June 18, 2019

I was riding a bus from NJ to NYC the other day...

...Something I haven't done before. At one stop a whole big bunch of people with kids got on and a nearly-empty bus got almost filled. There were a couple of crying babies, but they settled down afer a bit and the bus was filled with kid chatter. I was listening to some of the chatter and enjoying it when it just really hit me -- you really have to be a truly despicable person to be a racist. How else could you listen to these bright, happy kids go on and on about their day and how happy they were to see their parents and think, "Yup. Inferior races. We'd be better off without them."

June 7, 2019

It's time to admit that The Deplorables have achieved escape velocity from decency.

Remember when we all thought that his approval numbers would tank when people realized what a turd he was? Well they do realize and they like it.

Our strategizing going forward is going to have to be based on that fact.

June 4, 2019

I just joined the Satanic Temple.

After I heard that Franklin Graham declared June 2 as a "pray for Trump" day, I needed a way to get as far from those people as possible. Bought the membership card and certificate. I guess I am now officially going to Hell.

May 25, 2019

So, when do the mandatory sterilizations start?

A government that’s seized the power to force you to give birth can also force you not to. Now that some states have laws on the books that establish the primacy of blastocysts, why not forbid the feeble-minded and other genetic defectives* from producing flawed ones?

*Anachronistic language intentional.

May 4, 2019

I came to a realization today re: extended family.

Democracy in this country is in critical condition and may not survive. I just don't have the strength to spend time with people who are rejoicing about that.

April 14, 2019

A reminder: laws don't enforce themselves.

There's black letter law that says that Treasury must turn over anyone's federal tax returns when requested by a congressional comittee but if no one exacts an actual penalty for not doing it...

April 6, 2019

If Barr ordered Mueller to end his investigation, wouldn't that have to be in Mueller's report?

I suppose it's possible the report went all mealy-mouthed and passive voiced: "a decision was made to end the investigation", but I don't think it did.

April 3, 2019

Could somebody explain something re: Trump's "oranges" appearance?

In this Vox article:

During an Oval Office event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump either lied or got confused about where his father was born, admitted that closing the border with Mexico will be economically harmful to the US (but threatened to do it anyway), pushed a baseless conspiracy theory, and repeatedly struggled to say the word “origins.”

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/2/18292571/trump-nato-secretary-white-house-oranges

It ends with the sentence:

Reporters were then ushered out of the room.

Is this the normal protocol when the POTUS makes a press appearance with a guest? Or, am I just being weird when I picture staff shoving the press out before they can see any more of Donnie having one of his "spells"?

March 30, 2019

When Mueller is called before Congress...

...is there any reason he wouldn't be allowed to testify that Barr directed him to end the investigation, if he did?

March 26, 2019

Why Ken Starr got it right and Mueller got it wrong.

Mind you, Starr will go down in history as a pervy Inspector Javert. Still...

Imagine you're an investigator in a local DA's office and you're looking into a local landlord who may be guilty of illegally converting single-family homes into multifamily rentals. So you're looking into local landlord dude and you run across extensive evidence that he is running a really big human trafficking operation. So, what do you do? Report back to your boss and say, "Y'know, I looked into the zoning thing and I really didn't find anything that looked actionable", while keeping the trafficking thing under your hat because you weren't tasked for it.

Hell no, you don't. You get that info out to somebody who can do something about it, whoever that might be. You're law enforcement, not a bean counter. It's your job to uphold the damn law. After investigating Trump for two years Mueller knows exactly who he is, with that knowledge backed up by reams of concrete evidence. If he can't find some way to get info out about actionable things Trump has done, it's because he has chosen not to.

Really, really makes me wonder.