does anyone else think that robert mueller would deliver a report where

it was not organized in such a way as to be presented to the congress w little or no fuss or muss?
jill banks just asked basically the same thing.
srsly. probably subheaded- send this part to congress, keep this section secret, ask the judge to release this section.

let's get real here. if it was good, he would have tweeted it by now.


and yeah, #rachels15questions

anybody wanna play fill in the blanks?

i'll start-

mueller didnt file charges for obstruction because spanky refused to go under oath so that i could prove his intent

mueller didnt file charges for conspiracy because gru managed to maintain enough cutouts that the campaign managed to maintain plausible deniability.

it's a good night to watch a movie or 2.

all this empty speculation is making me nuts.
and the trolls on the march are making me sick.

an email from my favorite commissioner of the water rec district

here in chicago/cook county about mayor pete-
i like this guy more and more.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana – yes, that Mayor Pete who’s been garnering a lot of positive press recently – got me thinking about sewage treatment in a new way. He’s been talking about freedom, among other things, freedom safeguarded by governments serving people: freedom to leave a job and start a business without losing health coverage, for instance; freedom to sue your credit card company; freedom to marry whomever I love (and not to have that decision made for me by a county clerk); and the freedom that comes “with paved roads and stop lights.”

There’s more: “I think about wastewater management as freedom. If a resident of our city doesn’t have to give it a second thought, she’s freer.”

That’s from a profile in Rolling Stone last August. What he means, I think, is that if government does its job of serving people well – if people can flush their toilets and not worry about where waste goes or epidemics that might ensue – then we are all freer to be self-actualizing, to spend our time and effort devoted to our families and enriching our communities.

Yet those are the services governments provide that we often take for granted, the less visible but all-so-vital services of paved roads and safe bridges, of clean drinking water, swept streets, collected garbage and treated sewage. (If you want to dip in further to Mayor Pete’s discussion of wastewater, here’s a link to a wonderful and engaging podcast called “Water in Real Life” with Mayor Pete that was broadcast this week. “Sometimes I even talk about wastewater and the meaning of life,” the Mayor said in his interview. “There are 100,000 people [in South Bend] who are going about their lives…It’s harder to go to school, start a business, whatever’s important to you if the basics aren’t taken care of and that’s why you could argue that water and wastewater are one of the most important and empowering inventions ever produced by mankind.”)

Mayor Pete’s new book, Shortest Way Home, even has a chapter titled “Talent, Purpose, and the Smartest Sewers in the World.” I ask you, who wouldn’t want to read a meditation on the importance of wastewater infrastructure?

Today is World Water Day. Let’s use this as a prompt to contemplate and appreciate the way water flows through our lives and through us, how dependent we are on clean water, how much pleasure we derive from playing in and with water, how much of our economy and ecology utterly depends on ample water.

Today, especially, I want to thank the 1,865 employees of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District for guaranteeing my freedom and treating my waste. You are true public servants, and we owe you bigtime.

ok, another ask- hit me w your best jefferson quotes to toss in the statement.

ok, first, i want to come clean that i what i am writing is a statement for my sister, who some of you will remember was part of the blue wave that hit illinois local govts.
6 new democratic women, for a total of 7, on an 18 member suburban county board.

i have been her "head writer" for most of our adult life at one time or another, and i was totally proud to write the copy for her campaign web site.
i shopped a lot of that here on du, so you should all take a bow if you read/rec'd/replied to any of my screeds.

on the first day of the new board a spat broke out of the prayer that opened all meetings. 95% xtian, at least. big fundy population.
new member dawn desart objected.
much ink was spilled.
it comes up for a vote next week. so, sharpening the words.

so the ask- ready for the second draft, and need a little jefferson to season the pot.

funny story-

me-
do you want to throw in a little jefferson?

sheila-
Yes. Gonna put my thoughts together this weekend. Post by a rep cb member talked abt Dawn as the "socialist lib" who didn't put her hand on the Bible at swear in. Uh, that was me.



i know folks here have jefferson on their clipboards.
save me the scrolling. please. thank you.
i love you all.

ok, working out my statement on prayer at govt meetings.

first, thanks to all who shared their thoughts in this thread-
https://www.democraticunderground.com/123057512

since this is such a sticky thing, i really appreciate feedback from folks w different views on this.
tempted as i am to just say- read the 1st amendment you stupid fuckwads- i doubt that will change any minds. plus this has been blown completely out of proportion, and i dont want to add any fuel to the fire.
so, here is my first draft. it has to be fairly short, but there is plenty of room to add to this.

one would hope that the members of this board base their decisions on facts, law and the needs of constituents. none of these things depend on intervention of the almighty, whichever almighty you might believe in.

many people think that our laws come out of the basics of decency put forth in the 10 commandments. but there is nothing special about the xtian 10. these same guides to morality at included in most world religions. because they do not come down from the sky. they spring from the basic sense of fairness and decency from which springs the ability of the human animal to live in groups and get along and govern themselves. the central tenant of that is to regulate our behavior w a consideration of it's impact on the whole.

to start the meeting w prayer is to deny that simple truth that we are here to be our brother's keeper, not our god's servant.

why shouldnt govt meetings start w a prayer?

give me your best arguments.

i dont think they should. just wondering how my peeps here would put it.

occupy college

the air this college cheating scandal is getting, and the obvious fact that it is part of a seamless system of rigging things for the rich, is really kinda makin my heart go pitter patter.
i mean, its all bad enough, but that they managed to make it tax deductible just has to be sticking in the craw of every parent, student or taxpayer in this country that isnt in the .1%.

and today students are rallying around the world for climate change action just described on my teevee as a "leaderless movement".

plus gun violence, plus health care, plus college debt, plus...

occupy.

crazy idea- i want a democratically elected veep.

hear me out here-

i think that in a field that is such an embarrassment of riches, it would be great if the top vote getter gets the top of the ticket, and the #2 vote getter get second banana.

think of how this would change the race, and change it in a way that is going to totally engage the electorate.
it could be debates for the ages. i think it will be. kamala on msnbc giving a full throated defense for newsome's order.

the thought of watching beto and kamala (or any of them) debating, and not having to choose one makes me qvell. not winner take all, but running to be a part of a team.
i would bet that it would encourage the lower tier to stick it out a little longer.
more candidates on the road, doing retail politics for the next year.


cuz i think the game is gonna be- who can fix all these crises.
and how.

a ham sandwich should be able to beat any current member of the republican party. because it will all be hanging out there.
the problem- take you pick. clean air, water, land. rising seas. etc.
instead of trying to pick at each other, we paint the picture for the media.
the people who made the mess.
the people who have failed to do shit.
the people who made it worse.
the people who greased the wheels.
the people who got rich.
the people who were made poor.


the longer we have a bunch of great spokesmen for our party and and our values, the further we expand our zone of influence, and become a "spectacle" for the teevee machine. in a good way.
w a backdrop of investigations and arrests.

a blue wave of truth.

so, here is what i am gonna do- i am going to donate to at least 3 candidates in a minute here. i will be picking those i want in the debate the most.
i want them all to stay in as long as possible.

(also, that might mean we could maybe, maybe, maybe get the boys to let us pick more than one candidate.)

petty/ not petty. the women on msnbc.

for the last several weeks i have been seeing a new trend in the make up on female guests and talent.
this is something i always watched on rachel, knowing that her style is nothing like her on air style. i was a fan of hers when she was on air america, so i couldnt miss her show from jump street.
i watched in the beginning as she tried out what i assumed were compromises w the powers that be on how she should look.
they didnt try to make her a fox blond news model, but they did their best liberal version of that. after a while the wardrobe settled on the black blazer and the make up was a little neutral eye shadow and shiny pink lipstick.
but there were a few crazy experiments along the way when i was embarrassed for her. like the night they laid on so much make up that it looked like she had to rush right out of the studio to make the curtain for her side job in the chorus of 'cats'.

i've seen joy reid go through similar experiments. not very long ago she had such a heavy coat that i barely recognized her. they completely highlighted her nose to the point that she looked chinese.
i have only seen a couple pics of her off air, but i get the feeling her on air look is not her usual, tho she does like fancy clothes and jewelry.

i just personally, do not wear make up, and havent in decades. i dont make assumptions about people who do. i just want to be honest w myself.

so, anyway, over that last few weeks i have noticed that the new style for all of them is a very subdued style. no heavy eye shadow, neutral tones, flat lipstick in muted colors.
many are now pretty much nude-look by teevee standards.

there are a few that have a little stronger look, but they strike me as the sort of women who wear a fair amount of make up in the rest of their lives.
but even those are still a much quieter palette.


who cares, right? petty.

not petty. the big thing i notice is that they dont stick out on panels like they used to. i didnt even really notice before how one woman and 3-4 men could stand out in not a good way.
but w/o, it is sorta shocking to me how right they look. how normal. how nothing to see here.
so refreshing.

kudos to whoever made this decision.