodthirsty... Meanwhile, a father stashed his child and dog in a dumpster to escape injury. I heard the clips-- no way I would have immediately known it was gunfire. I want to reply to the right, as did some celebrity recently: Hell yes, I want to go into your house and grab ALL the guns. Especially yours, Bobo Boebert and Perjury Greene. There is no case to be made to respect the "gun rights" of the morons who own battle weapons.

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

@Jeanne: This is what the brilliant Bobo has to say about gun safety measures, as reported in the WashPo story on the Highland Park massacre linked above:

"Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) tweeted a reference to a weekend shooting at a shopping mall in the Danish capital of Copenhagen that killed three people. For Denmark, which has strict gun laws, it was the first mass shooting since 2015, when two people were killed and five wounded in a shootout with police. 'It’s time to admit that gun laws DO NOT stop mass shootings,' Boebert wrote."

I know Bobo (perfect name, Jean) rivals Louie Gohmert on the low end of the IQ range, but this is yet another comment that reflects just how stupid our "representatives" are. Boebert won her primary bid, BTW. Evidently, the people of Colorado have confidence in the dangerously stupid. God bless America.

I'm glad your family is safe -- that is, relatively safe. Because none of is safe now. I live across a narrow road from a public park. I go to the grocery store. I go to the dentist. I do "normal" things that all of us must do. How do I know that when I'm in or near one of those "normal" places, somebody won't blow a hole in my brain for fun? I don't. And the odds are growing that somebody will.

July 5, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Akhilleus: Thanks. Rockwell's -- well, actually FDR's -- four freedoms were freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The extreme confederates are chipping away at all of them. For freedom of speech, I guess we'll need a picture of a Florida teacher who can't even acknowledge her wife at school. For freedom of worship, we'll need a picture of a high school coach making the sign of the cross on the 50-yard line while spectators of other faiths avert their eyes. For freedom from want, we can picture Mitch McConnell voting down a cloture vote on the extension of a school meals program. And you covered freedom from fear.

July 5, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

That “See? See? Gun laws don’t stop all killings!” is the apex (or the nadir if you prefer) of imbecilic winger “logic”.

The confederate Supremes pulled the same trick in their recent evisceration a century old New York firearms law. Breyer, in his final opinion as after a long and honorable career on the court, posited the necessity of such laws for helping to maintain public safety. Alito just couldn’t let that go. Instead, as a spitball fired at Breyer’s back as he was departing, Alito sniffed that “See? How ‘bout that mass murder in Buffalo? Huh? Huh? Your precious law didn’t stop that!”

This is like saying that laws against drunk driving and bank robbery and murder are stoopid because people still drink and drive, still rob banks, and still commit murder. It’s like saying “Why bother eating a healthy diet? You’re gonna die someday!”

No law prevents all bad and illegal acts. Just look at Trump. But saying we shouldn’t bother with any laws cuz blah, blah, blah, is about the stupidest rationale one can proffer for allowing gun violence to run rampant. “Well, we can’t stop ALL gun violence, so…fuck it. Guns for everyone!”

It’s the same sort of barking mad dimwittedness that sez “See? People still get Covid, so why bother with masks and vaccines?”

How about, “Idiots still get voted into office so why bother with any education at all?”

Because maybe not EVERYONE will be an idiot. Or get shot. Or drive drunk. Or rob banks. Or kill someone.

Fuck-Ing Mor-Ons.

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

In our little town of about 1200 population we had the biggest and
bestest parade of the past 10 years or so.
The Rotary Club usually sponsors it, but declined this year since
they couldn't provide security so locals just got together and did
their own organizing.
We didn't have to go far since it went right past our front porch. There
were thousands of tourists lining the streets, mostly from Chicago.
Guess they feel safer here where we don't strap on guns to go to the
post office.
The only incident I had was after lunch when the 16 of us got up to
leave and in the middle of the hugs a stranger walked through our
group and I hugged him by mistake. Only comment wast "Do I know
you." Small towns are the best ever.

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Marie,

I agree with you that President Biden should not trade Putin’s agent the “Sanction’s Buster” Victor Bout aka “The Merchant of Death” for Brittany Griner and other American detainees.

It was very disappointing to hear today the former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul voicing support for just such a trade!

Victor Bout is EVIL and like Putin belongs in jail. The asymmetry of this proposal astounds me.

I would like to see instead a proposed ban on all Russian athletes in US and the lifting of such a ban if Griner and all other American detainees are released. Suspend their immigration VISAs and leave the door open for asylum.

Czech national and NHL hall of fame former player Domink Hased has been calling for this since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Every athlete represents not only himself and his club, but also his country and its values and actions. This is a fact. If the NHL does not do so, it has indeed co responsibility for the dead in Ukraine.”

Strong words spur the conscience, should Putin supporter Alex Ovechkin who has actively campaigned as a part of “Putin’s Team” still be allowed to score goals for the Washington Capitals?

Calling on Secretary Blinkin to use our soft power to hit sports loving Vlad where it hurts.

There are plenty of US and international players to recruit from; we don’t need the Russians. Our soon to be newest NATO partners do way more to contribute to NHL rosters.
Fun “facts” from hockey skills training.com:
Composition of nhl players by country:
419 Canadians 44%
269 Americans 28%
91 Swedes 9.5%
49 Finland 5.1%
40 Czech Republic 4.2%
38 Russia 4%

Let it embarrass Putin to highlight how much better in hockey the Swedes (population 9.5 million) and Finns (population 5.5 million) are compared to Russia (population 147 million).

This ban is more feasible now that the hockey season has ended and teams have time to make trades and deals.

I used hockey as an example but would apply ban to all Russian athletes you too Vladimir Medvedev!

July 5, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterJulia
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