;)
The Commentariat -- June 28, 2021
Late Morning Update:
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a legal battle over the rights of transgender students, handing a victory to Gavin Grimm over the Virginia school board that denied him the right to use the boys' restroom. As is its custom, the court did not say why it was rejecting the appeal of the Gloucester County school district. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have accepted the case. The court's decision not to take up the case does not establish a national precedent. In a 2-to-1 decision last August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the school board had practiced sex-based discrimination and the 14th Amendment by prohibiting Grimm, a transgender student, from using the bathroom that aligned with his gender identity. His high school offered a single-stall restroom as an alternative." MB: The contrast between the confederate Supremes' decision & the decision of that New Jersey high school principal (story linked below) is stark. When Neil Truckers-Must-Die Gorsuch is more humane than you are, you've got a problem, Mr. Tull.
In today's Comments, contributor Patrick highlights an interview in Salon by Paul Rosenberg of Rachel Bitecofer, a political scientist who has founded "her own super PAC -- Strike PAC -- to do the kind of messaging her research suggests is key to winning elections with today's electorate." Here's one of her ads: ~~~
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Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The United States carried out three airstrikes early Monday morning in Iraq and Syria against weapons storage facilities used by Iranian-backed militias that in recent weeks have conducted armed drone strikes against locations where the American military is, the Pentagon said on Sunday. 'At President Biden's direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region,' the Pentagon spokesman, John F. Kirby, said in a statement. Mr. Kirby said the facilities struck were used by Iranian-backed militias, including Kata'ib Hezbollah and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, to carry out drone strikes against places where Americans were located. The strikes were the second time that President Biden has ordered the use of force in the region. The United States carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria in late February against buildings belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militias responsible for recent attacks against American and allied personnel in Iraq."” ~~~
~~~ CNN's story, by Barbara Starr, is here. And here's the full DOD statement. ~~~
~~~ Jane Arraf & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The United States is grappling with a rapidly evolving threat from Iranian proxies in Iraq after militia forces specialized in operating more sophisticated weaponry, including armed drones, have hit some of the most sensitive American targets in attacks that evaded U.S. defenses. At least three times in the past two months, those militias have used small, explosive-laden drones that divebomb and crash into their targets in late-night attacks on Iraqi bases -- including those used by the C.I.A. and U.S. Special Operations units, according to American officials. Iran -- weakened by years of harsh economic sanctions -- is using its proxy militias in Iraq to step up pressure on the United States and other world powers to negotiate an easing of those sanctions as part of a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal."
Burgess Everett of Politico: "President Joe Biden's domestic agenda appears back on track in Congress, with Republicans praising his newly clarified approach to their bipartisan infrastructure plan and a key Democrat endorsing work on a separate, larger spending package. Two GOP negotiators [Mitt Romney & Rob Portman] on the bipartisan infrastructure deal said Sunday that they were mollified by Biden's Saturday statement vowing to support the bipartisan framework on its own merits, rather than withholding his signature until he also received a larger, partisan proposal. Many Republicans interpreted his remarks in the aftermath of their deal on Thursday as an implicit veto threat." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met Sunday with Israel's foreign minister, Yair Lapid, as the Biden administration takes the measure of Israel's new government after the departure of the country's divisive prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The two men discussed Israel's policies toward the Palestinians and the international talks seeking to return Iran and the United States to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, about which Mr. Lapid said Israel had 'serious reservations.' But Mr. Lapid took a warm tone overall in brief remarks at the start of his meeting with Mr. Blinken, their first since Israel's new government took power on June 13, saying he hoped to repair damage incurred under Mr. Netanyahu to Israel's standing among Washington Democrats."
Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration mounted an aggressive push reshaping national housing policy in a span of 48 hours this past week, replacing a key regulator and pushing a flurry of other changes to try to address growing concerns within and outside the White House about a housing crisis for millions of renters and vulnerable Americans.... Housing has emerged as one of the most unequal and consequential parts of the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Low interest rates, cheap mortgages and bidding wars are fueling a housing boom for wealthier Americans and making homeownership out of reach for many first-time buyers. Meanwhile, housing is a expense and worry for millions of renters and unemployed workers, and advocates fear a wave of homelessness once the CDC's final moratorium [on evictions] lifts July 31."
Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) in a USA Today op-ed: "The filibuster threatens the freedoms of every American, no matter the color of your skin, your gender, ZIP code, political party, or how much money you have (or don't have) in the bank. The filibuster doesn't just mean a minority of senators can block critical legislation on everything from voting rights to the minimum wage. The filibuster undermines the basic principle that makes our democracy work: government of the people, by the people, for the people. ... When we allow a political faction to block critical legislation, it takes away that voice from the voters. No matter your political party, you should know that when you win a free and fair election, your representatives can govern." Demings is running for Senate." MB: A simple, straightforward explanation of the perversity of the filibuster.
But Tlaib! Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: ""Fox News Sunday" host >Chris Wallace sparred with Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) over Banks's vote against an emergency relief bill that would have allocated funds to police and first responders. 'Can't you make the argument that it's you and the Republicans who defunded the police?' Wallace asked Banks, who is the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee." MB: Banks' "defense" is to name-check Democratic women -- Tlaib, Omar, Pelosi -- because that's all Republicans know how to do. You would think that Republicans would have figured out that it's a bad idea to go on Chris Wallace's show armed only with lame talking points, senseless arguments, & knocks at Democrats.
Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors in New York have given ... Donald Trump's attorneys a deadline of Monday afternoon to make any final arguments as to why the Trump Organization should not face criminal charges over its financial dealings, according to two people familiar with the matter. That deadline is a strong signal that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) -- now working together, after each has spent more than two years investigating Trump's business -- are considering criminal charges against the company as an entity.... Last Thursday, lawyers working for Trump personally and for the Trump Organization met virtually with prosecutors to make the case that charges were not warranted. Meetings like these are common in financial investigations...."
Marie: Even though I'm no fan of Jonathan Karl's, and even though I don't have a subscription to the Atlantic, where this interview is published, I'm using one of my few Atlantic freebies and linking it here. It's worth a read: ~~~
If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit. -- Bill Barr, to Jon Karl ~~~
You know, you only have five weeks, Mr. President, after an election to make legal challenges. This would have taken a crackerjack team with a really coherent and disciplined strategy. Instead, you have a clown show. No self-respecting lawyer is going anywhere near it. It's just a joke. That's why you are where you are. -- Bill Barr, to Donald Trump, Dec. 1, 2020
~~~ Jonathan Karl, in the Atlantic: "... few betrayals have enraged [Donald Trump] more than what his attorney general did to him. To Trump, the unkindest cut of all was when William Barr stepped forward and declared [on the record, to Michael Balsamo of the AP,] that there had been no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, just as the president was trying to overturn Joe Biden's victory by claiming that the election had been stolen. In a series of interviews with me this spring, Barr spoke ... about the events surrounding his break with Trump." Barr & Mitch McConnell both confirmed to Karl that Barr had made the public statement at McConnell's request. McConnell had been telling Barr that if he -- McConnell -- made the statement, Trump would likely sabotage the two Georgia Senate runoffs. Karl relates Trump's meeting with Barr right after the Balsamo story hit the fan. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Tom Sullivan republishes some of Karl's story in Hullabaloo. John Amato of Crooks & Liars has a bit more of it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story publishes some reactions to Barr's rehabilitation interview. Cheryl Rofer of Balloon Juice has more of the same. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Rick Hasen: "As is typical in pieces where people from Barr world are sources (in this case Barr himself), this paints Barr in the best possible light. The piece does not even mention how Barr put forward outrageous and ludicrous statements about voter fraud before the election, suggesting that foreign governments would be mailing in thousands of absentee ballots. Barr continues on his rehabilitation tour.... [Meanwhile,] Mitch McConnell utterly failed in squelching the Trump voter fraud claims because he was trying to preserve his Senate majority.... As Quinta Jurecic put it: '... this reads like ... the senate majority leader asking the attorney general for political help in an upcoming election. Not great!' But it's even worse than that. McConnell knew Trump's claims were bogus and endangering the country. And he refused to speak up because he put politics before country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's 'big lie' that he lost the 2020 US election because of voter fraud is 'a bit like WWF', Mitt Romney said on Sunday, referring to the gaudy and artificial world of professional wrestling, an arena in which Trump starred before entering politics. 'It's entertaining,' said the Utah senator.... 'But it's not real.' Appearing on CNN's State of the Union, Romney was asked about former attorney general William Barr's assertion to the Atlantic on Sunday that Trump's claims were always 'bullshit'.... Romney suggested most Americans have always known Trump is lying about electoral fraud, which he was told about by conspiracy theorists -- 'the MyPillow guy [Mike Lindell and] Rudy Giuliani' -- rather than any official source." Romney went on to say that autocrats around the world are using Trump's lies about the election to undermine democratic principles. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course Romney is wrong. As Pengelly points out, most Republican voters still believe Trump won. But worse, the January 6 insurrection probably would not have happened had Republicans all accepted Biden's win in November and isolated Trump as nearly the only Republican official in the U.S. who didn't have the guts & grace to congratulate Joe Biden.
Flynn Monetized the Crazy. Candace Rondeaux of the Intercept: "Most media outlets treated [Michael] Flynn's videotaped oath last summer, in which he uttered a well-known QAnon slogan, as a sort of coming-out story about a onetime Trump insider who had gone off the rails.... An Intercept investigation has found that Flynn's ties to the QAnon phenomenon stretch back much further than the July 4 weekend last year ... to the days immediately following Trump's 2016 election victory.... Flynn ... would go on to become a central hero in QAnon's conspiratorial narrative. But his move to trademark the term 'digital soldiers' -- ensuring that only he and others who obtain his express permission can profit from the sale of 'Digital Soldiers'-branded merchandise -- hints at his attempt to capitalize on a marketing and communication strategy that resonates with the Q community.... His push to leverage QAnon's viral popularity with the far-right coincided with his efforts to reverse his guilty plea for lying to the FBI in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.... Previously unreported events following Flynn's November 2016 'digital soldiers' speech raise questions about his role in the origins of the QAnon movement." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is a detailed -- and apparently deeply-researched -- report that delves into the interconnections among Flynn & a number of other loons -- and the enterprises they spawned. In view of the fact that Flynn made the first steps down the Q road a year before the first "Q drop" makes one wonder if Michael Flynn is Q. As the Former Guy would say ... Sad.
Guess I'll Have to Duct-tape Over the Logos on My Toyota. Lachlan Markay of Axios: "Nearly three-dozen corporate PACs have donated at least $5,000 to Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 election, yet Toyota leads by a substantial margin.... Following Jan. 6, huge segments of corporate America rethought their political-giving programs. The new numbers suggest some large companies have decided to maintain support -- even for members of Congress deeply enmeshed in the pro-Trump conspiracy theories that fueled the Capitol attack."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Stacy Cowley & Ella Koeze of the New York Times: "Though Congress approved billions in aid for small companies to help them keep paying their employees during the pandemic..., it wasn't reaching the tiniest and neediest businesses. Then two small companies came out of nowhere and, through an astute mix of technology and advertising -- and the dogged pursuit of an opportunity that big banks missed -- found a way to help those businesses. They also helped themselves. For their work, the companies stand to collect more than $3 billion in fees, according to a New York Times analysis -- far more than any of the 5,200 participating lenders. One of the companies, Blueacorn, didn't exist before the pandemic. The other, Womply, founded a decade ago, sold marketing software. But this year, they became the breakout stars of the Paycheck Protection Program, the government's $800 billion relief effort for small businesses. Between them, the two companies processed a third of all P.P.P. loans made this year, the Times analysis found. Blueacorn and Womply aren't banks, so they couldn't actually lend any money. Rather, they acted as middlemen...."
Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "A leader in the Roman Catholic Church's effort to reach out to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics revealed on Sunday that Pope Francis had sent him a deeply encouraging note, capping an especially disorienting week on the Vatican's attitude toward gay rights. On Tuesday, the Vatican confirmed that it had tried to influence the affairs of the Italian state by expressing grave concerns about legislation currently in Parliament that increases protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people. And days later, the Vatican's second in command insisted the church had nothing against gay rights, but was protecting itself from leaving the church's core beliefs open to criminal charges of discrimination. Nearly eight years after Pope Francis famously responded, 'Who am I to judge?' on the issue of gay Catholics, it has become increasingly difficult to discern where he stands on the issue. A growing dissonance has developed between his inclusive language and the church's actions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Bishops Backfire. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "The decision of right-wing Catholic bishops to begin drafting a statement that many of them said was aimed at President Biden and his reception of communion was not just a rebuke to him and to other Catholic Democrats. It was also an attack on Pope Francis, who had made clear that he did not want them to go down this divisive road. And it reinforced the suspicions of the church among progressive-leaning young people already alienated from Christian institutions that champion extreme forms of conservative politics.... That this is even an issue shows how the viruses of the political right have infected the U.S. church leadership."
Adam Clymer of the New York Times: "Mike Gravel, a two-term Democratic senator from Alaska who played a central role in 1970s legislation to build the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline but who was perhaps better known as an unabashed attention-getter, in one case reading the Pentagon Papers aloud at a hearing at a time when newspapers were barred from publishing them and later mounting long-shot presidential runs, died on Saturday at his home in Seaside, Calif. He was 91." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. James Glanz, et al., of the New York Times: "The investigation into what may be the deadliest accidental building collapse in American history has just begun, but experts who have examined video footage of the disaster outside Miami are focusing on a spot in the lowest part of the condominium complex -- possibly in or below the underground parking garage -- where an initial failure could have set off a structural avalanche. Called 'progressive collapse,' the gradual spread of failures could have occurred for a variety of reasons, including design flaws or the less robust construction allowed under the building codes of four decades ago, when the complex was built. But that progression could not have occurred without some critical first failure, and close inspections of a grainy surveillance video that emerged in the initial hours after the disaster have given the first hints of where that might have been."
New Jersey. The School District Should Fire This High School Principal. Right Away. Alyssa Lukpat of the New York Times: "Less than a minute into Bryce Dershem's valedictorian speech on June 17, the microphone cut out. He had just told the audience at his New Jersey high school's graduation ceremony that he came out as queer in his freshman year. When he made that revelation, the principal, Robert M. Tull, went to the back of the stage and appeared to unplug some cords, a video from the ceremony shows.... Mr. Tull walked onstage and took the microphone from its stand.... He also took Mr. Dershem's prepared remarks.... Mr. Tull pointed to another copy of the speech on the podium that did not have any references to sexuality or mental health.... A replacement microphone was brought to Mr. Dershem.... Then his classmates at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees Township, N.J., cheered for him to continue his speech.... Mr. Dershem knew every word of his own version of the speech, because he had been working on his remarks for a month.... The principal and Mr. Dershem had been debating the contents of the speech for weeks, Mr. Dershem said." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The short video that accompanies the article shows Tull silencing Dershem. Tull is Black. He knows first-hand what discrimination feels like. But he thought it was fine to discriminate against a vulnerable kid, a kid who had excelled in his studies. According to the NYT story, "Robert Cloutier, the superintendent of the Eastern Camden County Regional School District, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the district had not asked any students to remove mentions of 'their personal identity' from their speeches." Tull has no excuse for his behavior. An apology? Sensitivity training? Not enough. Tull needs a job where he has no contact with other human beings.
News Lede
The New York Times is liveblogging developments today in the Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse.
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Reader Comments (18)
Don't know why, but this one got by the paper's gatekeeper last Friday.
Truly can't suss out the editor's thinking.
Regardless, I offer it here as a Monday sermon.
"Republican Senators just rejected Senate Bill 1, the For the People Act. All fifty Republican senators said they didn’t wish to debate a bill that would make voting easier and limit the influence of money in our elections.
You can hardly blame them. Since the 2020 election, Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country have proposed or enacted hundreds of laws to restrict voting (brennencenterl.org). The last thing today's Republicans want is for the wrong people to vote.
This has been true since the two parties switched stripes following the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Before that, it was Democrats in southern states who enacted Jim Crow laws to keep blacks from voting. Since then, it’s Republicans, not southern Democrats, who wish to choose who can vote and who cannot (abcnews.go.com).
Since the 2020 election, there is an air of desperation to the whole thing. A lawyer for Arizona Republicans told the Supreme Court that without voter restrictions their party is at a “competitive disadvantage” (Truthout.com). South Caroline Senator Lindsey Graham has worried that if mail-in voting is not curtailed, the country will never again elect a Republican president (business insider.com).
Restricting voting currently tops the list of Republican priorities. Forty seven percent of Republicans say that for them to win national elections, changing voting rules is more important than any policy that might improve people’s lives (washingtonpost.com)
Mitch McConnell recently claimed the Constitution vests the power to control elections solely in the states, omitting these words from Article 1, Section 4, “but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations”(thehill.com). McConnell and his cohorts, however, would rather not
Far from crowing about their turn to states’ rights and Jim Crow, Republicans won’t even allow voting rights to be discussed on the Senate floor."
Here's my language show-off pet peeve of the day: saying "simplistic" when you mean "simple." English-speakers seem to think "simplistic" is a fancy, sophisticated (hey, it has more syllables!) word for "simple." It isn't. "Simplistic" is a pejorative that means "treating complex issues and problems as if they were much simpler than they really are." So when someone boasts that she's got a "simplistic solution" to a problem, she means a "simple solution" but she's saying a "lamebrained, unworkable 'solution.'"
While the U.S. is "grappling with a rapidly evolving threat from Iranian proxies in Iraq" life here in the states continues to be filled to overflowing; the Barr outing is enough to quench any appetite for salacious goodies. And then we have those golden moments where a kid from N.J. defies protocol and delivers a valedictorian speech just the way he wanted. Brave young people like Bryce are speaking out despite opposition.
And today we have Garry Wills speaking out on the abortion issue. I always read Wills–-find him most interesting as a political pundit, a literary critic, author of many books–––and a Catholic.
"This is not a religious issue: It is a matter of natural law which should be discerned by natural reason." This, he says, does not affect the American Bishops ––they hate the Pope and this president anyway.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/27/opinion/biden-bishops-communion-abortion.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
P.S. From yesterday we learned that our very own M.B. is not only writing a mystery but can deliver a pretty durn good children's bedtime story to curl any kid's hair.
I often wonder what would happen with those who wear their
IQ on a hat (45) if the former guy choked on a double cheeseburger
and didn't live to brag about how many he just downed while
sitting in bed watching Faux news.
Since they sincerely believe he is the president, wouldn't that make
the halp pence then president?
Oh no, he's a traiter so we"ll just have to hang him which we
wanted to do on Jan 6.
So if pence was hung (ha ha) do they know who would be next
in line of succession for president?
I'll bet my last dollar that not a one of them has a clue.
Barr and McGahn trying mightily to burn the house down and then leave with their reputations intact. I bet these two worked things out together: in the clubby world of DC Billy Barr and Donny McG for sure knew each other. Just like like retiles everywhere, those two can feast on the carcass together and appear cooperative as long as mutual interests are served. Vultures and puke eaters as 'National Leaders'.
Speaking of vultures and puke eaters as 'National Leaders': Israel. When I consider Golda Meir or David Ben-Gurion, I'm thinking more patriots. Netanyahu is definately more puke eater than patriot. Apologies for my visuals this morning.
P.S. Ken, stay cool!
Marie,
Thanks for the language essay.
These extra syllables sure seem to exert a gravitational pull on those who lack language gravitas and are hence susceptible to the push and pull of the language winds wafting about on the internet.
No compliment, I remember hearing the phrase "latinate double-whammy" long ago and have often been impressed-depressed with its frequent utility.
But the annoyance, as you say, doesn't have to stem from Ancient Rome. Just an extra syllable or two will do.
Two words that long ago gave me the fantods: "Problematic," commonly used as a snooty way to say difficult and whose overuse has long since become far more than problematic to me.
Then there's the frequent noun to verb metamorphosis of the kind that led from the perfectly fine "certificate" to the awkward "certificated," a word that has rankled this multi-certificated fellow for decades.
Here is a REALLY interesting and perceptive precis by Digby of an interview of Rachel Bitecover by Paul Rosenberg in Salon:
https://digbysblog.net/2021/06/the-aggrieved-voter-turnout-model/
It seems to me that Bitecover has the right strategy that should be used by the DNC and DCCC to take on the GOP in 2022 and beyond, the same strategy I would use if I were king (so, it must be good, yes?).
Among other things, I have always wondered why the D's don't consistently beat the living stuffing out of R claims to being better at managing the economy. ALL the numbers for forty years show R claims about taxes, supply side, etc. are nonsense. Even the Soviets used to adjust their Five Year Plans when the numbers didn't work, and the Chinese famously shoved Maoist economics into the historic dustbin in the later 70s, because people were still starving and "the people" KNEW THEY COULD DO BETTER.
Are our "people" less intelligent than Russian muzhiks and Chinese workers? It appears to be so.
Read the Digby piece, you'll resonate to it.
Regarding word changes:
Has anyone noticed that, "I'm excited to announce...," anything from a new policy position to shoes is now making the rounds of poor word usage? People around me are annoyed when I say,"excited??? what are you , a giggly 13 year old?"
@Citizen: David Shulman who wrote a long piece on the Israeli situation says this:
"One has to keep in mind that the quotidian reality of Israel is a shared, bi-ethnic bi-national one: Palestinians and Israelis work and live side by side in nearly all Israeli hospitals and clinics, in restaurants and businesses, in shopping malls,, at some of the universities. It's not so hard, but not so easy to turn that reality into one of fierce communal strife."
At one of the peace demonstrations that Shulman attended in Jerusalem during the height of the war, the police spent a lot of energy breaking up the crowd with stun grenades and water cannon while shouting insults. Within that crowd of protestors were secular Israeli's along side Palestinians.
Victoria: One of my pet peeves has been––past tense since Covid no one asks this anymore–--"What exciting things have you two been up to?"
I usually answered in a snarky way: "Oh, you would not believe all the exciting things we've been "up to"––-why yesterday, we actually read poems to each other."
"That chocolate cake is to die for" is another––-all sorts of things people would die for, cake being number one.
That "excited to announce..." has been showing up in engagement notices in our paper...sounds exceedingly overdone. I'm sure I can come up with a list also-- Maybe we should include phrases like "people of color" (why is that better than "colored people" from so many years ago?) and "people of faith." Obituaries have garbage phrases all the time, since people apparently don't know what to write. Our dead people "meet Jesus", meet saviors, God, everyone. Sometimes they meet Jesus "in Lancaster General Hospital," and it sends me to giggles, wondering if he signed in with the lobby receptionist...
"Between you and I", there is a lot of material out there...
Another post mortem on the Barr-Karl interview that I thought worth a read....:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/28/barr-trump-election-fraud-atlantic/
.....despite containing my word of the day. "Problematic" indeed.
Thank you, Jeanne! It's been one of those things on my mind as to why to refer to a "colored lady" is offensive but "lady of color" is fine. Sometimes my mind just can't go with the flow.
@Jeanne: Good point about "people of color" v. "colored people." Does that mean "lady of Spain" is okay but "Spanish lady" is an insult? And yeah, Jesus showing ID at hospital reception is hilarious. I'll bet when he comes by to take the beloved to heaven, he doesn't wear those flowing linen robes but wears regular street clothes. Hiding the halo, I suppose, could be problematic.
And "between you and I" is another way English-speakers think they are showing off their high-falutin grammar skills. I sometimes do a similar thing by erroneously making a "whom" out of what should have been a "who." I have to watch it.
@PD Pepe: Best chocolate cake I ever had was in a little restaurant in Bogner Regis, England. On the menu, the confection was called "Death by Chocolate." It was awfully good, but we survived.
Get Jeanne's point but am wondering if there might be a difference between colored and Spanish people worth keeping in mind.
Seems that when it comes to color, there's a tonal (a nod to my conversations with the editor of my local paper) difference worth noting.
To my ear, "colored people" has a (problematic) cartoonish feel to it that "people of color" goes part way to sidestepping by emphasizing that they are people first.
Am I too sensitive--or just plain wrong?
Forrest,
You get a two-fer today, my man. “IQ on their hats” (hahahaha), and your wondering about the half-pence being “hung”. I’m pretty sure that one could not append a “well” to that question, and certainly not to the answer. After all, cognomens involving “half” and “little” (as in little mikey”) do not bespeak a size of any significance. And since we have it on good authority that the Orange Menace is mushroomy mini, in line with those tiny fingers, there is every reason to believe that neither heads of the prez* and vice prez* are anything to write home about, unless one’s letters are replete with knee-slapping guffaws and references to near freezing IQ levels. Psychology tables of old placed those with an IQ of 45 squarely within the category of “imbecile”. Sounds about right.
@Forrest Morris: Yes, I noticed back in the day that 43 proudly wore his IQ on his hat.
Marley's ghost, Jesus or Angels or your long dead grand father showing up is a visitation. All other appearances are just plain visits.