Tuesday, March 29, 2022
A trenchant cartoon, but I will not pay the man a nickle to re-post. So I link.
___________UPDATE__________
Were the issue fair use, as part of a larger post, there is a question in that context of whether a royalty is merited, or is an impediment to a broader level of free speech.
Since it is not offered in that fair use sense, linking only is correct. Beyond that, the opinion here is the entire linked item is its own commentary about capitalism and the use of copyright as a tool; in whatever way you view it.
But as a commentary on mainstream news norms, the cartoon rules.
There is irony still not yet scrubbed, at the website, http://www.ginnithomas.org
Screenshot from this morning - http://www.ginnithomas.org - raising the question should you be judged by the people you choose to give testimonials and what they said when they said it - or by how it rings, today
click the image to read, or go to the website She works outside the DC special interests to help action-oriented Americans leverage their involvement to have maximum impact.
Ginni's ability to make connections and communicate with folks on the ground as well as on Capitol Hill is most impressive.
Some folks on Jan 6 did leverage involvement for maximum impact after the incitement of the rally she attended that day. And connections and communication? Ask Mark Meadows, about the communication, while on the ground - at - Capitol Hill, that surely carries an unintended irony.
But - got cold, left early. So point fingers elsewhere. I'm the spouse of a great American. With an independent career. It is the quality of my passions that gain attention and respect, and financing behind my adventures.
In the past on the payroll of Daily Caller, before becoming Daily Texter.
Yes, a gratuitous sentence. Arguably a gratuitous post. Best to end instead of that last sentence, by linking to an interesting recent item about Thomas and "elites;" the item ending:
What does her embrace of the Republican base's most demotic superstitions tell us about the character of the contemporary right — and the character of contemporary American politics more generally?
It tells us, among other things, that the real political fault line today isn't between a progressive-liberal elite establishment and those over whom it rules, who are increasingly willing and eager to challenge and deny its legitimacy. The real political fault line is between competing establishments and elites — one on the left, the other on the right.
Tucker Carlson might spend his evenings leading what sounds like class warfare against an entrenched progressive establishment of left-wingers, but he's a television star watched by millions who makes a small fortune in his job. He's as much a member of America's cultural and political elite as anyone. The same goes for the Republican leadership in Congress and Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican presidents — and also for their spouses, especially when they take part in politics on the highest levels, as Ginni Thomas has chosen to do.
It might make political sense for Republican politicians to pretend they're engaging in class warfare on behalf of the downtrodden. But in reality, they're one set of elites waging a battle against another set of elites by LARPing as class warriors. It's a shtick.
That doesn't mean Thomas is faking her belief in QAnon-adjacent conspiracies about the 2020 election. But it does mean that affirming those beliefs does nothing to demonstrate she's doing battle against the establishment. She is the establishment. Or at least one of them.
By "elites" does that author mean self-appointed, money-reinforced, media-blessed bosses? Those who know best. Two party best if not popular best. Narrowing greatly the spectrum of the possible and the desirable?
Pelosi and Mitch. Overlapping Venn diagrams?
___________UPDATE__________
Today is not the only time the nit-wit and the Supreme, as a couple, have attracted negative attention for who they are and more so for how they act. (People should date items they post, this one believed to be from 2011-2012, given links following the end of the item) -
Clarence and Virginia Thomas are now embroiled in a new controversy on top of revelations last year that the justice gave false sworn statements over many years that hid some $1.6 million in payments and gifts. Much of it was to his wife from wealthy backers who appreciated her advocacy as the founder and chief executive of Liberty Central, which is a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” group that the IRS permits to work in politics so long as that politics is not the primary focus.
Common Cause noted that its complaint comes amid a wide-ranging IRS review of the tax status of politically active non-profit groups. The tax agency has sent questionnaires to dozens of Tea Party groups, Common Cause noted, as well as Priorities USA Action, a committee run by former aides to President Obama, and Republican-aligned committees such as Crossroads GPS, founded by Karl Rove and his allies.
“As the Internal Revenue Service examines how some of these ‘social welfare’ groups continue to enjoy tax exemptions while getting directly involved in electoral politics, it should take a close look at Liberty Central,” said Common Cause President and CEO Bob Edgar, [...]
In a March 21 letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Common Cause requested an investigation of Liberty Central’s tax status. If the agency finds that the group’s primary activity was influencing the 2010 elections, the letter urged that Liberty Central lose its tax-exemption, be reclassified as a political organization, and face taxes and penalties.
[...] Furthermore, a request last fall by 52 House Democrats for a House Judiciary Committee impeachment investigation of Thomas focused heavily on the $1.6 million that Thomas failed to report in his sworn annual judicial disclosure filings. Much of the money went to his wife, who has long been active as a conservative activist. She has resigned from Liberty Central after initially filing legal papers saying she expected to make $495,000 in salary from it following a start-up donation of $500,000 from real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, a longtime opponent of federal authority.
Thomas resubmitted his sworn statements with disclosures of the money, and has suggested to his supporters that the controversy is politically motivated. [...]
In highlighting the issues, Common Cause says:Ginni Thomas founded Liberty Central in November 2009 and filed a request for 501 (c)(4) status in January 2010. Within a few weeks, notes the letter by Common Cause counsel Elizabeth Kingsley, the organization had turned its attention to the 2010 elections and “the major focus of the group’s President, Ms. Thomas, appears to have been coordinating with Tea Party organizations and traveling around the country to districts where Liberty Central had ‘target races.’”
Meanwhile, Liberty Central’s website published A-F grades for Tea Party and incumbent candidates across the country and urged site visitors to get involved in those races, donate to Liberty Central’s favored candidates, and “ensure that certain elected officials get an early retirement.”
A major focus of Ms. Thomas’ and Liberty Central’s efforts appears to have been the defeat of Members of Congress who voted for the Affordable Care Act....At a September 2010 fundraiser for the First Coast Tea Party in Jacksonville, Fl., Ginni Thomas described that group as a satellite office of Liberty Central and base for Liberty Central staff, and called for the election of several Florida candidates. The First Coast Tea Party is one of many groups currently under investigation by the IRS; others being probed include Tea Party organizations in Virginia and Texas where Thomas addressed Tea Party rallies.
Common Cause says that "Ms. Thomas left Liberty Central after the November 2010 elections, and the group no longer appears to be active." But its letter asserts that there is “substantial evidence of large-scale political activities, certainly sufficient to prompt an inquiry from the (IRS), which is the only reliable way to establish whether Liberty Central was actually operated primarily for political purposes, as appears from external observation to be the case.”
Money does seem to make the world go round. Not reporting spousal income until goaded to do so? How does that fit your view of judgment expected of a Yale educated lawyer?
In addition to sadly questionable conduct ten years ago, the beat goes on:
[March 29, 2022] Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., are courting support for the Supreme Court Ethics Act, which would require the creation of a judicial ethics code. And senior lawmakers are publicly pushing Thomas to recuse himself from cases that involve the lobbying activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas, known as Ginni.
[...] Two dozen congressional Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter addressed to Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts calling on Thomas to "promptly recuse himself from any future Supreme Court cases involving efforts to overturn the 2020 election or the January 6th attack on the Capitol."
The letter also calls on Roberts to "commit no later than April 28, 2022 to creating a binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court" that includes enforceable standards for recusal.
"Chief Justice Roberts has often spoken about the importance of the Supreme Court’s 'credibility and legitimacy as an institution.' That trust, already at all-time lows with the American public, must be earned," the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
And the House Jan. 6 select committee met Monday evening to discuss whether to call in Virginia Thomas for an interview about her role and knowledge of the attempt to steal the 2020 election on behalf of then-President Donald Trump, who lost.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chair of the select committee, said afterward that no decision had been made.
That wigged out woman as a witness would be like the circus coming to town.
Except, who did you say what to and when did you say it is the key line of questions of fact that she has put herself in place to have to address under oath. Also, what is the reach of spousal privilege, as to coordinated actions, and money, rather than privileged conversations which are another matter.
Do you imagine Ms. Thomas may have lent a voice to ginning up money for the Stop the Steal outdoor show Trump used to fire up his crowd of deplorables? That would be a tangible act aimed toward a conspiracy to impede the orderly transfer of Presidential powers. In addition to conversations about tactics and strategy, shaking the money tree to finance the adventure is more tangible. Despite some contrary doctrine, soliciting or spending money is not, itself, a form of speech. It is an action having a penumbral dimension quite near to speech. Near enough to have been given First Amendment protected status. Akin to a boycott.
That woman is a sad case. The pair deserve each other.
And with a personal benefactor having given Mr. Thomas a bible once having belonged to Frederick Douglass, such a gift is as appropriate as Mr. Thomas having been given a Supreme Court seat.
Monday, March 28, 2022
[UPDATED] Steve Timmer reminds his readers of assurances given in the 1990s relevant to the Russian incursion today into Ukraine.
Link. This matter was brought up in 2014 when Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula, per the link Timmer provided:
2014 Russian Annexation of Crimea
Following months of political unrest and the abrupt departure of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian troops entered the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine in March 2014. On March 18, over the protests of the acting government in Kiev, the UN Security Council, and Western governments, Russia declared the annexation of Crimea. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine called the action a blatant violation of the security assurances in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. However, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, “the security assurances were given to the legitimate government of Ukraine but not to the forces that came to power following the coup d'etat.”
With a tepid reaction to the annexation of Crimea, Putin and the Duma and Russia's military likely anticipated little resistance to the current incursion. Not so. Now what?
The item on the arms control negotiation and arrangement ends with a timeline.
The history of the Yanukovych ouster is, itself, separate story, as is the question of assurances given or not to Russia upon the dismemberment of the Soviet Union into separate states - assurances that NATO would not expand eastward from its boundaries at the time of the Soviet Union's end.
Whether any party has clean hands in things involves finger pointing back and forth, but the European Union is inhospitable toward a new land war in Europe. History does count for something in that respect. European land wars define much of European history, culminating in the Twentieth Century's development of nuclear weapons presenting a perspective of destruction beyond the worse in history.
Peace needs to be kept, and that explains all the European arms being given Ukraine to resist Russia. Economics are a parallel dimension, but who gets whatever natural gas profits the Russians may have forfeited is a secondary issue.
With the notion of shipping in arms, to attain peace being quaint, it nonetheless is the step which can quell the unjustified aggression. Yes, NATO was put on the border of Russia, the Baltic States, and Ukraine was tampered with by Russia, the EU, and the U.S. of A. But only Russia has sent in an army aimed at whatever conquest they first intended, with whatever resolution finally happens.
__________UPDATE________
In retrospective thinking, Timmer's post needs more emphasis. Timmer gets into the question of Russia claiming a genocide against its friends as underlying cause for the invasion, not it being a simple land grab where stern opposition was unforeseen.
Timmer emphasizes that international law offers a testing avenue for claims of genocide, with Russia declining to participate, that way.
FURTHER: Without linking to any particular online source item, it has been suggested Putin might have envisioned a popularity boost in Russian home politics, from a quick military action and victory. That kind of motivation, if actually at play, was most effectively parodied and mocked, by this video excerpt from a film made decades ago.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
The other side of police-citizen interaction: The result can be a dead policeman, so there is merit to police training that when in doubt of a threat shoot first and then explain yourself and your actions later.
Police do face in every encounter the possibility it could lead to deadly force. Even in routine traffic stops, danger exists.
Seattle Times reports a single policeman - single civilian encounter in a Starbucks lot ending with a dead police officer, a chase, and a suspect in custody.
Reporting is that the policeman investigated "suspicious activity." Present release of information does not enlarge upon what was suspicious, nor whether the police officer had an activated body cam which would shed light upon details.
However the story unfolds, the neighborhood in which I live includes a retired police officer and wife, about my age, whose children are now adult and on their own.
The man had a career with several policing jurisdictions, last with the BCA. Every day the worse might have happened. This is a very level-headed individual, in no way a hot head or one who'd be expected to run on adrenaline into error while he daily pursued his career. It would have been tragic to have this neighbor denied a retired life from a single encounter gone wrong.
The couple is lucky to have not been victim to the random bad incident. Knowing no detail of the man's policing history, I expect he had a career without any complaint against him, certainly not any valid complaint.
While it seems handguns are more a threat in police-civilian encounters today, than the majority of the time the neighbor served, every day could have been a last day.
The fact might be that encounters leading to a shooting now might more likely be reported in detail in media than years ago, while the threat level is no different. Given the current reported level the guess here is that citizens were better behaved in the past, even after the King assassination or the Rodney King aftermath.
Having to cut some slack, to allow a presumption of regularity when police handgun use happens is a reality. The edge we all have now is body-cams, where every time a police officer interacts with a civilian the cams should be activated to document all factual circumstances as best as feasible.
In any event, the neighbor survived to retirement from policing, and we in the neighborhood are grateful of that, and have gratitude that the man stepped up to do a dangerous job from which many others would shy away.
In being critical of reported excessive police conduct in protest situations (where police are outnumbered) it is always worth remembering many neighborhoods have retired veteran officers who are exemplary people, and sound, respected neighbors.
Each is worth reflection, to avoid being overly critical or overly ideological.
At a guess the neighbor was trained to shoot if having to defend himself or a public member, and to not be hesitant when the need to act promptly and effectively arose.
Knowing the man, the belief is solid that his judgment would have been correct whenever he was called to react quickly in self defense. Whether during his career he faced such a need once or more frequently, there is gratitude he did the job.
And survived to retire.
Abusive police conduct in Denver was tried before a jury. The jury awarded millions to citizens whose rights were violated. Pioneer Press carries a March 25, 2022, AP item headlined, "Jury awards $14M to George Floyd protesters in Denver"
A cautious jury. Citizens reviewing police brutality against citizens. They could have awarded much more. Could have and should have are outlooks that would need more familiarity with facts at trial before that reader judgment can be made.
DENVER — Jurors on Friday found police used excessive force against protesters, violating their constitutional rights, during demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd two years ago, ordering the city to pay a total of $14 million in damages to a group of 12 who sued.
The jury of two men and six women, largely white and drawn from around Colorado, returned its verdict after about four hours of deliberations. The verdict followed three weeks of testimony and evidence that included police and protester video of incidents.
Lawyers involved believed it was the first trial in a lawsuit challenging officer tactics during the 2020 protests that erupted around the nation over the police killing of Floyd and other Black people.
The protesters who sued were shot at or hit by everything from pepper spray to a Kevlar-bag filled with lead shot fired from a shotgun. Zach Packard, who was hit in the head by the shotgun blast and ended up in the intensive care unit, received the largest damage amount — $3 million.
[...] Elisabeth Epps, a lawyer and activist who was one of the protesters who sued, said the attorneys for the city she loves gaslighted the protesters during the trial, questioning their account of what happened. At one point, a lawyer for Denver called her a “professional protester” after she testified that she had attended protests since she was a child and had received training about how to respond to being tear-gassed. She grew emotional talking about what it meant to have the jury side with the protesters.
“It feels like being seen,” Epps said.
The protesters said the actions of police violated their free speech rights and rights to be protected from unreasonable force. Jurors found violations of both rights for 11 of the protesters and only free speech violations for the other. The protesters claimed Denver was liable for the police’s actions through its policies, including giving officers wide discretion in using what police call “less lethal” devices, failing to train officers on them, and not requiring them to use their body-worn cameras during the protests to deter indiscriminate uses of force.
[...] Five Denver police officers have been disciplined for their actions during the protests, according to the department. Another officer, who was new and still on probation, was fired during the protests after posting a photo of himself and others dressed in tactical gear on social media with the comment “Let’s start a riot.”
Aggressive responses from officers to people protesting police brutality nationally have led to financial settlements, the departures of police chiefs and criminal charges.
In Austin, Texas, officials have agreed to pay over $13 million to people injured in protests in May 2020, and 19 officers have been indicted for their actions against protesters.
[italics added] One probationary cop got fired. One. Probationary. Five others, "disciplined."
On that limp official reaction alone, surely twice the fourteen million could have been awarded. It is as clear a demonstration of abominable governmental hubris as one might imagine to teach responsibility to so few. No discipline of higher-ups, who failed to train and failed to require body-cam evidence in a situation fraught with reasonable anticipation of mayhem.
Law and order, and fuck 'em. That seems what the bosses fostered. Go figure. Gross Negligence, or intent to permit brutality, hidden off record.
Then a jury reviewed. Bless juries. Justice otherwise is at the will and judgment of a single government official, one who with a jury, presides while the jury decides.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
When one sees something on the web, what can one do, but a search to see if there is a real story or not? This post does that.
Down With Tyranny, this image to this post:
It staggers the mind that such information, if true, was not vetted at hearings.
If asking about the money is verboten, why hold hearings?
Per the headline above, this websearch.
There is not a lack of confirmatory links. But - mainstream media took a big time hike on the question of Kavanaugh and the money.Groping/raping stories aplenty, but whatever happened to "follow the money?"
Wtf?
If true, the situation is grotesque. Worse, what is your guess as to, why, under the rug?
...........................................................
And, does this and this ring your bell as government as it should be?
That first item, back in 2000, and who shows up facilitating extra money routing to judges - right up front -
Along with members of Congress, elected officers and federal employees, federal judges were banned from receiving speaking fees, also called honoraria, in 1989. They can receive honoraria in his or her name only if it is donated to charity.
The version of the appropriations bill reported out of committee on Sept. 8 states that the ban "shall not apply to any individual while that individual is a justice or judge of the United States."
Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist supported the change in an April letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky., who had sponsored legislation removing the ban.
"The disparity between the salaries of the judicial and legal profession cannot continue without compromising the morale of the federal judiciary and eventually its quality," Rehnquist wrote. "Legislation that lifts or significantly alters the ban on honoraria would provide some assistance."
Supreme Court judges [back in 2000] make between $173,600 and $181,400 a year. According to the National Law Journal, Circuit court of appeals judges have a salary of $145,000. Judges in district, bankruptcy, court of claims, and other federal courts make between $125,764 and $136,700.
[bolding in original - italics/color added]
Curiously, in this reporting it would have been keen had reporting also mentioned the size of the Thomas speaking fee, if any, for his grossly fatuous performance.
And, private jet to and from the venue, entertainment while there?
_____________UPDATE_____________
Link.
________FURTHER UPDATE________
And on the web so it must be true; Mitch is Number One.
________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Speaking fees was an issue in the 2016 election where Ms. Clinton took three quarters of a million dollars for speeches to Goldman Sachs - personal cash, not contributions to campaigning nor election related PAC spending.
And it was Mitch and Rehnquist putting their heads together who opened that cash spigot when previously speech-money was barred. Shameful? Yes. Now fully prosecution free? Yes. It's like a bribe except a speech is not considered favorable action in return for a cash payment. In the Clinton case, was the money likely to influence future action had Trump not won? Who can say.
A link, giving an idea of who you can buy a speech from, via one particular vendor rep. Top dollar for questionable value. Two other speaker stables, here and here.
It is a competitive industry.
And, hey, I can book this pile for thirty to fifty grand. Up there with Mitch and the blue whale.
________FURTHER UPDATE_______
In fairness to Kavanaugh and spouse, explanations were given and help from family was a part of things, apparently, with each spouse coming from upper class cash backgrounds. Parents helping children is a norm in the nation when parents can afford it.
Covid deaths in this nation,with possible underreporting, crossed the million person threshold.
DWT, here, linking to a NYT item about a second booster being available for those aged 50 or over.
From the NYT -
Already, one in 75 Americans 65 or older has died of Covid, making up three-fourths of the nation’s deaths from the virus, according to the C.D.C.’s data. More than 33 million people in that age group, or more than two-thirds, have received a first booster and would be eligible for a second.
For some officials, the bottom-line question is this: How much must effectiveness against hospitalization drop before a second booster is justified?
As it was in the fall, when boosters were first rolled out, the broader scientific community is divided over what to do.
One in 75 is a major death toll. Of that, those concentrated in old folks homes have to be croaking at a higher rate. Perhaps warehousing old people as is now done is not that good an idea. At 77 years old, I am not there, and do not want to be.
If boosters are offered in a second round, I will be in line. No sane reason exists to not be. Antivaxers may suggest against it. The operative word is "sane."
Is it big local news? Or local big news? Whichever, Minneapolis teachers went on strike and got class size caps. No other thing is as major as that. One cannot teach too many well. That is a bottom line where the high priced prep schools have the greatest advantage.
Strib reports, and since it is local news it is not carrying somebody's nationwide feed:
What you need to know about the tentative agreements with Minneapolis teachers, support professionals --
The union began to schedule information sessions and voting over the weekend.
By Mara Klecker Star Tribune March 25, 2022
What is in the tentative agreements?
The full agreements have not been made public yet.
In a news release early Friday, the union described them as "historic agreements." It said "major gains were made on pay for education support professionals, protections for educators of color, class size caps and mental health supports."
Union leaders shared some of the details on Friday afternoon.
For education support professionals, the union said, the tentative agreement includes wage increases that boost the starting hourly wage from $19.83 to $23.91.
The union leaders said the contract includes "a nation-leading model that exempts teachers of color from seniority-based layoff and excessing" as well as class-size caps.
A memorandum of agreement would also add mental health supports in elementary schools and ensure a social worker in each school building, union leaders said.
What's next?
The union said in a news release that its members will vote on the contracts this weekend. Late Friday, the union announced times and locations for voting and information sessions for Saturday at Justice Page (11 a.m.), Davis Center (1 p.m.), Roosevelt High (3 p.m.) and Edison High (5 p.m.) Voting also will take place at the MFT Office, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to -4 p.m. Sunday
[bolding added] A hope is the class size caps are genuine, and not set at "no class larger than forty," or some such bullshit number.
The reported term "teachers of color" is vague. Hispanic teachers left hanging? Hmong and other discernible groups, not really of color, but "minority."
Presuming actual contract language is better than press release summation, there really might be a landmark change. With some of our nation's white folk marching at night with tiki torches and vulgar phrases, suggesting that white folk now have been made a "minority" in "their" nation, wording should matter if individual cases end up arbitrated (presuming arbitration clauses are integral to management desires in this contract as in any other labor agreement).
Manage wisely class sizes so that teachers can teach. New idea? Hardly. Every teachers' contract negotiation/strike makes the point. Too often more pay sways the day, and class size caps fall by the wayside. This time class size as an issue was not bought out easily and crassly. That is a landmark. Wisdom prevailed.
Friday, March 25, 2022
The technology of messaging opens the door to some who may expose themselves to doubts and worries about derangement.
Link. Bob Woodward has a way with access to stoies when he finds them interesting.
Is the shameful NFL ownership blacklisting of Colin Kapernick over his protest of police violence against blacks softening? Does Kapernick have support of black players, as suggested by his finding workout partners to prove he still has NFL-level skills? A number of teams might well think of using his skills, if still sharp, as they have starting quarterback vacancies per off-season happenings.
Seattle Seahawks have traded their former starting quarterback, Russ Wilson. (Another "Seattle" link.)
Houston Texans have parted ways with their former starting quarterback, Deshaun Watson.
Pittsburgh Steelers had their long-time starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retire.
Any team can use a first rate starting or backup quarterback because injury worry is a constant in NFL play. Two questions cause cross-confusion. First: Is Kapernick still a starting quality player? Second: Given intervening times, George Floyd's murder on video by Minneapolis cops, etc., will the racist boycott against Kapernick be quelled as better NFL publicity for selling the product than a continuation of the isolation Kapernick has been made to suffer?
Colin Kaepernick’s national tour of playing with NFL players will continue in Seattle, he announced via Twitter on Tuesday.
“Headed to Seattle to get some work in with Aaron Fuller tomorrow!” Kaepernick said in the tweet.
The former 49ers quarterback posted a screenshot of the Seahawks wideout replying to his Instagram story with the text, “Slide out to Seattle!! Need that work @Kaepernick 7.” Needless to say, it looks like he’s taking him up on his offer.
Fuller was signed by Seattle as an undrafted free agent out of Washington in 2020 and has been waived and re-signed by the team several times. He has never registered any NFL regular season stats.
Houston workout. Listing players there. Crabgrass has not researched from the names whether all the workout players in the "tour" supporting Kapernick are black, entirely so, or with some supportive white players joining in solidarity.
Given "Rooney Rule" origin, and Roethlisberger's retirement, Kapernick ending up in Pittsburgh with Mike Tomlin (the longest tenured black head coach trailing only Bill Belichick's tenure, yes/no?), and possibly winning a Super Bowl from there; that would be a fine ending to the suffering Kapernick has endured over an act of conscience.
It's time. Right the wrong. Put the man back on the money train.
Smedley Butler wrote, "War Is a Racket."
From Strib - an AP feed, mid-item explanation that we sanction Russia over invading Ukraine, to the hilt, kind of:
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country's economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.
"To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession," Scholz said Wednesday.
Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union's executive arm, said before Biden's visit that she wanted to discuss the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc "for the next two winters."
The EU imports 90% of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40% of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.
The U.S. is looking for ways to "surge" LNG supplies to Europe to help, said Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser.
Smedley Butler text online, "War Is a Racket."
Quick context, after the first pan-European war in the early decades of the Twentieth Century. (A/k/a WW I, where the Ottoman Empire even owned a share.)
Goes around, comes around, and learn from history or - of all things - relive it.
Yes death and destruction are simply awful; but about the LNG contracts . . .
___________UPDATE_________
Syrian War - nasty choice, Obama went in - and with all those unwelcome Muslim refugees it yielded, unlike the welcome white Ukranians. Related?
Multi-dimensional?
All I know is what I can read on the Internet.
_______FURTHER UPDATE_______
Thursday, March 24, 2022
A gutless Alvin, or what? Afraid of a trial loss? Why? Other reasons, unknown, not public? Why was the criminal not made to face trial for his conduct?
From the Pomerantz resignation letter - much could be quoted, but this seems key -
To the extent you have raised issues as to the legal and factual sufficiency of our case and the likelihood that a prosecution would succeed, I and others have advised you that we have evidence sufficient to establish Mr. Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and we believe that the prosecution would prevail if charges were brought and the matter were tried to an impartial jury. No case is perfect. Whatever the risks of bringing the case may be, I am convinced that a failure to prosecute will pose much greater risks in terms of public confidence in the fair administration of justice. As I have suggested to you, respect for the rule of law, and the need to reinforce the bedrock proposition that “no man is above the law,” require that this prosecution be brought even if a conviction is not certain.
How did this overly timid Alvin gain the office that requires sound judgment? And guts to go with evidence and see how the trial turns out?
How did this person gain the position of being in a place where he could so clearly show his gutlessness?
Trump should have been prosecuted, as the letter says, in order for people to believe in the people holding the responsibility, the soundness of the process and the basic fairness of the system.
It was a failure of discretion to be more than an over-cautious careerist.
Scared of losing? Then don't take the job!
.....................................................
For readers wanting background and NYT's analytical vision of things, this link.
However, the text of the letter is the full story. (Yet NYT publishes many words beyond that.)
It is a credit to that outlet that they also cleanly in parallel published the text of the letter, which beyond doubt speaks for itself.
The letter resonates.
........................................................
It is interesting that buried in the tail of the NYT analysis, but included in the above letter quote, arguably the heart of things:
Addressing an apparent belief in Mr. Bragg’s office that they might lose at trial, Mr. Pomerantz wrote, “Respect for the rule of law, and the need to reinforce the bedrock proposition that ‘no man is above the law,’ require that this prosecution be brought even if a conviction is not certain.”
The suggestion seems to be Bragg believed Trump was guilty, but that his career could not suffer losing the case. Never has it been reported Bragg ever said he thought Trump was innocent of crime. It was the case could be lost.
If you are a lawyer taking any case to trial, winning or losing are always possible.That is the nature of being a lawyer.
If you can't stand the heat, Harry Truman said, get out of the kitchen.
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
For ego-freak Trump loyalty is not a two-way street -- "MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday rescinded his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama's U.S. Senate race in a major blow to the Republican congressman's campaign."
Brooks is struggling to do best as he can, but does not ego-stroke, and gets an unceremonious dump, from Trump.
Ask Jeff Sessions, about been there, saw that. Same brown helmet.
More is reported. Follow the Link.
A metro-wide League of Women Voters survey of counties found Anoka County deficient in ways Rhonda Sivarajah says are in part erroneous.
Link.
No ethics code? Dissing citizen input? Key info not posted on the county's website?
Read and decide. Remember, if there were an ethics code Sivarajah would have been kicked upstairs anyway when residency in the district questions arose.
So what's material, what's subject to explanation, and where if anywhere did Rhonda do a major glide-and-slide?
All I've ever seen is an in-bred nest of conservative Christian Republicans calling all the shots and getting reelected every time by a bunch of conservative Christian Republican voters, with a single seat exception with that seat having been held by two different people over the time span I've seen, and each of those two seemed the cream of the crop in terms of civic respect for the electorate.
Opinions can differ. Salaries those folks pull down should for certain be posted on the County's web. They make a lot for the work they do, and listing salaries should be prominently displayed, not buried five screens in from the homepage.
They make more than they're worth as I see it. Again, opinions can differ.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Amazon Fresh - a unionization approach that would be a breath of fresh air if not stymied by Amazon Fresh management.
The NLRB election process is awful in allowing a giant delay where management can work against unionization over an extended period. This approach of saying "We are already a local union in this store" without an NLRB formal procedure followed would, in effect, reform the bulky restrictions NLRB places upon organization will among workers.
Also without having to turn to the bureaucracy of existing nationwide unions to institute a different working-things-out possibility where workers have a collective voice without heavier baggage.
In Seattle - two news outlets covering the story are here and here, where readers are encouraged to research the situation further, if interested.
Where this story goes, and ends, might be worth following. Where it could go, if cooler heads on both sides prevail is worth thought. They could start something different, and possibly better than NLRB-related polarizations taking hold.
The effort on the other hand could go nowhere fast. It is worth following.
Monday, March 21, 2022
[UPDATED] Now the man faces a custody fight with abuse allegations. There is the saying, "Don't go away mad, just go away." Politically speaking, the thought is there.
Former MO guv, now thinking he is Senatorial. Get real.
Previously - Fri., Jan. 12, 2018
[...]
Read more: Missouri governor admits to affair but denies reports he blackmailed woman with nude photo
“This is a three-year-old personal matter that presents no matters of public or legal interest,” Greitens’ attorney Jim Bennett said in a statement. “The facts will prove that fully.”
For Greitens to survive politically, it’s vital that the facts remain exactly as he said — that he had an affair and nothing more, said several Republican political consultants with decades of experience.
“The most important thing in a crisis is your very first public communication. It has to be the truth, and it has to be airtight,” said Republican consultant John Hancock, who has survived his own personal and political crises, most recently as a former state party chairman.
Greitens acknowledged being “unfaithful” in his marriage after St. Louis television station KMOV aired part of an audio recording of a woman telling her husband about a sexual encounter with Greitens. The woman, who was Greitens’ hairdresser, is now divorced from the man who had secretly recorded their conversation.
On the recording, she said Greitens had taped her hands, blindfolded her and taken a photo while warning, “’You’re never going to mention my name.” The ex-husband’s attorney said Thursday that his client had told him Greitens also slapped the woman at a later time.
Greitens’ attorney denied each of those allegations.
The TV station did not name the woman. The Associated Press learned of her identity but has chosen not to name her because she could not be reached for comment.
The affair occurred as Greitens was preparing to launch his campaign for governor. The former Navy SEAL officer and veterans’ charity founder won election in 2016 as a self-described outsider ready to blow up the political establishment in Jefferson City. In his first year in office, he had a variety of political confrontations with fellow Republican lawmakers.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/world/2018/01/12/missouri-governor-fighting-for-his-political-life-after-admitting-to-affair/eric_greitens.jpg)
She looks like a decent person. Worth mentioning - a Republican.
___________UPDATE__________
24 MARCH 2022: Discord among our Republican friends? You'd have to believe Breitbart News to see it that way -- All I know is what I can read on the Internet. Did the earlier claims against Eric Greitens fall apart? It might be so, if you Believe Breitbart News. Is Mitch McConnell linked somehow to Karl Rove as Republicans against the Trumpian wing of things? Breitbart News again, same single story.
Is that story - as lengthy as the Breitbart write-up is written - only based on one single story source? Or will more legs grow on the thing beyond, "Breitbart publishes . . . friend of Greitens Steve Hantler says . . ."?
This Texas in place of Missouri court swap suggestion seems unusual - Ms. G is in Texas now - distanced. Ms. G having a sister doing consulting in DC? For Mitch?
The best answer Crabgrass sees for Missouri is let the dust settle and then in the general election send a Democrat to the Senate.
(Note: That last paragraph is not a suggestion you'd expect to read at Breitbart News. Not that such an expectation in any way discredits the paragraph's wisdom. )
[UPDATED] Cannabis legislation: At the federal level the majority will is to let states decide legalization. However, there is need for authorization at the federal level to make bank accounts and credit card purchase legal in states that leagalize. It is a matter of SAFETY. The step should be unopposed.
Events in Washington State, the greater Seattle metro area, have in past days given compelling evidence:
Seattle Times:
Tacoma pot shop worker killed in Saturday night robbery
Updated March 20, 2022
An armed robbery of a Tacoma cannabis retailer left a man dead Saturday, police said.
According to the Tacoma Police Department, a man working at World of Weed, in the 3200 block of Portland Avenue East, was found with a life-threatening gunshot wound when officers arrived shortly after 10 p.m.
They attempted lifesaving measures. Firefighters also responded. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives and crime scene technicians were investigating the shooting as a homicide.
Saturday night’s shooting was the third fatality related to a cannabis shop robbery over the past four days.
On Thursday night, an armed employee of a cannabis dispensary in Covington fatally shot a man who was attempting to rob the store, according to the store’s director of operations.
A suspect in a Wednesday pot shop robbery in Bellevue was killed in a shootout with police after fleeing to the Hillman City neighborhood of Seattle.
That is the entire report. Short and three dead. SWAT team needed. Danger of high speed police chase.
Yes small shops, mom-and-pop neighborhood convenience stores, have a robbery history. However, mom and pop can accept credit cards, thus holding less cash - with low per-item merchandise valuations. Leaving with a small bag full of pot shop merchandise is a different scale of things than cereal boxes, eggs, and toilet paper as needed sometimes from a quik-shop.
Pot shops are invitations to troublemakers who probably look for ones having less of a security presence than others. (If it is a young lady instead of a large gentleman checking IDs, there is a feeling of secure commerce with the big guy.)
Under current conditions, pot shops have to deal as a strictly cash and carry business because federally, they are still criminalized on the books; and banking shies away.
However, while we are talking DC and that presents a complication, only a total moron would fail to see that public safety with less shooting and dying, would be a complete and sensible cause to enact quick specific federal law putting banking regularity into the pot shops - where locally legalized.
And - only a total morals-lacking jackass would not want to boost public safety at no cost to beliefs about the quality or evil of marijuana commerce (and its tax revenues). Where it is legal there is no cause for it to carry a greater danger to customers and staff.
____________UPDATE__________
Follow-up Seattle Times item, here. Related, this.
__________FURTHER__________
Same source, this time a March 22, 2022, op-ed
Deadly pot-shop robberies are a byproduct of federal inaction
It is written well, so read it there. No excerpt. But more opinion - Crabgrass belief being it is dreadfully negligent for DC players to not do something easy for public safety, whatever they think of pot. They can hang around their favorite DC bar and piss and moan over pot popularity, but the job remains - protect people from other desperate and/or meaner people. Whether they like the growing commerce or not.
It's their job. Do the job. The pay, prestige and benefits are exceptional. So do the fucking job already. Nothing could be simpler, (except going the wrong way on daylight savings time, climate science, medicare for all, handgun profusion, population explosion, etc.).
As to climate science, while there may be incrementalism, Biden charging stations and such, get moving. Time is wasting.
There likely are tipping points in major climactic conditions we poorly understand but which are immediate threats; see, e.g., here and here.
Fracking more money out of North Dakota oil is less important to all of us, while being cashflow to a greedy handful. To the extent fossil fuel will be used, go with methane - less carbon dioxide per BTU, and fight pipeline leakage even if that means short term replacement pipelines (go with efficient non-leakers) since methane is a greenhouse gas. The military will have its way, so oil extraction will not fully cease, (gotta fuel those airplanes and pack those munitions); AND carbon fibre and petrochem resins are needed for wind turbine deployment. But conserve.
Be smart and curb naked environmentally unfriendly greed.
Sunday, March 20, 2022
https://minnesotareformer.com headline = "Jensen goes full reckless in choice of running mate Birk -- Opinion by J. Patrick Coolican -- March 17, 2022"
Link. Coolican writes -
Former state Sen. Scott Jensen, who is the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee for governor, made his first major decision by picking Matt Birk to be his running mate.
Birk is a former professional football player and an outspoken conservative who publicly advocated in 2012 for a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
Birk has also been an outspoken skeptic of the severity of COVID-19.
As the Delta variant was ripping through a broad swath of the country in September, he made this astute observation:
“Per the @nytimes today, 0.6 deaths per 100,000 people in the United States of America. OR, 6 people per 1,000,000.”
Either he failed to do the next step in the math problem, or he’s unbelievably callous, because that’s nearly 2,000 people who died from COVID-19 in a single day, likely making it the leading cause of death.
Heart disease, which can refer to different heart conditions, kills about 1,900 per day. Imagine if heart disease were contagious, and then imagine someone saying it isn’t a problem in America.
This was 10 months after Birk announced he would not be getting vaccinated, loudly proclaiming that he knew better than the nation’s leading doctors and scientists.
We are two years into the pandemic, and the toll of death and suffering is staggering, as recently detailed by science journalist Ed Yong.
American life expectancy declined two full years, the greatest decline since the Spanish flu pandemic, largely a function of all the people who died who were younger than 60.
About 1 million more Americans died during the past two years than we would have expected based on mortality rates of the five years previous.
What’s Jensen’s response? Make a full-on COVID denier and anti-vaxxer his running mate.
[...] Thanks to the burgeoning anti-vaccine movement [...] we’ve lagged behind other rich countries in vaccination and boosting rates, and our deaths continue to climb.
Doctors, nurses and other health care workers persevere and grind it out. They say they have never encountered so much death. And, unlike at any time in their professional lives, they often acted as emotional support caregivers because their patients could not have visitors.
Early in the pandemic, Jensen launched a scurrilous smear against these health care colleagues, claiming they were inflating COVID-19 data to get more money from the Medicare program. For that gem, he won a coveted spot in Politifact’s “Lie of the year.”
Minneapolis has a proposed new police contract. More money, no teeth.
Link. Changes making policing more transparent and answerable to the pubic seem absent. Same old, same old, with a pay boost does not auger well for reform.
But the Frey reelection did not either.
The more closed the process, the less trust the process earns.
When pat answers are "A few bad apples" and "Our hands are tied by the contract," this surely seems as if negotiating politicians like easy excuses for not culling bad apples. Cops too.
It is called "consensus." A bargained consensus.
In fairness to the police and the politicians, the proposed contract is 130 pages long, not online, and Strib gives a brief supposedly "high points" synopsis with quite more of he said, she said in its reporting. Helpful? You decide.
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Unconscionable website scrubbing, a who-dun-it.
Who? A DC functionary of arguably low repute. The scrubbing done after the fact of the fan loading up.
Had the fan not got so hit, would there have been a scrub? It is a hypothetical, but how does your likely view of that question square with your regard for DC and those in it? DC is how it is, and DC could be different. It, it's people collectively, is as is wanted, by its people.
___________UPDATE___________
The linked item, late in the post, notes:
In May 2020, the 45th president appointed Thomas a member of the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board, according to Fox News.
That perk, try to find what it has cost taxpayers. It is not an easy search.
Money for nothing? Find online her duties vs. her compensation. Good luck, trying.
Understanding the Clyburn annual fish fry is that politicians feel compelled to show up, while we, the people, are the fish.
Just saying. Opinions can differ. The man, aside from Joe Biden, is most responsible for our having had Joe Biden as the only other choice than Trump. Biden with his history of serving money, being consistent with history still. Clyburn having done work for The Man, for Mammon, is not earning respect for that move. Except within the Dem Inner Party. Schumer, Pelosi, Hoyer, Gottheimer, Manchin, Sinema, Tom Perez all are cause to be an Independent with being a Republican not being an option except for some incapable of thinking. Again, opinions can differ.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Well, I am sure Gary did not intend an implication I would draw, so, post it and then send him a courtesy link so he can change an unintended (but very true) implication.
Gary Gross is a very Republican blogger in St. Cloud, MN. Forgetting the name of his regular blog after getting a new Dell w/o the link and not accessing it for a while, I went for his blogger profile.
Liberty and Prosperity Blog is his main outlet, but others were listed. Looking at this one seemed ironic. Because of a truth to one of several alternate readings you can give it:
 |
| click the image, read the fine print |
Gary currently is on a Ukraine posting binge on his main blog. There may be other news he is missing by keeping such a narrow focus.
Snow is melting, and that is news. By mid-April it could be gone.
While a strike goes on in another district for the betterment of the process; Google Alerts set for "Anoka County" returned good news.
3 area teachers named semifinalists in 2022 Teacher of the Year award
(And because if it bleeds it leads, three hits before that one were about some man using a hammer to kill another man in a Wisconsin mobile home. We cannot fix evil, but when good news is there too, it is worth noting.)
While that HowmtownSource item is available via the link, a quote is deserved.
Education Minnesota, the statewide educators union, organizes and underwrites the Teacher of the Year program.
Candidates include prekindergarten through 12th-grade, early childhood family education and adult basic education teachers from public or private schools.
From the Anoka-Hennepin School District, Mary Betland and Megan Rafferty are semifinalists.
Betland is an English teacher at Jackson Middle School in Champlin, and Rafferty is an English as a second language teacher at Mississippi Elementary School in Coon Rapids.
Ariane Kokes, of Columbia Heights Public Schools, was also named a semifinalist. She is an art teacher for pre-K through fifth grade at North Park School for Innovation in Fridley.
[emphasis added] When it is good news, naming names is a pleasure. These were three teachers from a group of 25 statewide nominees, so if nothing more favorable develops we should each and every one of us give these three women the respect gained via the honor each already received, an honor which merits recognition from members of the public. Teaching is anything but an easy job. When done well enough to be specially honored it is noteworthy news.
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
When Trump spoke prior to the Capitol intrusion, he used a teleprompter. Who scripted that? Who vetted the script as to how far we go, where do we draw a line?
From MSN, (the posted image included the captioning):
 |
| click the image to enlarge and read |
Okay, investigate the speech writing. However, between writing and the gloved man giving the speech, the last intervening step was preparing the teleprompter script.
The "who done it" aspect of that final step clearly is of interest to the Committee, and they have to be aware of that final intervening step, and presuming it was vetted by somebody. This could prove interesting. Trump's actual words might have diverged from the teleprompter's prompting, so is that script still in existence or has it been destroyed? If destroyed, would that be in the normal course of events, or by someone giving a special order, "Get rid of it."? How such questions shake out can be viewed as circumstantial evidence of a guilty (or innocent but overcautious) state of mind. Last, if Trump's words deviated from the scripting, where, and what does that mean in the larger picture of incitement?
___________UPDATE__________
Knowing some might claim a dubious contorted right to a degree of exoneration via a claim of cold feet and leaving Trump's stop-the-steal rally early, before Trump spoke; an online Politico item over a year old is helpful and worth attention:
Trump is on trial for inciting an insurrection. What about the 12 people who spoke before him?
Rioters heard from others besides Trump on Jan. 6. As the former president confronts a Senate impeachment trial, 12 other notable “Stop the Steal” speakers have faced few, if any, consequences.
A dozen of the president’s allies and family members took the stage before Trump, where they repeated the same false claims and egged on attendees with similar enthusiasm. The speakers blasted the 2020 elections as rife with fraud, saber-rattled to Republican lawmakers still on the fence about challenging the election results and heaped praise on the thousands of attendees as the country’s true patriots.
So far, the other speakers haven’t publicly apologized for their roles that day. Many of them defended themselves by saying they were merely gassing up supporters to challenge lawmakers at the ballot in 2022 and 2024. And few have faced sanctions approaching the scale of the former president.
Here’s who else spoke at the rally and how things have played out for them since.
Mo Brooks
Representative, Alabama's 5th Congressional District
[video of speech in original omitted]
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) was one of two members of Congress to take the stage, where he urged “American patriots” to “start taking down names and kicking ass.” Donning a red hat that said “Fire Pelosi,” he decried Democrats as “socialists” and his fellow Republicans as “weak-kneed," warning that “we American patriots are going to come right at them.”
[...] Brooks refused to apologize and fired back in a lengthy statement in which he said he was being subject to Orwellian censorship. He called himself a “square” who never smokes or drinks and has never had any problems with the law.
Katrina Pierson
Former Trump campaign adviser
[video of speech in original omitted]
Katrina Pierson has a long history with Trump’s base. She was his spokesperson during the 2016 campaign and has deep roots in the tea party movement, and she invoked those ties when she took the rally stage.
“The Republican politicians down there have forgotten what the tea party movement did,” she said. “Americans will stand up for themselves and protect their rights, and they will demand that the politicians that we elect will uphold those rights, or we will go after them.”
She clarified on stage that she meant the base would go after Republicans at the ballot box. [...]
But her role in the rally wasn't limited to what she said. The New York Times reported that Pierson served as a liaison between the White House and rally organizers, potentially giving her insider knowledge [...]
Amy Kremer
Chair, Women for America First
[video of speech in original omitted]
Another tea party activist-turned-Trump surrogate, Amy Kremer was one of the driving organizers for the rally. She moderated the “Stop the Steal” Facebook group, created by the pro-Trump group “Women for America First," which corralled members to gather in Washington on Jan. 6. The group was shut down for spreading misinformation — a move Kremer angrily denounced from the rally stage.
She offered up conspiracy theories of a stolen election and a corrupt media in cahoots to keep Trump out of office. She also prodded Republican lawmakers to vote to challenge the election result and “punch back from Donald Trump.”
Kremer later denounced the Capitol rioters, but shifted blame for the violence to the left.
“Unfortunately, for months the left and the mainstream media told the American people that violence was an acceptable political tool," she said in a statement after the rioters attacked the Capitol. "They were wrong. It is not."
Vernon Jones
Former member, Georgia House of Representatives
[video of speech in original omitted]
Then-state Rep. Vernon Jones, a Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives, switched parties on the rally stage, saying he was “coming home to the Grand Old Party.”
"I’m ready to go home to the party of Frederick Douglass. I’m ready to go home to the party of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Today, I’m coming home,” he said.
He warned Democrats not to fight Trump’s election challenge, saying “they’ve awakened a sleeping giant” among the president’s base. He thanked MyPillow CEO and ardent Trump supporter Mike Lindell for guiding him away from “these demon Democrats."
Jones was one of the rare Democrats to endorse Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 election — a decision that pushed him to nearly resign from the Georgia Legislature in April 2020. But he stood by his endorsement and tweeted at the time that “an uprising is near.”
Jones withdrew from the June 9 Democratic primaries in his district and left the state Legislature soon after the "Stop the Steal" rally.
Ken Paxton
Texas Attorney General
[video of speech in original omitted]
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told the rally audience that other states, particularly Georgia, had “capitulated” by acknowledging Biden as the winner. He said he would keep fighting the election results, even though his attempt to sue other states over their elections had been rejected by the Supreme Court only weeks before.
After the Capitol riot, Paxton was the only state attorney general not to sign a statement condemning the violence. He denounced the riot separately, but falsely claimed the mob was filled with leftist agitators masquerading as Trump supporters. Democrats in the Texas Legislature called for an investigation into Paxton’s role in the riots.
Paxton is also tangled up in other potential legal woes amid allegations in October of corruption, with calls from his own staff to resign.
Lara and Eric Trump
Daughter-in-law and son of President Donald Trump
[video of speech in original omitted]
Eric and Lara Trump took to the stage to vow the former president’s family would continue their “fight” long after 2020. When Lara asked what her husband wanted for his 37th birthday, Eric said he wanted Republicans in Congress to “have some backbone” and support his father's election challenges.
“He has more fight in him than every other one combined, and they need to stand up and we need to march on the Capitol today. [...]
Kimberly Guilfoyle
Former Trump campaign adviser
[video of speech in original omitted]
Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Fox News host and Trump super fundraiser, promised she would “continue to hold the line” for Trump and vowed not to “allow the liberals and the Democrats to steal our dream or steal our elections.”
The bombastic performance was an echo of her memorable appearance at the Republican National Convention in which Guilfoyle shouted that the “best is yet to come.” She repeated that message from the stage as she claimed that Trump would “continue to save America.”
Donald Trump Jr.
Son of President Donald Trump
[video of speech in original omitted]
The president’s eldest son, Donald Jr., prodded Republicans in Congress still on the fence about Trump’s election challenges, saying the vote was an opportunity to be either a “zero or a hero," a “friend or foe.” He cast their hesitancy as cowardice and said, “I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months” if they didn’t vote with Trump.
He also added some jabs at the summer’s anti-racism protesters, telling the crowd that they’d gathered without “ripping down churches” and “looting.” [...]
Madison Cawthorn
Representative, North Carolina's 11th Congressional District
[video of speech in original omitted]
[...] The right-wing wunderkind said many of his colleagues “have no backbone” to face Trump, and he cheered on the audience as the future of the Republican Party.
“The courage I see in this crowd is not represented on that hill,” he said. “My friends, I will tell you right now that there is a new Republican Party rising.”
After the insurrection, Cawthorn changed tack and denounced the rioters as “despicable." But he still didn’t regret his appearance at the rally, he said during an interview on "The Carlos Watson Show." Democratic leaders from his North Carolina district wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to expel him from Congress, but Cawthorn brushed off any responsibility for the violence at the Capitol.
Rudy Giuliani
Trump's personal attorney
[video of speech in original omitted]
[...] After insisting the legality of everything he and his team were doing to undermine the election results, Giuliani declared, “Let’s have trial by combat.”
The bellicose language immediately raised alarms as a call to violence. But Giuliani later insisted in an interview with The Hill that it was a reference to the HBO series “Game of Thrones," which he called a “documentary” about medieval England. He also denied Trump had any responsibility for the Capitol riot and repeated the false claim that antifa or other leftists were behind the attack.
John Eastman
Constitutional lawyer
[video of speech in original omitted]
Giuliani brought out John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University, [huh?] to explain in detail the various conspiracy theories behind their challenges to the election results. He was the last speaker before Donald Trump and put their cause in terms beyond one president.
"This is bigger than President Trump. It is the very essence of our Republican form of government and it has to be done," Eastman said. "And anybody that is not willing to stand up to do it does not deserve to be in the office. It is that simple."
[...]
"It" whatever he meant by that, he said "has to be done." He likely was referring to Trump and "it" might have been more than giving the keynote speech. Mike Lindell must have had a conflicting engagement, or was not invited to speak. Neither of the Thomas spouses spoke, nor did any judiciary member.
But all that, including Trump Jr. speaking of a march on the Capitol, happened before Trump, himself, worked the crowd. If leaving before Trump spoke, one still could have been in tune with and enthusiastic for the earlier proceedings. Sometimes a warmup act steals the show.
You showed up at that bullshit show because you were an ally and believer. How it was and how it is. Otherwise, why go there in the cold? Dress warmly and be sure to be there to hear The Man, himself. speak. It was his show. You did not go there for Eastman, Giuliani or Guilfoyle.
You went for Trump.
It was his election. All the others were saying so, and that it was stolen. You were there as a kindred soul.
To have left early simply makes no sense. To; say you left early puts credibility into question. At a minimum. Agenda also becomes questionable, more than otherwise.