;)
October 13, 2021
Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration Tuesday ordered a halt to large-scale immigration arrests at job sites, and said it is planning a new enforcement strategy to more effectively target employers who pay substandard wages and engage in exploitative labor practices. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas's memo ordered a review of enforcement policies and gave immigration officials 60 days to devise proposals to better protect workers who report on their bosses from facing deportation.... Immigrant advocates and many Democrats who oppose the raids say they punish vulnerable workers, sow fear in immigrant communities and rarely result in consequences for employers." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Is it true that the raids "punish vulnerable workers, sow fear in immigrant communities and rarely result in consequences for employers"? Or not? If true, why not say so in the report, rather than attribute these claims to "immigrant advocates & many Democrats"? Every once in a while, I write to reporters about their lazy reporting, and this was one of those times. ~~~
~~~ NPR's report is here.
Kasha Patel of the Washington Post: "The White House announced Tuesday that it would work to revise building standards for flood-prone communities across the country in the face of climate change, while launching tools to make climate information more accessible to the public. The move is part of the Biden administration's broader effort to push the United States to reckon with the costs of global warming by factoring in the long-term consequences of decisions being made today.... The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a request for information Tuesday to guide how it would update the National Flood Insurance Program's flood plain management standards, which have not been changed substantially since 1976. It is also seeking input on better protecting the habitats and populations of threatened and endangered species in the face of these risks."
Caitlin Emma & Jennifer Scholtes of Politico: "The House approved a bill on Tuesday to briefly alleviate the squeeze of the debt limit, warding off an economically destructive default for just over seven weeks. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation in short order, allowing the Treasury Department to keep paying loans for the nation's more than $28 trillion in debt. The extra borrowing power is estimated to last until about Dec. 3, the same day government funding will expire. That patch is far shorter than the 14-month fix Democrats had to abandon after Senate Republicans repeatedly sunk the majority party's long-range plan for lifting the cap on the nation's credit." The New York Times story is here.
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday sought to steel Democrats for coming cuts to their $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package, stressing the process to whittle down the party's landmark proposal would not 'diminish the transformative nature of what it is.' The renewed warning came as negotiations continued between Democratic lawmakers and the White House over the future of President Biden's economic agenda. Appearing at her weekly news conference, Pelosi said there are 'important decisions to make in the next few days' if they hope to forge a legislative compromise that the fuller party, including its spending-weary centrists, ultimately can support. 'I'm very disappointed we're not going with the original $3.5 trillion,' Pelosi told reporters."
Alice Ollstein of Politico: "A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday weighed which state officials can defend abortion bans in court -- a procedural question with implications that extend beyond reproductive health in states where the governor and attorney general hail from opposing parties. The arguments marked the first abortion case to be argued in full before the court's 6-3 conservative majority and centered on whether Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron could defend his state's ban on some forms of abortion after two courts found it unconstitutional and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear refused to defend it further."
Joshua Douglas in the Washington Monthly: "... conservative jurists only approve state restrictions over individual freedoms when it suits their purposes.... When a plaintiff challenges a state law as unconstitutional, the Court must decide whether the law actually infringes an individual right and whether the state has a good enough reason for doing so. If the right is deemed 'fundamental,' then the state must satisfy a high bar to justify it. That's because various parts of the U.S. Constitution (especially the Bill of Rights and other amendments) are designed to protect individual rights against government encroachment. But in case after case involving voting rights, abortion, and other hot button issues, the newly emboldened conservative majority has simply deferred to a state's rules. That is, they have approved of laws that infringe individual liberties without requiring much justification from the state on why those laws are necessary given the specific circumstances. They have credited a state's rules over fundamental rights."
Zach Montague & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Maryland couple accused of trying to sell some of America's most closely guarded nuclear submarine secrets made their first appearance in court since they were arrested over the weekend. The couple, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, were accused of selling nuclear propulsion secrets to an undercover F.B.I. officer through a series of dead drops featuring memory cards hidden in peanut butter sandwiches, gum packages and Band-Aid wrappers. Though they appeared separately on Tuesday, each was charged individually with communication of restricted data and conspiracy to communicate restricted data, charges that could lead to life in prison. Neither of them was asked to enter a plea during their short initial appearances."
Take This Job & Shove It. Eli Rosenberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "The number of people quitting their jobs has surged to record highs, pushed by a combination of factors that include Americans sensing ample opportunity and better pay elsewhere. Some 4.3 million people quit jobs in August -- about 2.9 percent of the workforce, according to new data released Tuesday from the Labor Department. Those numbers are up from the previous record, set in April, of about 4 million people quitting, reflecting how the pandemic has continued to jolt workers' mind-set about their jobs and their lives. The phenomenon is being driven in part by workers who are less willing to endure inconvenient hours and poor compensation, who are quitting instead to find better opportunities.... Even in a time of records, the speed of quitting among low-wage service workers stands out." ~~~
~~~ One Reason Service Workers Are Quitting. Hope King & Niala Boodhoo of Axios: "The pace of the economic recovery hinges in part on workers returning to jobs that involve dealing with an unpredictable public. But many of those workers say increasingly combative customers -- angry about everything from long wait times to mask mandates -- have prompted them to quit.... Aggressive and violent clashes between customers and service workers over COVID safety protocols over the past nearly two years have led to prison sentences, fines and deaths. Many workers say they're simply not willing to put up with the abuse any longer -- and their employers are often taking their side, even in industries that have long deferred to their customers."
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "A Marine officer whose viral videos criticizing senior officials for how they withdrew from Afghanistan created a political uproar will plead guilty to several charges and seek a discharge that allows him to keep some military benefits, one of his lawyers said Tuesday. Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller is scheduled for court-martial at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Thursday, and faces charges that include disrespect toward superior commissioned officers, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and dereliction in the performance of duties. He burst into public view in August when, in the immediate aftermath of a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and about 170 Afghans, he posted a video while in uniform questioning why no senior leader had admitted making mistakes in how the withdrawal was carried out." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I must confess to having a certain sympathy for Scheller, even though his case has become a cause celebre of the right. Eleven of the troops killed in the August attack were Marines, and it's hard not to feel distraught over their murders. I understand that a colonel ought to keep his mouth shut when he finds fault with superior officers, and I get why Scheller is being court-martialed, but -- based on what I read about some of his statements -- it seems a medical discharge might be most appropriate. If you disagree with me, I find no fault with that, either.
Alyssa Lukpat of the New York Times: "Gabrielle Petito, the Florida woman whose disappearance led to a wide-ranging investigation into her fiancé, who returned home without her from a cross-country trip before disappearing himself, died from strangulation, the authorities said on Tuesday. Dr. Brent Blue, the Teton County, Wyo., coroner, did not disclose at a news briefing how Ms. Petito was strangled." An AP story is here.
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: Brian Stelter of CNN's "Reliable Sources" complained this weekend that there was no "New York Times of the right." Fox "News" host Tucker Carlson claimed on Fox "News" (where else?) that, "I gave up my New York Times and Washington Post subscriptions because it's just garbage." But Wemple points out time after time when Carlson cited NYT stories to make some right-wing point. Wemple cites other Fox "News" personalities who rely on Times reporting to bolster their own propaganda. So, Wemple concludes, "... there is a New York Times of the right. It's called ... the New York Times.... Of all the galling hypocrisies produced on a rolling basis by Fox News, its posture toward the Times -- and many other mainstream news outlets -- stands apart for its cynicism and destructiveness. The best that can be said for Fox News is that it does nothing to hide its two-faced, simultaneous effort to drag down and pivot off a vibrant news source. And viewers appear just fine with it."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Zeke Miller of the AP: "The U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Vehicle, rail and ferry travel between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to essential travel, such as trade, since the earliest days of the pandemic. The new rules, to be announced Wednesday, will allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter the U.S. regardless of the reason for travel starting in early November, when a similar easing of restrictions is set to kick in for air travel into the country. By mid-January, even essential travelers seeking to enter the U.S., like truck drivers, will need to be fully vaccinated.... Both Mexico and Canada have pressed the U.S. for months to ease restrictions on travel that have separated families and curtailed leisure trips since the onset of the pandemic."
I love the poorly-educated. -- Donald Trump, February 2016 ~~~
~~~ Police Departments Choose Recruits Who Aren't Too Bright. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "More than 460 American law enforcement officers have died from Covid-19 infections tied to their work since the start of the pandemic, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, making the coronavirus by far the most common cause of duty-related deaths in 2020 and 2021. More than four times as many officers have died from Covid-19 as from gunfire in that period. There is no comprehensive accounting of how many American police officers have been sickened by the virus, but departments across the country have reported large outbreaks in the ranks. While the virus has ravaged policing, persuading officers to take a vaccine has often been a struggle, even though the shots have proven to be largely effective in preventing severe disease and death.... As more departments in recent weeks have considered requiring members to be vaccinated, officers and their unions have loudly pushed back, in some cases threatening resignations or flooding systems with requests for exemptions."
Myah Ward of Politico: "The archbishop of the U.S. military said on Tuesday that Catholic troops could refuse the mandated Covid vaccine on religious grounds. 'No one should be forced to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience,' Timothy Broglio, archbishop for the military services, said in a statement.... Broglio has expressed support for President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for the military in the past -- citing guidance from Pope Francis, the Holy See and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the Covid shots are morally acceptable. The archbishop has expressed preference for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines because of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine's remote link to human cells derived from abortions." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait. The Pope says get a shot & that means Roman Catholics can take a religious exemption from getting shots? How does that work? If I were Pope (oh, if only!), I'd call Archbishop Timmy to Rome, send him down to the basement of the Vatican library & make him Archbishop of the edicts of dead popes or something.
AP: "The Boeing Co. has told employees they must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or possibly be fired. The Seattle Times reports the deadline for workers at the aerospace giant is Dec. 8.... Boeing may face more resistance to the new policy in Republican-controlled states.... Boeing has more than 5,000 employees in Texas. It has about 32,000 more at facilities in Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Marie's Sports Report. Scott Cacciola & Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times: "As vaccine mandates roil workplaces across the country, a high-stakes stalemate in the N.B.A. took a dramatic turn on Tuesday when the Nets issued star [Kyrie] Irving an ultimatum: Get the shot, or stay home. In the process, the team has drawn a stark line over the issue of the vaccine with one of the more high-profile sports celebrities who has refused to get it.... The team also said Irving would be barred from practices as long as he remained unvaccinated.... Irving has not spoken publicly about his vaccination status, asking instead for privacy, and the Nets danced around the topic for weeks until Tuesday." MB: I'm sure a sports expert, I had to check to see where the Nets played. I thought they were the New York Nets, but it turns out they've been the Brooklyn Nets for more than ten years.
Texas. Mitchell Ferman of the Texas Tribune: "Companies doing business in Texas now face new and complicated challenges after Gov. Greg Abbott this week banned COVID-19 vaccine mandates for all entities in the state -- including private businesses -- for employees or customers.... Two prominent Texas-based companies, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, already require employees to be vaccinated. Spokespeople for the two airlines told the Tribune that requirement won't change despite Abbott's new order.... The Greater Houston Partnership, a leading business group in Harris County, also denounced Abbott's action." The article outlines some of the other parts of Abbott's order, which obviously is designed to kill as many Texans as possible. ~~~
~~~ AND, as Chris Hayes noted on MSNBC Tuesday night, Abbott came up with this dangerous order just hours after nutso gubernatorial challenger Allen West tweeted from his hospital bed -- where he is being treated for, ah, a severe case of Covid-19 -- that, as governor, he would "vehemently crush anyone forcing vaccine mandates." According to CBS News, "West also tweeted that the U.S. shouldn't be 'enriching the pockets of Big Pharma,' although he touted a monoclonal antibody infusion therapy treatment he took that is made by pharmaceutical company Regeneron. Regeneron's cocktail costs the U.S. $2,100 per dose. Pfizer's vaccine, the most expensive of the three used domestically, costs the U.S. $19.50/dose."
Beyond the Beltway
South Carolina. Southern Gothic. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "It is rare for the personal travails of one small-town lawyer to resonate so broadly. But [Alex] Murdaugh, 53, was for years a well-connected player in the clubby South Carolina legal world; the family law firm, based in the tiny city of Hampton, has long been considered a powerhouse on the state plaintiff's bar. In recent weeks, a dizzying series of criminal investigations and civil lawsuits has emerged, accusing Mr. Murdaugh of betraying friends, colleagues and clients. The police have opened previously closed cases, including one involving the death of a former classmate of Mr. Murdaugh's son and another involving a housekeeper who had long been thought to have fatally tripped and fallen on the front steps of the Murdaugh family's home. [Still open:] ... the unsolved killing of Mr. Murdaugh's wife and younger son -- and allegations of multimillion-dollar swindles and abuses of trust and power.... [Police] are also looking at allegations that Mr. Murdaugh stole millions of dollars from his law firm and millions more from a settlement intended for the housekeeper's children."
Texas. Jeremy Schwartz of the Texas Tribune & ProPublica: "An elections administrator in North Texas submitted her resignation Friday, following a monthslong effort by residents and officials loyal to ... Donald Trump to force her out of office. Michele Carew, who had overseen scores of elections during her 14-year career, had found herself transformed into the public face of an electoral system that many in the heavily Republican Hood County had come to mistrust.... Her critics sought to abolish her position and give her duties to an elected county clerk who has used social media to promote baseless allegations of widespread election fraud.... Critics accused Carew of harboring a secret liberal agenda and of violating a decades-old elections law, despite assurances from the Texas secretary of state that she was complying with Texas election rules.... Hood County would seem an unlikely place for disputes over the last presidential election given that Trump won 81% of the vote there, one of his largest margins of victory in the state." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure Carew fixed Hood County voting machines so they zapped every voter with "Democrat" lasers that can penetrate brains & turn rock-solid Republicans into spineless libs.
Texas. Marie: Oh, to be a young professional Texas woman. You have a promising entry-level job at a large, Houston-based company, But Greg Abbott won't let your employer impose a vaccine mandate, so the guy in the cubicle to your right keeps wheezing & coughing on you, and you're sure he has Covid. Greg Abbott & his cronies have banned abortions, and the guy in the cubicle to your left accidentally knocked you up and neither of you think it's health-safe or financially-feasible to have a child now. You would like to vote Greggers out of office, but he and his buddies have made it difficult to vote in Houston.
I love the poorly-educated. -- Donald Trump, February 2016 ~~~
~~~ Virginia. Extreme Drydocking. John Wright of the Raw Story: "A Republican state legislative candidate in Virginia posed an interesting question on Twitter recently. 'I'm curious, Do you think the sea level would lower, if we just took all the boats out of the water?...' wrote Scott Pio, who is challenging Democratic Del. David Reid in Loudoun County's District 32. Pio subsequently deleted his tweet, but not before it was picked up by the Democratic group Blue Virginia.... In its post, Blue Virginia pointed to some of Pio's other views, including his opposition to abortion in all cases, and his belief that there should be no restrictions on guns.... Pio later wrote in response to Blue Virginia's post, 'When you take things out of bath water, the bath water decreases, does it not? Got a lot of hate from your group for asking a question about taking things out of the water. Curious when you stopped believing in pure physics? I guess you don't believe in science experiments?'... Randall Munroe, an engineer who authors the award-winning webcomic XKCD, recently calculated ... that the impact [of banning boats] on sea levels would be 'about six microns -- slightly more than the diameter of a strand of spider silk.'"
Way Beyond
Afghanistan/E.U. Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "With Afghanistan cut off from most of its foreign support and plunging into an economic and humanitarian crisis, the European Union pledged a major $1.15 billion aid package during a virtual Group of 20 summit, calling it a step to avoid 'catastrophe.' But for all of Europe's urgency -- part of it driven by anxiety about spillover migration -- other nations, representing the largest economies, did not step forward with comparable measures. The summit -- in which President Biden participated, but Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not -- ended with a general agreement about the importance of providing a lifeline to Afghanistan's people as conditions worsen."
Afghanistan/U.S. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "The Afghan interpreter who in 2008 was part of a team that rescued then-Sen. Joe Biden when his helicopter got caught in a blinding snowstorm in Afghanistan safely left the country with his family last week. The interpreter, Aman Khalili, had been in hiding in the weeks after Kabul's fall to the Taliban in mid-August and the U.S. withdrawal from the country. Khalili, his wife and several of his children -- a number he did not want to disclose for safety reasons -- were rescued last week in a joint effort by a group of Arizona military veterans, aid organizations and, ultimately, the Department of State. Some of the U.S. veterans involved in the operation to get the family out had worked with Khalili on the 2008 operation to rescue Biden (D-Del.) and two other senators -- John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) -- when their helicopter was forced to land in an Afghan valley vulnerable to a Taliban attack.... After a few days in Pakistan, the family arrived in Doha, Qatar, on Monday after Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman asked for Pakistani approval to fly them to Qatar aboard a U.S. military plane."
U.K. I Say, Camilla, Toss the Dregs of This Bottle into the Car's Tank, Will You? Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Speaking to the BBC about his carbon footprint ahead of a U.N. climate summit later this month, [Prince Charles] said [his Aston Martin DB6], which he has owned for more than 50 years, runs on 'surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese process.'... The royal's car has been converted so that it runs on a biofuel known as E85 -- which is blended from 85 percent bioethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline. While this means the fuel is more sustainable, there are disadvantages to using the substitute, which is made from biomass such as sugar, wheat or corn. Vehicle engines need to be modified to be powered by the substance, and the need for biofuel crops means greater demands on forestland. 'On a large scale biofuels do more harm than good, driving deforestation and land use change that worsens the climate crisis,' Greg Archer, a director at a European clean transport group, told the Guardian newspaper."
News Lede
A Plausible Big Boom Theory. New York Times: "Satellite imagery suggests [to some metereologists] that a meteor might have exploded in the atmosphere over New Hampshire..., causing houses to shake in the state & even into Massachusetts.... This time of year, they pointed out, is known for intense meteor showers.... Greg Cornwell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine," said that a blip was detected on their geostationary weather satellite at about the same time people started calling in about the big boom.
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Reader Comments (11)
Who says stuff like “I love the poorly educated”? Coming from Trump, you KNOW he doesn’t mean “I’m on the side of those who haven’t had access to a good education”. He means “I love people who are stupid enough to vote for me.”
5000 more wrinkles in the Texas governor's anti-tax edict.
https://www.kwtx.com/2021/10/12/boeing-tells-workers-they-must-get-covid-19-vaccine/
Pardon my Republican tic. Make that anti-vax.
(I see it wasn't a tic. It was Akhilleus' nemesis, Otto.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/12/john-gruden-needed-go-washington-football-team-investigation/
As my grandmother would ask in dismay when she heard of such rankly stupid and nasty behavior, "What possesses these people?"
I didn't realize it at the time but I wonder now if she may have been hearkening back to the old sod where her ancestors granted demons greater recognition for prompting otherwise unaccountable behavior.
Today, we say something like, "What's wrong with these people?"
But reading about all these privileged people behaving badly makes me wonder if we make any greater sense when we take demons out of the question.
There has to be a reason why people who have everything, those who are most situated to be content with their lives, still go out of their way to make the lives of others more miserable.
Gruden and company remind me, naturally enough, of that other guy, who while no longer president and no longer in the Fortune 400 still has far more than 99.99% of all others on the planet and is still doing everything he can to spread his special brand of misery across the nation and world.
And yet, thousands still travel miles to listen to his nasty lies and then gobble them up wholesale.
It must be demons.
Call it Ken’s Sports Report
Back in the day we had Marie's fake partner responsible for the sport's news; now she's on her own and it looks like she knows as much about the sport's world as I do. I like taking the Time's quiz at the end of the week and I invariably miss the questions about sports. But back to her report this morning: Kudos to the Net's giving their star Mr. Irving an ultimatum: get vaccinated or you're out of the game. Since he's a key player it tells us the Nets are hedging their bets on Irving getting the shot but, if not––saving lives is more important than winning a ball game.
~~~ Marie: "Wait. The Pope says get a shot & that means Roman Catholics can take a religious exemption from getting shots? How does that work? "
“The archbishop of the U.S. military said on Tuesday that Catholic troops could refuse the mandated Covid vaccine on religious grounds"
Timmy here needs to get with the program, whatever the hell that is. He's putting a monkey wrench into an edict from the CHURCH and god knows many of the faithful will use their faith, as warped as it may be, to refuse a vaccine. But hey––God in his wisdom will prevail in this sordid botched up fairy tale.
To think this country can't come together re: pandemic solutions tells us there IS that something rotten in the states* of this nation. Love for the poorly educated makes for progress for those who operate for money and power. It may be as simple as that.
*Texas–––once again I'm betting on Beto to save the day along with Superman who has expanded his field and left Lois Lane on the right side of the road.
@Ken Winkes: Yeah, there's a reason "the rich are different from you and me." It centers on hubris, but sayings like your grandmother's speak to the elements of that hubris. She might also have said, for instance, that they are "too big for their britches." They also have a sense of entitlement that means when they speak, we "little people" should not only tolerate the unpleasant things they say but heed their words, too. We're supposed to "know our place." The class system in the U.S., though not codified the way it was in England & other parts of Europe, it alive and well. Here it's based more on money, but "breeding" matters, too. That's why that lawyer guy in South Carolina & his family may have got away with murder for a decade or more. It's Okay If The Rich Do It is a real thing, too.
There is a different kind of rich that has grown out of the chivalric tradition: the sense of noblesse oblige. This causes members of "old families" not to flaunt their privileges & wealth (even if they have managed to keep the money in the family) and to do charitable works -- and not just for the parties & society-page notices. It's this side of rich that Trump never got -- and the reason he's such an ass -- New York families never accepted his crass, publicity-seeking behavior, nor should they have. Donald would have thought he was really classy showing up at an opera performance; a Rockefeller heir would have thought it was Thursday.
@PD Pepe: You've hit on something there. It appears that millions of Americans are as virulently opposed to life-saving vaccines as they are racist and anti-abortion & so forth. It reminds one that so-called "conservatism" is more about tribalism than it is about particular issues. It doesn't matter what the "cause" is, even if the cause is so self-destructive it causes sickness & death. If the "influencers" of the tribe are for or against it, then so are the followers. Screaming "freeedumb" looks awfully pathetic when you realize that the screamer is incapable of experiencing freedom; s/he is bound to whatever the tribal morays of the day are.
Looks like Otto is working overtime today.
Oh tempura! Oh morays. Otto's seafood platter dew joor.
Yesterday while getting my covid booster and flu shots, I regaled
the team with some of the reasons anti-vaxers aren't getting the
vaccine, for example, the chip that will control our thoughts, or
they're putting cancer cells in it to control the population, or it's
the mark of the beast, and last but not least, it causes erectile
dysfunction.
All agreed that there's a pill for the last one, but you can't fix stupid.
@unwashed & @Patrick: Ha ha. But I can't blame Otto. I actually thought it was "morays." The English language is as slippery as an eel.
It's great to learn something so fundamental at an advanced age. I thought -- and always have thought -- that "mores" as in "social mores" was pronounced "moors." (But not "moops"!) And "morays" were norms. And also creepy fishes.