;)
Monday
Jun262023
June 26, 2023
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday blasted organizers of a weekend revolt as 'traitors' who played into the hands of Ukraine's government and its allies.... Putin said the nation had stood united, and he praised the rank and file mercenaries for not letting the situation descend into 'bloodshed.' Earlier in the day, the rebellion's leader, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, defended his short-lived insurrection. He taunted Russia's military, but said he hadn't been seeking to stage a coup against Putin. Putin did not name Prigozhin in his televised address but said organizers of the mutiny had tried to force the group's soldiers 'to shoot their own.' Putin blamed 'Russia's enemies' and said they 'miscalculated.'"
Kevin Liptak of CNN: “President Joe Biden on Monday sought to distance the United States from the weekend rebellion in Russia, insisting in his first public remarks since the episode that the West had nothing to do with the mutiny. Speaking from the White House, Biden suggested it was too early to say how the situation would unfold going forward. And he said he may speak again with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate their response after conferring in a phone call Sunday.... Biden's statement reflected a carefully calibrated American response to the brief uprising by the Wagner Group that amounted to the biggest threat in years to Russian President Vladimir Putin.... In his remarks Monday, Biden laid out the thinking behind his approach, which some Republicans have criticized as overly cautious. 'We had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,' Biden said."
Will McDuffie & Hannah Demissie of ABC News: "Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that he would seek to eliminate the constitutional guarantee of citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States. So-called 'birthright citizenship' has long been considered protected under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all individuals 'born or naturalized in the United States.'... In a detailed list of immigration objectives he released on Monday, DeSantis, who also spoke to supporters and reporters in the Texas border town of Eagle Pass, pledged to take action to end the idea that the children of illegal aliens are entitled to birthright citizenship if they are born in the United States.'... Donald Trump in 2018 promised an executive order to eliminate it, a threat on which he never followed through. Trump, the current frontrunner in the Republican primary, has again promised to strike the protection if elected." ~~~
~~~ Marie: We get that you fascists don't think you have to obey the Constitution, your oath to protect the Constitution notwithstanding. But the clear language of the 14th Amendment on this point gives you no wiggle-room. You'll have to suspend the Constitution and declare marshal law to pull this off.
"Decimation!" Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Former President Trump railed against the electric vehicle industry during a speech to Michigan Republicans on Sunday, warning them that the state's auto industry is at risk under President Biden. 'Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan and his environmental extremism is heartless and disloyal and horrible for the American worker and you're starting to see it,' Trump said in a keynote address to Oakland County Republicans in Michigan on Sunday. 'Driven by his ridiculous regulations, electric cars will kill more than half of U.S. auto jobs and decimate the suppliers that they decimated already -- decimate the suppliers, and it's going to decimate your jobs and it's going to decimate more than anybody else, the state of Michigan,' he added. 'It's is going to be decimation. It's going to be at a level that that people can't even imagine.... The state of Michigan is going to be decimation,' he added." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm sure Trump's "concern" about Michigan's "decimation" has nothing whatever to do with his and Jared's ties to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries. Oh, and never mind that Michigan's auto workers are quite as capable of building EVs as they are of building gas-guzzlers. See also Forrest M.'s comment below.
Tierney Sneed of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Louisiana congressional map to be redrawn to add another majority-Black district. The justices reversed plans to hear the case themselves and lifted a hold they placed on a lower court's order for a reworked redistricting regime. There were no noted dissents. 'Today's decision follows on the heels of the court's 5-4 ruling earlier this month holding that Alabama also has to re-draw its congressional district maps to include a second majority-minority district,' said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst.... 'And like the Alabama ruling, it doesn't explain why the court nevertheless had issued emergency relief to allow Louisiana to use its unlawful maps during the 2022 midterm cycle,' Vladeck added. 'It puts the court's interventions last year into ever-sharper perspective.'"
Tobi Raji, et al., of the Washington Post: "Newly released and previously unreported court documents that belonged to Justice John Paul Stevens, who led the [Supreme Court]'s liberal wing, show just how aware the justices were of charges that the appearance of impropriety could shake the public's faith in the institution. They also show just how quick they were to push back against these concerns." MB: The reporters fail to point out one jarring difference between then and now: even when the confederate justices back then decided their own ethics were fine, they at least debated issues of recusal with their colleagues. Clarence & Sam take their filthy lucre in secret, then decide all on their own that they're above reproach -- at least as far as we know.
~~~~~~~~~~
Jesse Eisenger & Stephen Engelberg of Propublica examine Justice Sam Alito's Wall Street Journal "prebuttal" to their report on the gift of a luxury Alaska vacation by hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer, who would soon have business before the Court. "It does not appear that the editors at the Journal made much of an effort to fact-check Alito's assertions.... Journalists [including former WSJ reporters] were ... sharply critical of the decision to help the subject of another news organization's investigation 'pre-but' the findings[,] especially since some of Alito's assertions didn't make much sense to the public who had not read ProPublica's report]." Moreover, Patricia McCabe, the Supreme Court's spokesperson, was cagey in her contacts with ProPublica, such as when she asked the reporters to tell her when their story would go to print. MB: Clearly, Alito has brought more shame upon a court that already was in trouble. How now, John Roberts? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has been arguing for years that a flood of 'dark money' flowing through right-wing front groups has corrupted the Supreme Court. Never has there been more evidence to bolster his claim.... [In a phone conversation with me,] the senator ticked off the problems with Alito's [WSJ] argument: factual omissions (e.g., the standard for exempt gifts does not include transportation); Alito's lame effort to turn an airplane into a 'facility' to jam it into an exempt-gift category ('It doesn't pass the laugh test,' Whitehouse said); Alito's plea that he couldn't possibly have known Singer had a financial stake ($2 billion) in the outcome of a case before the court (although it was widely reported in the media); and the insistence that yet another billionaire was a 'friend,' which somehow absolved him from his obligation to report gifts of 'hospitality.' And, Whitehouse argued, it strains credulity that Alito (like Justice Clarence Thomas) could be confused about reporting requirements when there is a Financial Disclosure Committee expressly set up to help judges navigate these issues.... The best argument for court reform comes from Alito, whose arrogant, slipshod and unconvincing defense makes him the poster boy for serious court reform." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Randy is so disrespectful! ~~~
Presidential Race 2024
"You're Fat!" "Yeah? You're Fat!" David Cohen of Politico: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday mocked Donald Trump ... for Trump's recent quips about his weight. 'Oh, like he's some Adonis?' he said to host Howard Kurtz on Fox News' 'Media Buzz'... Calling Trump 'a bully on the schoolyard,' Christie added: 'Here's my message to him: I don't care what he says about me, and I don't care what he thinks about me, and he should take a look in the mirror every once in a while -- maybe he'd drop the weight thing off of his list of criticisms.'" MB: This is the perfect debate to have in a party that doesn't care a whit about ordinary Americans.
Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Facing multiple intensifying investigations..., Donald J. Trump has quietly begun diverting more of the money he is raising away from his 2024 presidential campaign and into a political action committee that he has used to pay his personal legal fees.... When Mr. Trump kicked off his 2024 campaign in November, for every dollar raised online, 99 cents went to his campaign, and a penny went to Save America. But internet archival records show that sometime in February or March, he adjusted that split. Now his campaign's share has been reduced to 90 percent of donations, and 10 percent goes to Save America."
Ret. Judge Michael Luttig (Very-R) in a New York Times op-ed: Republicans' "fawning support since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has given Mr. Trump every reason to believe that he can ride these [espionage] charges and any others not just to the Republican nomination, but also to the White House in 2024.... As only the Republicans can do, they are already turning this ignominious moment into an even more ignominious moment -- and a self-immolating one at that -- by rushing to crown Mr. Trump their nominee before the primary season even begins.... It's finally time for [Republicans] to put the country before their party and pull back from the brink -- for the good of the party, as well as the nation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Steve Contorno of CNN: "In his early outreach to Republican voters as a presidential candidate, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis [R-Fla.] has portrayed himself as a fighter and, crucially, a winner in the cultural battles increasingly important to conservatives. If elected to the White House, he'll take those fights to Washington, he has said.... But back in Florida, the agenda at the centerpiece of his pitch remains unsettled. Still ongoing are more than a dozen legal battles testing the constitutionality of many of the victories DeSantis has touted on the campaign trail. Critics say DeSantis has built his governorship around enacting laws that appeal to his conservative base but that, as a Harvard-trained lawyer, he knows are unconstitutional and not likely to take effect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "A worker at San Antonio's international airport died after being sucked into a jet's engine late on Friday, officials said. A source briefed directly on the case told the Guardian on Sunday that it appeared the worker had 'intentionally stepped in front of the live engine' on the jet and that police were investigating that aspect. But the cause of the worker's death hadn't officially been determined on Sunday.... Officials added that the worker --; whose identity has not been publicly released -- was ingested into the one engine which the plane in question had on at the time."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "The brief rebellion in Russia 'raises profound questions' about the country's stability, [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken said. Blinken and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attributed the revolt, at least in part, to Putin's invasion of Ukraine.... Rescuers in Kyiv on Sunday were searching for people trapped underneath the rubble of a building after an airstrike that killed five people over the weekend." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here: "Russia on Monday released video of Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu for the first time since the short-lived uprising by the Wagner mercenary group over the weekend, saying he had met with forces in occupied Ukraine. The Defense Ministry did not specify when or where the visit occurred." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here.
Kelly Garrity of Politico: "President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, a day after Russian mercenary forces reversed their plans to march on Moscow, Zelenskky said. The White House confirmed the call on Sunday afternoon. Zelenskyy and Biden discussed 'the course of hostilities and the processes taking place in Russia,' Zelenskyy said in a post on Twitter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "Confusion and uncertainty pervaded Russia on Sunday, with neither President Vladimir V. Putin nor Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the head of a mutinous mercenary group, appearing anywhere in public a day after the most profound government crisis in three decades -- an open military rebellion -- appeared defused. Even as state television tried to trumpet the fact that Russian unity and 'maturity' had prevailed, independent commentators assessing the damage concluded that Mr. Putin's aura of infallibility and invincibility had been punctured.... Aside from Mr. Putin, neither Sergei K. Shoigu, the minister of defense, nor Valery V. Gerasimov, the military chief of staff, had put in a public appearance since the uprising started on Friday night. Many heads of the country's security services also proved invisible.... The rebellion, even if aborted, may now affect Russia's global standing as partners like China reassess the strength of Mr. Putin's authority." ~~~
~~~ Anthony Faiola, et al., of the Washington Post: "Within Russia, hard-line military bloggers, meanwhile, lampooned the harried 'defense' of Moscow. And in Western capitals, intelligence analysts pondered whether Putin had declined to arrest Prigozhin because he feared his officers might refuse his order.... The fact that Moscow relied on [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, seen by some as a pale puppet of Putin, to defuse the crisis raised eyebrows and questions about long-standing assumptions on the extent of Putin's authority." ~~~
~~~ AP: "... the short-lived revolt has weakened President Vladimir Putin just as his forces are facing a fierce counteroffensive in Ukraine.... It was not yet clear what the fissures opened by the 24-hour rebellion would mean for the war in Ukraine. But it resulted in some of the best forces fighting for Russia being pulled from the battlefield: the Wagner troops, who had shown their effectiveness in scoring the Kremlin's only land victory in months, in Bakhmut, and Chechen soldiers sent to stop them on the approach to Moscow. The Wagner forces' largely unopposed, rapid advance also exposed vulnerabilities in Russia's security and military forces. The mercenary soldiers were reported to have downed several helicopters and a military communications plane."
Greece. Elinda Labropoulou of CNN: "Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of Greece's center-right New Democracy party, has won a second four-year term as prime minister. Mitsotakis is now set to return to the prime minister's office in a stronger position with his party's resounding victory in Sunday's elections, which were dominated by financial stability and cost-of-living issues.... Mitsotakis, at the helm during the Covid-19 pandemic and Europe's energy crisis, had positioned himself as a safe pair of hands to boost growth in difficult global circumstances. His government staged a stunning turnaround in the economy, now on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global market for the first time since it lost market access in 2010." The New York Times story is here.
News Lede
CNN: "James Crown, a billionaire businessman who held several leadership roles including board member of JPMorgan Chase, died Sunday in a racing accident in Colorado. Crown, who also turned 70 on Sunday, died in the single-vehicle crash after colliding with an impact barrier at Aspen Motorsports Park in Woody Creek, Colorado, The Colorado Sun reported. Among his many roles, Crown was chairman and CEO of his family business, the investment firm Henry Crown and Company. In addition to serving on the JPMorgan board, he was also a board director at General Dynamics. Crown had served on JPMorgan's board since the early 1990s." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Apparently the way we're reducing the number of billionaires is that they're killing themselves in feats of derring-do. It seems to me it would be better to just tax the hell out of them so they might live on with the rest of us.
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (23)
If it prees the court…
Things can be
Prewashed
Preheated
Preempted
Preexisting
Preformed
Preowned
Prepaid
Precut
Premixed
Preoccupied
But prebutted?
Is that even a thing? How is it even logically (or ontologically) possible to pre-but something that doesn’t even exist (in this case, meaning hasn’t yet been released)?
And this business with the SCOTUS public affairs person? It sounds like a Seinfeld sketch.
“Oh, a piece on Justice Alito? Really? Wow. Hmmm…and it’s about…what again? A fishing trip with a billionaire he didn’t disclose then went on to award that guy $2.4 billion? And WHEN is this going to be published? Tomorrow morning? I see…well, call back tomorrow afternoon. ”
“Sammy, Sammy! Propublica’s gonna publish a piece about you and your buddy Singer! Do something! Call our extreme right-wing editor pals at WSJ. Make something up! They’ll print anything! Hurry!”
So the editors at the WSJ allow Alito to yammer on about stuff they know nothing about. Fact checking? Not even possible, because they don’t know what the piece says! Now that’s some ethical journalism right there.
It’s all part of the right-wing echo chamber media infrastructure.
It’s also an example of another “pre” thing the Journal editors and Alito, Thomas, et al, all do:
Prejudge.
Preposterous.
This Christie-Fatty name calling thing reminds me of an actual conversation I once heard in a bar. It went like this:
“You’re an asshole.”
“Me? I’m an asshole? You’re calling me an ASSHOLE? I'm not an asshole. YOU’RE an asshole.”
Okay, referring to that exchange as a “conversation” is a bit of a stretch, but it’s not far off from “I'm not fat! YOU’RE fat!”
Another great public debate in the annals of Republican presidential history. Or should that be the anals of Republican presidential history?
@Akhilleus: Yeah, I was thinking maybe "pre-but" was a misspelling, and should be "pre-butt"; def: "goes in ass-first."
P.S. And you're right, of course, about the spokesperson. She's supposes to be the Supreme Court's spokesperson, so wouldn't she have to run her releases past the guy who ostensibly runs the Court? That raises the question: just where was John Roberts while Alito and McCabe were furiously conspiring to undercut the ProPublica journalists? Busy checking the new court ethics guidelines to make sure the commas were in the right places?
I'm looking forward to the candidates moving to the "yo' mama" jonesing phase. As in "yo' mama so fat, the Navy use her coat for a blimp cover."
Titles for Ak's comedy sketches:
"It strains Credulity"––-Whitehouse
"Oh, like he's some Adonis?"––Christi
and maybe we do one for Putin whose cook done cooked his goose–--just a little bit but enough to fire up some tremors.
The "Takes one to know one" argument is perfect for the GOP since nearly everything they accuse someone else of they are actually guilty of themselves. Their criticisms are usually confessions. So when you get two or more Republicans in a room criticizing each other you get a lot of accidental truths coming out.
@P.D.Pepe: Prigozhin got his professional start operating a hot-dog stand in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). It looks as if he's going out as the ultimate hot-dogger.
@Patrick: It appears you don't have long to wait.
@RAS: Well-said. And true.
Marie wonders “…where was John Roberts while Alito and McCabe were furiously conspiring to undercut the ProPublica journalists?”
Why, Little Johnny was doing what he always does, or at least claims to be doing: calling balls and strikes. In the case of Alito and Thomas (and maybe several other of the right-wing movement judges), if ethics is pitching, Roberts always calls balls, that’s why those guys always walk.
The only strikes called are against any issues or persons they hate.
RAS,
Exactly. Vide the MTG-Bobo spat. Or the Freedom Caucus traitors accusing other R House members of treason. Treason against Trump, that is. Or those Moms for Freedom (names like that are immediately suspect as indicating a proclivity for anything but what their name implies) yapping about children being indoctrinated, then insisting they be fed right-wing propaganda.
Not exactly the same thing, but my favorite this past week came about when Adam Schiff was cross examining Trump conspirator John Eastman about the Mueller report:
“Mr. Eastman, you see right here in the Mueller report that the evidence of the Trump campaign asking for and receiving election help from Russia is stated as overwhelming. Would you agree with that statement?
“Um, yes. I would.” (He really said that.)
Soon after that exchange, House Traitors censured Schiff for saying exactly what Eastman said.
But Eastman’s a hero.
In the gangster film “The Long Good Friday” (great movie, btw), Bob Hoskins’ crime boss rips a pair of Mafia hoods who decide not to partner with him as representing a country whose primary fame rests on inventing the hot dog.
America is, for better or worse, inextricably linked with hot dogs.
Thus, it’s cause for a serious chuckle to read that Putin’s latest pain in the ass got his start selling hot dogs. In the Soviet Union.
Could have seen this coming? Mustard on the face detracts from that bare chested he-man pose Putin prefers, don’t it.
One with everything on it, please, Comrade Prighozin.
Some background on Prigozhin, or as Marie coined him, the "ultimate hot dogger" from the New Yorker's David Remnick
"After combing through the more reliable outlets of the independent Russian press and social media, I had a lengthy conversation with Mikhail Zygar, one of the most knowledgeable reporters and commentators on Kremlin power. Zygar is a former editor-in-chief of TV Rain (known as Dozhd in Russian) an independent channel that Putin closed after the start of the war. His 2016 book, “All the Kremlin’s Men” was a best-seller in Russia and a well-sourced examination of Putin’s rule and the inner dynamics of his ruling circle. His new book, “War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine,” will be published next month. Zygar, who is forty-two, left Russia after the invasion and has been living in Europe. In January, 2023, he wrote an Op-Ed column in the Times about Prigozhin titled “The Man Challenging Putin for Power.”
“I am feeling a little prophetic this morning,” Zygar told me.
"Prigozhin, like Putin, was born and raised in Leningrad, which was renamed St. Petersburg as the Soviet Union was crumbling. As a young man, Prigozhin was a petty criminal and was eventually arrested and sentenced to twelve years in prison for robbing apartments. He was released after nine years. The rest of his biography resembles that of so many around Putin. After making some money selling hot dogs at the local flea market, he got involved in the grocery business, then casinos, construction, catering, and restaurants. He formed a close relationship with Putin, a frequent diner at his establishments, and that put him in a position to increase his good fortune. Private planes, helicopters, and immense residences soon followed—as did the founding of troll farms in St. Petersburg and the Wagner Group, a military contractor that was heartily supported by Putin as a way to help assist Russian Army troops and also, according to Zygar, as a way to counterbalance the power of figures like Sergei Shoigu, the Defense Minister...
The relationship between Putin and Prigozhin ruptured during the war as Prigozhin repeatedly went on social-media platforms, particularly the messaging app Telegram, and, in profane, blunt language, lambasted the Russian military leadership for betraying the Wagner Group, denying them ammunition and support, and, generally, botching the war effort against Ukraine...
“They split the moment when Prigozhin started believing he was popular,” Zygar said. Last fall, as Prigozhin criss-crossed Russia recruiting prisoners for the Wagner Group, “he felt like a rock star.” His gift was that he “spoke with them so effectively in their language,” Zygar said. “There came a moment when Prigozhin was no longer Putin’s puppet. Pinocchio became a real boy.”
With its Dobbs decision did the SCOTUS jump the shark?
Related?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/26/dobbs-ruling-anniversary-health-political-fallout/Opinion | A year after Dobbs, the pro-choice movement has never been stronger
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity
@Akhilleus: You mean John Durham, not John Eastman. Easy mistake to make: they're both a couple of dickhead right-wing lawyers happy to do Trump's bidding. Some differences: for his trouble, Eastman may lose his bar membership soon, and with any luck, Jack Smith will find him a nice cell in some commodious federal pen.
And with even better luck, Eastman's crackpot theory -- carried out in real-life by Adonis the Fascist -- will land said Adonis in jail, too.
High HO THE MERRY OH!
Now here's a gem that tickles me no end:
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took his Twitter feed to some low places over the weekend when he was duped by a satire website into sharing literal fake news about country music icon Garth Brooks.
Abbott linked to a story about Brooks from a satire website called The Dunning-Kruger Times. If the name alone isn’t enough of a giveaway, the site states outright that its part of “a network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery,” and adds: “If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined.”
The story Abbott shared says Brooks was booed off the stage at the 123rd Annual Texas Country Jamboree in Hambriston, Texas.
But the jamboree isn’t a real event, and Hambriston isn’t a real place ― details that apparently raised no red flags with the governor as he tweeted the story.
“Go woke. Go broke,” Abbott tweeted. “Good job, Texas.”
So here's a governor who is ignorant of towns in his own state––the piece also cites the name of a fictitious mayor. What a dunce!!!!
Marie,
Quite right, I meant Durham. There’s such a gigantic rogues gallery of crooks, grifters, con artists, liars, and traitors surrounding the Orange Monster it’s hard to keep ‘em all straight.
A note from Decimated Michigan.
Donald and Jared shouldn't be worrying that electric vehicles will
affect their interests in oil rich countries.
Where do they think electricity for EVs comes from, the sky? Well,
a tiny portion does come from the sun, but not enough to run all those
EVs that are already on the highways.
Where I live, our electricity comes from a coal burning plant just
north of here. Trainload after trainload of coal being burned daily.
The only other plant I'm aware of is a nuclear plant south of us but
we don't get that electricity.
We also have lots and lots of natural gas under Michigan, so I'm sure
that more of that will be tapped for generating electricity. Right now
I only know of one such plant (it supplies the area where Betsy's
cottage is located, just north of here).
I can see Thomas More setting Utopia in Hambriston, Texas. During the next cold spell, Ted Cruz would ask directions.
I just love the fact that Forest keeps a gimlet eye on Betsy cuz she be the bee in Fatty's bonnet for a short time and was a thorn in my side for years. I couldn't believe a person of her capacity would be the head of anything except, of course, some dietary nonsence she was spouting. When I lived in Michigan the family name was banded about but I was ignorant of its powerful influence.
Foolish fascists...or cutting off your nose.......
https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/floridas-recent-immigration-law-could-have-stark-impacts-for-families-and-the-states-economy
Forrest,
“Betsy’s cottage”?
I’m picturing a Michigan Palace of Versailles.
With screen doors?
Jack,
At first blush, I was unconvinced that Thomas More would situate his Utopia in Texas, of all places. For one thing, his Utopia allows no private property. Can’t see Harlan Crow getting down with that. Also don’t see Utopian types riding mechanical bulls in redneck bars. BUT, slavery is cool there. That works. And Utopia IS an island, just like most Red States, islands where outside influences like Constitutional law and order hold no sway.
So, okay, maybe.
More was a big fan of Plato who must have written a now lost dialogue in which Socrates figures out who shot JR.
It was probably one of Greg Abbott’s gun toting stooges. Pardons for them all!
Guns for everyone, no law, no order, no minorities, no pesky women’s rights pains in the ass, and no democracy.
Utopia for the traitors.
Thomas. More or less.
Fatty praises RFK, Jr., in his capacity as a vaccine hating imbecile as a common sense guy “Like I am!”
Right. Like saying that Charles Ponzi developed a super cool, sustainable business model of which I approve. Or that sausage sized penile implants will make guys manly pussy grabbers same as famous guys like me..
Or like saying insurrectionists are great patriots, like me.
Oh, wait, he does say that doesn’t he?