;)
The Conversation -- December 29, 2023
Ukraine, et al. Constant Méheut and Daria Mitiuk of the New York Times: “Russia targeted Ukrainian cities with more than 150 missiles and drones on Friday morning, in what Ukrainian officials said was one of the largest air assaults of the war. At least 26 people were killed, and more than 120 were wounded, according to Ukrainian authorities, and critical infrastructure was damaged.... For several hours on Friday, missiles, drones and debris slammed into factories, hospitals and schools in cities across Ukraine, from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east.... Thanks to its powerful air defense systems, Ukraine has often been able to shoot down most, if not all, Russian weapons targeting cities in recent months. But on Friday the Ukrainian military said it had shot down only 114 missiles and drones out of a total of 158.... The Ukrainian authorities had warned for months that Russia was stockpiling high-precision missiles to pound Ukrainian cities when cold weather began to bite....
:Yet Republican lawmakers in Congress have declined to pass a new $50 billion security package for Ukraine unless the law also imposes new restrictions on migrants trying to cross the southern U.S. border, and negotiations are continuing. Washington said on Wednesday that it was releasing the last Congress-approved package of military aid currently available to Kyiv. Ukraine's supply of surface-to-air missiles -- key ordnance needed to down incoming Russian missiles -- is now running short."
Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "For the second time in a month, the appeals court in Washington, D.C., has ruled once again that Donald Trump is not immune from lawsuits brought against him by police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. On Dec. 1, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Trump in a case brought by Capitol Police Officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, as well as lawmakers including Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.... Now, in a ruling released Friday, the appeals court ... concluded that a different lawsuit first brought in August 2021 by USCP Officer Conrad Smith and seven of his colleagues, was virtually 'indistinguishable' from the Blassingame case." MB: It is notable that in both of these cases, the appeals court judges ruled against Trump's argument that he was immune from the suits because all that incitement stuff constituted "official acts."
~~~ Marie: I had to do a little checking (here and here), but I found that two of the three judges heard both cases.
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Presidential Race 2024
** Jenna Russell & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "Maine's top election official on Thursday barred Donald J. Trump from the state's primary election ballot ... based on claims that his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election rendered him ineligible. In a written decision, the official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said that Mr. Trump did not qualify for the ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, agreeing with a handful of citizens who claimed that he had incited an insurrection and was thus barred from seeking the presidency again under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. 'I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection,' Ms. Bellows, a Democrat, wrote.... Maine's decision adds urgency to calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to insert itself into the politically explosive dispute over his eligibility." CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) The Maine Morning Star report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: We learned from Nikki Haley yesterday that the Civil War was about, well, something besides slavery, and the best those of us who went to school in the South could surmise was that that the "something" must have been states' rights. Now, many of the Supremes are more-or-less "Tenthers": that is, fans of the Constitution's Tenth Amendment who believe it severely limits the reach of the federal government. So let's see how they feel about states that have laws permitting, by one means or another, to kick a certain Republican off the ballot. It's well-established that we don't have a true federal elections system; rather, we have 50 state elections systems, each with unique laws and rules governing all elections. BTW, Trump is not the first prominent GOP candidate whom Bellows kicked off this year's GOP primary ballot: she determined that Chris Christie had not met the state's requirement for voter petitions and would not put him on the ballot. A Maine court later upheld her ruling. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Speaking on MSNBC last night, Bellows suggested people read her decision. So here it is via CNN; it's 34 pages long. And here's the secretary of state's press release, which also links to the decision.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Lawsuits seeking to remove Mr. Trump from the ballot were filed in about 30 states, but many have been dismissed; there are active lawsuits in 14 states, according to a database maintained by Lawfare.... Those states are: Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. (A judge has dismissed the Arizona suit but the dismissal is being appealed.)... Hours [after Maine's secretary of state released her opinion], the secretary of state in California announced that Mr. Trump would remain on the ballot in the nation's most populous state, where election officials have limited power to remove candidates.
It Was All Biden's Fault. Jonathan Weisman & Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: "Nikki Haley ... on Thursday walked back her stumbling answer about the cause of the Civil War, telling a New Hampshire interviewer, 'Of course the Civil War was about slavery.'... But she also insinuated that the question had come not from a Republican voter but from a political detractor, accusing President Biden and Democrats of 'sending plants' to her town-hall events.... Late Wednesday night, even Mr. Biden rebuked [Haley's] answer: 'It was about slavery,' he wrote on social media." Politico's story is here. Related stories linked below; also a video of Haley's not-slavery not-answer to the Biden plant's question. And plenty of commentary in today's thread from people who would not have found the question as tough as Haley complained it was. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The report has been updated. New lede: "Prominent Democratic donors, anxious about the increasingly authoritarian language of Donald J. Trump, have been calling on Democratic voters and independents to thwart the former president's comeback by voting for Nikki Haley in open Republican primary elections. But Ms. Haley's political gaffe on Wednesday night, when the presidential hopeful and former governor of South Carolina stumbled through the causes of the Civil War with no mention of slavery, may make that appeal considerably harder just as she is edging closer to striking distance of Mr. Trump in New Hampshire."
~~~ Meryl Kornfield and others of the Washington Post have a report which includes some of Haley's attempts, made later in the day yesterday, at a clean-up. There's this: "Speaking with reporters Thursday afternoon, Haley dismissed her opponents' assertions that she had flip-flopped on the cause of Civil War. She said she didn't mention slavery in her initial response because she thought it was 'a given.' 'If it requires clarification of saying, "Yes, the Civil War was about slavery," I'm happy to do that.'..." MB: You're happy? Like them darkies down on the ole plantation? Good grief. ~~~
~~~ Brakkton Booker of Politico: "Republicans of color said on Thursday they were dismayed by Nikki Haley's initial refusal to say that slavery was the cause of the Civil War. It wasn't just an offensive historical omission, they argued, but a tactical blunder too.... Rina Shah, a Republican strategist..., [wrote to Politico:] '... What I do see is her having left out the word "slavery" because she was scared to talk about anything regarding our nation's complicated history. I think by acknowledging slavery she felt she might be alienating' Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis voters....Shermichael Singleton ... [said,] 'She had a chance to be competitive even though she was always likely to lose [the nomination]. However, that's over now. She's toast.'..." ~~~
~~~ Marie: What is most confounding about Haley's answer, as well as her past reactions to racist views, is that she certainly has been subject to racist attacks herself. Instead of her own experience making her a resolute defender of racial equality, she seemss more fearful of racists than she is appalled by racism. So she has described symbols of the Confederacy, like the Confederate flag, as emblems of "tradition" and describes the Civil War as a conflict about "freedoms to do what you want" and "government overreach" or something. Haley has learned to get by in life by trying to be all things to all people. That has worked for her in smaller venues than it has in a national political campaign. ~~~
~~~ David Kurtz of TPM: Nikki Haley's "remarks Wednesday evening while campaigning in New Hampshire, which did not secede from the union, were a tacit acknowledgment that the party of Lincoln has settled comfortably into its status as a revanchist minority-white rump Trumpist party." MB: See also the Florida Politics story linked under "Florida" below. As Kurtz writes, the problem ain't just Nikki's. The whole Republican party continues its project to resuscitate the "Lost Cause."~~~
~~~ Marie: South Carolina was the first state to secede from the U.S., and its "Declaration of Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union" is an instructive document Haley should have read in school. Here's the crux of the "immediate cause" a Convention of South Carolinians adopted in December 1860. And they weren't not wrong. "The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: 'No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.'... But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them."
A Major Problem in Electing ANY REPUBLICAN to the Presidency*. Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in a Thursday interview that, if elected president, he would fire special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two indictments against former President Trump, on 'day one' of his hypothetical term in office.... '... after you win the election, start holding these people accountable, who have weaponized the legal system to go after their political enemies.... And that starts with day one, firing somebody like Jack Smith. That goes to dealing with people who are violating constitutional rights at the state and local government area.'..." MB: Yeah, Ron, you're just as Trumpy as Trump.
** Marshall Cohen, et al., of CNN: "Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign's plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail. So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation's capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress, to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification. The operatives even considered chartering a jet to ensure the files reached Washington, DC, in time for the January 6, 2021, proceeding, according to emails and recordings obtained by CNN.... These details largely come from pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was an architect of the fake electors plot...." Includes audio of Chesebro's testimony. (Also linked yesterday.)
Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A full-time employee of the Trump administration appears to have taken part in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a new analysis. USA Today reported that Oliver Krvaric, who was working at the time as a 'confidential assistant' for the Office of Personnel Management, can be seen in photos and videos crossing the threshold of the west door of the upper west terrace of the U.S. Capitol immediately ahead of far-right influencer 'Baked Alaska.' 'I was not in the Capitol,' Krvaric told the newspaper. 'I did not go into any offices, I didn't wander the halls. I was not on the premises.'... He stopped responding to [a reporter's] texts when sent a surveillance video appearing to show him inside the building.... A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management confirmed that Krvaric, who led the College Republicans while at San Diego State University, was employed by the department from November 2020 to January 2021, on a Trump executive order seeking to rid federal agencies of diversity and inclusion training." (Also linked yesterday.)
Edgar Sandoval & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Thursday threatened to sue Texas if it enforced a sweeping new law that would allow the state and local police to arrest migrants who enter the United States from Mexico without authorization, setting up the first significant legal showdown over federal immigration enforcement. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed the measure, known as Senate Bill 4, this month in his most direct challenge yet to the Biden administration's handling of immigration.... In a letter obtained by The New York Times, Brian M. Boynton, an assistant attorney general with the D.O.J., gave Mr. Abbott until next Wednesday to retract his intention to enforce the law, which takes effect in early March. Otherwise, he wrote, 'the Department of Justice intends to bring a lawsuit to enforce the supremacy of federal law and to enjoin the operation of S.B. 4.' In the letter, which was addressed to Mr. Abbott, a third-term Republican, and Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, Mr. Boynton cited a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case, Arizona v. United States, in which the court narrowly decided in favor of the power of the federal government to set immigration policy."
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration plans to more aggressively pursue thousands of small businesses with past-due pandemic loans, reversing an earlier policy that saw the U.S. government stop short in its efforts to collect an estimated $30 billion in delinquent debt. The new approach, announced Thursday, arrives months after federal watchdogs and congressional lawmakers first blasted the administration for its leniency, warning that the government risked breaking the law -- and exacerbating its losses -- if it didn't try harder to get the money back.... In [an] investigation, the [SBA's inspector general, Hannibal 'Mike' Ware] estimated that there were about $62 billion in past-due EIDL [Economic Injury Disaster Loan] loans worth $100,000 or less as of this March. Earlier, the inspector general found an additional $1.1 billion in unpaid PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] loans that the government had charged off as a loss and never referred to the Treasury Department for collection activities."
Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "A House Ethics panel announced Wednesday that it will investigate whether Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) violated campaign finance laws and failed to file required disclosure forms last year as she ran in a special election for her seat and sought reelection months later." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Nell Scovell, once a writer on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," writes a lovely -- and realistic -- eulogy to Tom Smothers in the New York Times. "Tom Smothers came across as lighthearted and simple onstage. In real life, he thought and felt deeply about the creative process and social justice." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here's video of the Cass Elliot/Tom Smothers sketch Scovell mentions. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Florida. A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics: "A Senate companion to a House bill designed to protect Confederate monuments was filed Thursday. Sen. Jonathan Martin's SB 1122 would impose penalties on local officials who removed those and other historical monuments after July 1, 2024, mirroring a House companion in key ways, including potential removal from office by the Governor and civil penalties and required restitution for monument restoration from the responsible lawmakers' personal accounts.... Martin's bill, a companion to a similar House bill from Rep. Dean Black, comes after the Republican legislator from Jacksonville watched his hometown remove a monument this week to the Women of the Southland from the city's formerly-named Confederate Park, now Springfield Park.... [A memo by Jacksonville's general counsel] notes regarding Black's bill, that Gov. Ron DeSantis 'cannot implement an unconstitutional statute retroactively to penalize the Mayor from exercising her exclusive executive powers over parks under the consolidated City's unique Charter.'" Thanks to Bobby Lee for the link.
Georgia. Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post: "A federal judge [-- Steve C. Jones --] in Georgia signed off Thursday on congressional districts redrawn this month by the state's Republican-led legislature, ruling that the new map did not continue to illegally dilute the power of Black voters as Democrats and civil rights groups have argued.... The map added a new majority-Black district on Atlanta's west side. But it significantly altered a majority non-White district represented by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) in a way that Democrats say is designed to be favorable to Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Ga.).... Georgia lawmakers rejected a plan drawn by Democrats that would have protected McBath's district and combined McCormick's with one already represented by a Republican. At a hearing last week before Jones, Democrats argued that the Republican-passed map did not comply with the judge's original order and did not give Black voters sufficient power." The AP's report is here.
I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ['hard-core pornography'], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it. and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. -- Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, concurrence in Jacobellis v. Ohio, which decided that the film at issue constituted protected speech ~~~
~~~ Wisconsin. AP: "Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow said Thursday that the school's governing board fired him because members were uncomfortable with him and his wife producing and appearing in pornographic videos. The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents, which oversees UW-Madison, UW-La Crosse and 11 other regional campuses, voted unanimously during a hastily convened closed meeting Wednesday evening to fire Gow. After the vote, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and regents President Karen Walsh issued statements saying the regents had learned of specific conduct by Gow that subjected the university to 'significant reputational harm.' Rothman called Gow's actions 'abhorrent' and Walsh said she was 'disgusted.' But neither of them offered any details of the allegations.... 'My wife and I live in a country where we have a First Amendment,' [Gow] said [in reaction to his firing]. 'We're dealing with consensual adult sexuality. The regents are overreacting. They're certainly not adhering to their own commitment to free speech or the First Amendment.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Since the University of Wisconsin is a state-supported institution, maybe Gow has a case.
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Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "An estimated 100,000 Palestinians have fled to the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah in recent days, the U.N. humanitarian agency said. Rafah is one of the only parts of Gaza that is not facing intense ground fighting, according to the agency, though a missile strike Thursday near Rafah's Kuwaiti Hospital killed at least 18 people and wounded dozens, the hospital director said. The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday said an investigation into the killing of three Israeli hostages by IDF soldiers Dec. 15 found the deaths 'could have been prevented.'... The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it is working to establish the first organized camp for displaced Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli forces have increased attacks in recent weeks. The camp will include 300 tents at first and eventually expand to 1,000, the group said on social media.... U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Thursday discussed Israel's efforts in Gaza and 'preparations for the stabilization phase' that will come after 'major combat operations,' a Pentagon readout said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that the war 'isn't close to finished.'"
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Florida's legislature is ready to act on Jacksonville's confederate monument removal. A senate bill is ready to join a house bill to severely punish violators. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/650548-confederate-monument-protection-bill-filed-in-senate/
The Guv has made his displeasure known.
Washington Post
"A day after Apple warned independent Indian journalists and opposition party politicians in October that government hackers may have tried to break into their iPhones, officials under Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly took action — against Apple.
Officials from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) publicly questioned whether the Silicon Valley company’s internal threat algorithms were faulty and announced an investigation into the security of Apple devices.
In private, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, senior Modi administration officials called Apple’s India representatives to demand that the company help soften the political impact of the warnings."
Pandering to the MAGAts
The “It’s Biden’s fault!” excuse for Haley’s decision to tack to a full MAGA-white supremacy course is ridiculous on its face. Even if it were true that the Biden campaign planted an operative with instructions to ask a question about whether or not slavery was the single biggest cause of the Civil War, it’s a completely legitimate question.
It’s not a gotcha question or a “when did you stop beating your wife” query. Not only is it legitimate, it should have been expected by Haley (unless she assumed that no one who wasn’t already a white supremacist-MAGA racist would be there, but she’s running to be president of the whole United States, not just the fascists and racists; but therein lies the problem, right? If you’re a PoT member running for office today, you don’t give a tiny bird dropping for the “rest of the country”, I mean, you can’t. The traitors won’t hear of it.)
In short, whining that “It’s Biden’s fault” that a questioner combined the Civil War and slavery is like complaining that on a geography test, you were given a question about the names of rivers because you only expected to be asked about state capitals.
Grow up. If you’re gonna complain, make it a valid complaint.
(I know, I know, Pandering to the MAGAts 101 sez “If you get in trouble, blame Biden. They’ll believe it.”)
Haley's "it was a plant" excuse falls apart even more when you consider that the voter pointed out to Haley that she forgot to mention slavery in real time. That would have been a good time to add that she thought all the people there accepted the obvious fact that the Civil War was primarily fought over slavery. But she ran away from confronting the truth of slavery at the end of their interaction just like she tried to literally run away from the question when it was first posed.
Haley is the definition of and "empty vessel."
Her behavior is far worse than the Bill Clinton tendency to lead from behind that always made me uncomfortable. The tell me what you want to hear and I'll say it behavior.
Hard to take seriously someone who allows a bunch of ignorant racists to lead her by the nose.
Granted, successful politicians always have to do a little sucking up to their base ("I love the uneducated") but ultimately it is the base to which you suck up that defines you.
Any bets that the originality on SCOTUS will overturn insurrectionist rulings against tfg because he wasn't actually armed? I read something about the 14th amendment being created as a response to civil war survivors...
Merriam-Webster defines Insurrection (noun):
An act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an
established government.
No mention of being armed, although trump definitely is revolting
and that mouth of his could be defined as a weapon of mass destruction
@Gonzo: Jefferson Davis was a U.S. senator & U.S. secretary of war before the Civil War; therefore, someone who had sworn allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.
But when he became president of the Confederate States, he did not assume a military position (although he was commander-in-chief) or "take up arms." Nonetheless, even Davis himself admitted in a lawsuit that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to him.
That doesn't mean, of course, that our present-day Supremes won't agree with your premise, "originality" be damned.
Update: See also the Law & Crime story I just linked where D.C. appeals courts have twice ruled that Trump didn't have to be beating Capitol police with a Trump flagpole to be sued for leading the insurrection.
As Marie pointed out yesterday, the SCOTUS Tenthers (ie defenders of state’s rights over the stinky, swampy federal guv’mint and its administrative state nastiness) will have a time recalibrating that particular weltanschauung in order to help Orange Hitler in his fat ass waddle to Führerdom.
That row gets tougher to hoe, because of Fatty appointee Neil (Die for the Company) Gorsuch!
The Colorado Supreme Court decision that shoved the Fat Fascist onto the persona non grata list quoted directly from a ruling made by Gorsuch in which he basically said “states can do what they want”.
“Notably, the court cited several ‘state’s rights’ cases to back its opinion, including a case in which current federal Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, then ruling as an appellate court judge, asserted that Colorado had the right to enforce a different election law defending its ‘legitimate interest in protecting the integrity and practical functioning of the political process.’ That case, Hassan v. Colorado, dealt with a state statute enforcing the federal constitutional requirement that a person must be a naturally born citizen of the United States in order to run for the presidency.”
Of course, I’m not suggesting that self-contradiction, hypocrisy, hyper-partisan canoodling, ignoring precedence, or simple garden variety corruption would ever impinge on the self-serving rulings of the current court, which typically determines the desired outcome then hippity-hops around to figure out how to support it, even if that means dredging up Medieval English law set down by some blinkered Sheriff of Nottingham character from the 12th century.
Still, it’ll be fun to watch the twitching.
@Akhilleus: And to add to our amusement/consternation:
(1) Alito didn't even write his own Sheriff of Nottingham argument; he copied it off an amicus brief written by some Leonard Leo acolyte who is not an historian.
(2) The leading U.S. historical associations wrote that the opinion Alito cribbed "inadequately represents the history of the common law, the significance of quickening in state law and practice in the United States, and the 19th-century forces that turned early abortion into a crime."
This afternoon I listened to several minutes of Nikki Haley in New Hampshire, some town hall last night I believe. NPR in the car.
Her words were platitudinous, repetitive, vapid. Mouth elevator music.
But what struck me was the whiny delivery, and the realization that she always whinges like that. And, then, I thought that such moaning was characteristic of ALL the conservative talking heads these days. DiJiT whines like a three year old, Rhonda like a pouty thirteen year old, Lindsay Graham like ... well, Lindsay Graham. And on and on.
I find it really annoying. Which, as you who are parents know, is what whining is designed to do ... annoy you to get attention and capitulate to make it stop.
But are conservatives or Tr*mplodytes annoyed by such whining, or do they resonate to whining like a pitchfork tuned to "moan?" Maybe that's another one of those genetic evolutionary differences between conservative and liberal personality types. There's probably a dissertation here.
Patrick,
Interesting idea. It could be that some heretofore only vaguely recognized and understood atavistic response mechanism is in effect when wingers set to. Fact free screeds, torrential whining, zero sum world views, and the ever present white supremacy never seem to tire or annoy, the atavism turbocharges, never attenuates.
Another reason to forget about ever trying to figure out or make sense to these people. They don’t just march to a different drum, they prefer marching to the sound of automatic weapons. And, of course, automatic whining.
In Jackspnville. it has stayed calm but the furor over the confederate memorial isn't over. Come Spring and the legislative session we'll get to see how bullheaded and buttheaded a bunch of Florida republicans can be. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/650613-donna-deegan-says-no-removal-plans-for-remaining-confederate-markers/