6/24/21 Joint Chiefs of Staff Snaps Back on Accusation of "Wokeness"

“I've read Mao Zedong. I've read Karl Marx. I've read Lenin," said Mark Milley, who heads the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "That doesn't make me a communist."

He spoke at a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee after several Republican members took potshots at signs of the military's fledgling use of critical race theory. It was a showboating performance by those trying to prove their Trumpy bona fides for reelection. They accused the military of being "woke."

One of the potshots was from Michael Waltz, (R-Fla.), who criticized the Academy at West Point for teaching critical race theory in class. "Divisive," Waltz said. He also disliked the voluntary seminar on "Understanding whiteness and white rage."

"I want to understand white rage, and I'm white," Milley said. He later added, "I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military .... of being ‘woke’ or something else because we are studying some theories that are out there.”

Milley wasn't the only target of criticism: Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida claimed that one of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's senior advisers is "a critical race theorist."

Austin shot back, "This is the first I'd ever heard Mr. Garrison being described as a critical race theorist, so this is new."

Perhaps the best statement of the hearing came from Milley. “I do think it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read." Take that, GOP!

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/559925-joint-chiefs-chairman-clashes-with-gop-on-race-theory-white-rage?fbclid=IwAR3fg_WHqODgiiwYNAK1mIJ4i9G9kIU2HMqZ-nPiHImpMtB9vXaV5scToUg 1.2K views on FB

6/24/21 Judge Hands Down the First Sentence for Insurrection

On Wednesday, Federal judge Royce Lamberth handed down the first sentence of almost 500 (and counting) defendants in the sprawling investigation of the 1/6 insurrection attempt.

In a 2008 photo, Lamberth has the look of a Dutch uncle. You could see any one of a dozen character actors playing him in a movie.

“A sizable part of our public may not think that I’m enacting an appropriate sentence in this case today, in giving you the break that I’m going to give you,” he told the defendant, a 49-year-old grandmother from Indiana farm country. She got four years' probation and a $500 fine for her 10 minutes of trespassing in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor charge. She must also do 120 hours of community service.

The sentence was light because the woman was repentant. She hadn't committed or advocated violence. She had written a letter about how, as a resident of a tiny town, she knew little about other Americans. Her attitudes changed once she learned more about the experience of American people of color. "I've learned that even though we live in a wonderful country, things still need to improve," she said. "People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street."

The judge was not so kind with his remarks about lawmakers and others who want to whitewash the insurrection attempt, criticizing "The accounts of some members of Congress that January 6 was just a day of tourists walking through the Capitol. I don’t know what planet they were on, but there were millions of people in this country that saw what happened.”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/23/politics/capitol-rioter-sentenced/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2GH84QveA6hQa68OF6WiysQdGDLvHd1gqlWid_wS_ybjlLlXvVDP2sP4o

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/23/us-capitol-riot-sentencing-anna-morgan-lloyd

6/21/21 Trump to Tout Texas Governor in a City Where He Owes $570,000

The current governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has gone Trumpist. He's out to prove it by continuing to build Texas's stretch of Trump's much ridiculed border wall. Abbott is taking $250 million dollars from the state budget to do so.

On June 30, the Orange-utan himself will travel to Texas to return the favor. The pair will have a meetup -- a photo-op, anyway -- to tour the wall in El Paso, where Trump will scatter his brand of boosterism over Abbott and the project Abbott has undertaken.

Problem is, Trump owes El Paso $570,000 from his "Make America Great Again" rally in February 2019. The money -- well over half for police department services -- was due in April 2019.

In January of that year, Trump stood up on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and told them, "Nobody appreciates you more than the president of the United States."

In another first for Trump among American presidents, El Paso hired a collections firm to pursue the cash.

In October 2020, the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity reported that Trump's total debts for 14 municipalities amounted to $1.82 million.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-el-paso-greg-abbott-texas-border-wall_n_60cd17cce4b0dd0174277622?fbclid=IwAR3hiI6nyFKgfwhTnr9auPrmL0ZRVWleSVD6v_oIpKWdnXFa5sgXj0PUIFM

6/23/21 Fuming over "Saturday Night Live," Trump Tried to Step on the Show

While most people don't become president without reading the Constitution, Donald Trump appears to have been an exception. He was outraged that "shows like 'SNL', not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knowing the same person (me) over and over," he tweeted. "Should the Federal Elections Commission and/or FCC look into this?"

Having discussed it with advisers and lawyers in 2019, Trump learned there was nothing he could do, legally, about people making fun of him on television. Nevertheless, he was told that someone would "look into it," according to the report in the online news site The Daily Beast.

"It was more annoying than alarming, to be honest with you," one source said.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/559588-trump-asked-justice-to-look-into-snl-report?fbclid=IwAR2hk9ChqJ_X4Lvuc9R72eyZplveLQqWmy-_ay3YWwjoJemOM8aNcjp4J2E

6/19/21 U.S. Bishops Want Biden to Toe the Line on Abortion

 The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops voted on Friday to draft a "teaching document" about communion that will probably rebuke Joe Biden for defending abortion rights, and could call for denying him communion in the Catholic church.

Everybody's got an opinion. While the vote to proceed was overwhelming, at 168-55, the push for the measure came from the Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, who is more conservative than most bishops. But then, Gomez was running the show -- that is, the U.S. bishops' three-day General Assembly in June. The document itself is supposed to be ready for a vote next time they meet, in November.

Thing is, church law isn't supposed to apply nation by nation, so the recommendation wouldn't be binding unless it's signed by the Pope. That's not likely: Pope Francis told the bishops this very week that it's a bad idea to use communion as a political weapon.

In short, the bishops could sing the entire text on Broadway and tap dance to it and it still wouldn't affect President Biden personally. The two bishops that Biden knows best in Washington have both said that he will continue to receive communion in their churches, no problem. One, Bishop Wilton Gregory, was one of almost 70 bishops who wrote to ask Gomez to put off the communion issue till the bishops could meet in person.

Biden's take on abortion, by the way, is that women have the right to choose. He also says church teachings should not be imposed on the entire country. That's the same way Jimmy Carter saw it. As long as they're not both one-term presidents, we're happy.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/559167-bishops-vote-to-proceed-with-drafting-document-on-denying-communion?fbclid=IwAR3Uft-9zGNOhdsdMXMv1FersqtJCU8Wfwc-Rc1irY1mnHpJHWQVKKPDvi0&rl=1

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bishops-possible-rebuke-joe-biden-communion-abortion-rights/?fbclid=IwAR2aHdUKGlfTAU0mbrGsWnK3L1KPxz5iNhmUj629_TnsqpoaHURJXgmXma4

6/23/21 CA Assault Weapons Ban is Back in Place

Roger Benitez, the judge who overthrew California's assault weapons ban, baked a 30-day wait into his opinion for subsequent challenges -- a tidbit of wisdom in a remarkably knuckleheaded ruling.

“Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle, is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment," Benitez, a Dubya appointee, wrote. "Good for both home and battle."

The US of A actually pays this guy. Rightly taking umbrage at this description of a weapon designed to kill as many people as possible as fast as possible, and used for that very purpose in multiple mass shootings of civilians, California's attorney general got the ruling reconsidered and overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in just 18 days. There were lives to save.

There once was a federal ban on assault rifles, but it was in effect for just ten years before Republicans let it lapse in 2004. President Biden helped pass the ban. "It brought down these mass killings," he said. "We should do it again."

The case will doubtless continue moving up the legal ladder. Let's hope the ban stays in place -- and doesn't wind up in the laps of an unpredictable and conservative Supreme Court.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/california-assault-weapons-ban-ruling_n_60d2120ae4b006d4620ddd0b?fbclid=IwAR21zFiaQm9q-JFFp6yKPvDetVi-WqMsJ8EOpmWqsojNxUenFFbG_8FNXkg

6/23/21 The Election Bill is Dead -- Even with Manchin's Support

Democrats have been going for broke in an effort to pass a new voting rights act. But when all the dust settled on Tuesday, Democrats had lost the battle. It's just not clear whether they lost to the filibuster or to an inability to make the law appealing to Republicans as well.

Of course, it's hard to know whether any voting rights bill could get past Republicans, who are still milking Trump's Big Lie for votes and have no apparent intention of stopping.

It's a serious problem. In statehouses across the country -- at least Republican-led statehouses -- lawmakers are dead set on limiting voting rights to Black, Brown, and Democratic citizens. And the longstanding voting-rights legislation was all but nullified since SCOTUS took away, in 2013, the government's power to eyeball new voting laws in states with a history of suppressing those voters.

Republican legislators have out-bullied, out-planned, and outsmarted Democrats in the voting game for decades, winding up with an outsized proportion of Republicans in office compared with the percentage of actual citizens who are Republicans. We've been gerrymandered, handed inconvenient restrictions, and otherwise stonewalled from a full representation of the will of the people of this country.

You might think that the problem was the gadfly Senator Joe Manchin, DINO of West Virginia. Democrats were desperate, according to CNN commentator Joe Cilizza, whoever the hell he is, to get Manchin on their side because it's nice to say "50 Democrats voted for voting rights and 50 Republicans voted against."

Manchin supported the bill only if he could change it, and the fact that he's "with" the rest of the Democrats simply shows how dead the bill actually was. It makes Manchin's demands a moot point. He agreed! Huzzah!

At this point, we're barrelling into a midterm election that is already hamstrung for the majority of American voters.

Is it time to ditch the filibuster, without which this bill might have passed?

How did we get into this mess where Republicans determine the outcome of Senate bills, and also control the majority of the United States with a minority of voters?

Should Democrats get tough with the "my-way-or-the-highway" conservatives? And how would they do it?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/22/politics/senate-democrats-voting-bill/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0qrizsHFxmMuq70LF89im5CcnsbtlxMPcYqhPh3Kq-5rqjJW27JWv1Hck

6/21/21 Scofflaw Ammon Bundy Runs for Governor of Idaho. Another Outrageous Leader?

Ammon Bundy has twice been on the non-government side of armed standoffs over his "God-given" right to run his livestock on public land. Having successfully navigated both standoffs without being shot to death by federal personnel, Bundy is now exerting his God-given right to run for governor of the state of Idaho.

The first standoff was in 2014, involving his father's ranch; the second was at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which he and his hirsute buds occupied for 41 days with their God-given rifles, in a statement that was also intended to provide his God-given cattle with God-given grass at the expense of those other little critters that liberals love so much.

They were eventually arrested -- the occupiers, not the critters -- and the seven people who were charged were eventually acquitted by a jury -- a finding that apparently shocked everyone in the courtroom. Never mind; it probably just further proved to Ammon that his thinking was approved by the Almighty.

While spouting about the Constitution from one side of his face and about the deep state controlling the tyrannous Joe Biden out the other, Bundy gave the reason he’s running for office: He's “sick and tired of all of this political garbage just like you are.”

Bundy joins seven other candidates, but none have his colorful background. For one thing, Bundy was banned from the Idaho state capitol for a year, till this August, for various arrests. This March, Bundy was again arrested for refusing to wear a mask entering a courthouse. Since he was on the way into his own trial, he was then charged with failure to appear.

What is that song I hear in the back of my head? That Village People classic?

What’s the bigger-picture perspective here? How are these far-right, cartoon-like public figures possibly viable candidates?

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/559339-man-who-led-armed-occupation-of-federal-refuge-announces-run-for-idaho?fbclid=IwAR2s6PqR3u6UcGcJLcusGbN-nnWeqetacLTBePMf9C4R8gX_WggVF9ZKBmE

6/20/21 Was Wilbur Ross the Crookedest Administrator in Washington?

Wilbur Ross, Trump's Commerce Secretary, walked away with no less than $53 million after serving four years at his post, the Huffington Post said on Saturday.

Not only that: The amount could be (and likely is) well over $137 million because of the friendly-to-insiders standards of federal disclosure. Ross has been cleared of insider trading, but he has conflated public and private endeavors in a way that could impress even Trump himself.

Ross is as slick as they come. A few years ago, Forbes called him "among the biggest grifters in American history," an assessment that encompassed his actions at the private equity firm he founded. Before serving as Secretary, Ross was on the board of a foreign bank that got fined for laundering Russian money.

During his years in office, Ross produced a torrent of lies, including lying under oath about who asked to have a citizenship question put on the Census (Ross did, but blamed the DOJ).

Within the Commerce Department, there was surveillance of employees and private citizens that rivals the DOJ's scrutiny into politicians and journalists: A "security office" collected information on hundreds of Americans, searching workers' offices, emails, and social media posts looking for criticism of the Census, which is run by the Commerce Department.

And when Ross left his post, he already had a new endeavor in the works, based in the Cayman Islands, that had attracted $300 million in investors' money.

Let's keep Ross's vast corruption in mind if Trump should ever run for office again.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wilbur-ross-53-million-commerce-head-finance-report_n_60cd5ceae4b01af0c2706d30?fbclid=IwAR2hk9ChqJ_X4Lvuc9R72eyZplveLQqWmy-_ay3YWwjoJemOM8aNcjp4J2E

6/18/21 Texas to Allow People to Own and Carry Guns without Permit or Training

It's called "constitutional carry" by its advocates and idiocy by everyone else, but the Texas bill allows you, me, and Homer Simpson to buy guns without paying $40 for a permit OR getting any training whatsoever in how to use them. Training should be voluntary, according to the gun rights people.

This foolish law makes the state immeasurably more dangerous to those who live in it -- a fact that police officers have pointed out repeatedly, in Texas and other states.

Maybe people can stay safer by exchanging pandemic isolation with gun-fear isolation, shopping remotely and staying indoors. Still, your crazy neighbor can buy just about any assault rifle there is, and those suckers can send a bullet through the walls of an average house. Or so I hear.

Mercifully, Texans still won't be able to carry guns in schools, hospitals, and some other public places, and private businesses can ban gun carriers from coming into their establishments.

If you're still not sure that Texas is in the grip of rabidly right-wing politicians, the state also just passed a law that forbids pension funds and other state-run investors to put money into companies that want to find alternatives to fossil fuels.

Can you believe these jackasses?  

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Gov-Abbott-signs-constitutional-carry-bill-16253153.php?fbclid=IwAR3tO_ubs_6kTIegoWJDuiqFbQvLfRTUOuZR5ZRM-sfKanCf-QdBw_40_F0

6/17/21 Notorious Baker Fined $500 for Refusing to Make Gender-Transition Cake

On Wednesday, Denver District Court Judge Bruce Jones added another layer to the saga of cake discrimination by Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker. The judge ordered his bakery to pay $500 in restitution to Autumn Scardina, a would-be customer, for violating Colorado's anti-discrimination laws; Phillips refused to bake Scardina a pink-with-blue-icing gender-transition celebration cake.

You may remember the Masterpiece Cake Shop, Phillips's shop, from a previous incident in which he refused to make a cake celebrating a gay wedding. That was in 2012. The following lawsuit made lots of headlines, and eventually, the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that Phillips's right to free speech had been violated. He went back to his bakery. There's no word on the status of the happy couple.

Well, hold on to your butter, because five years later, but still a year before the Supreme Court ruling, Scardina asked Masterpiece Cake Shop to make her gender-transition cake. Again, Jack Phillips, co-owner, refused. Scardina sued under state civil rights laws, and Phillips counter-sued the state, but after the Supreme Court ruling, the state and the baker agreed to drop the matter.

Then along came 2019 and a second suit from Scardina, who used different state laws from the first suit. Long story shorter, Phillips was back in hot water, with Scardina was determined to put the icing on her fight against discrimination. Phillips is appealing the case.

Let's hope they cook up a solution before the whole issue goes stale -- again.

What is the deal with this baker? Why can’t he just bake the cakes his customers order and just stop being so nosy? Someone wanted a pink cake with blue icing. Big deal. Did he really have to ask what the occasion was, so he could decide to judge it? Did Scardina really have to go to this one baker who was already being sued?

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/558849-court-fines-baker-500-for-refusing-to-make-gender-transition-cake?fbclid=IwAR3tO_ubs_6kTIegoWJDuiqFbQvLfRTUOuZR5ZRM-sfKanCf-QdBw_40_F0

6/17/21 Texas Nixes Teaching Bad Things About White History

Texas has a well-earned reputation for a certain spin in its history textbooks -- a boosterish, hero-worshipping, white-centered picture that promotes a politically conservative point of view.

In one text I read, for example, a box explained that if only Russia's serfs had held out a little longer, the Tsar's peasant reforms would've taken shape, and the people would be better off now than they became after the Revolution.

The state has some odd little rules too, such as an instruction to teachers not to say things that make capitalism look bad. Ladies and gents, I s**t you not.

On Tuesday, Governor Greg Abbott signed in a whole 'nother passel of teacher-muzzling restrictions in response to the 1619 Project. Concisely, teachers are now forbidden to discuss the social implications of race.

The bill says that social studies (read: history) teachers in public schools “may not be compelled” to talk about controversial historical, social, or policy issues. If they do, they have to explain the issue “without giving deference to any one perspective.”

The wording, as one teacher-turned-lawmaker put it, is "clever": “You can talk about race in the classroom, but you can’t talk about privilege ... the idea is to put in landmines so any conversation about race in the classroom would be impossible.”

The law should get a gold star in the Annals of Unenforceable Laws. While virtually every Republican in the statehouse voted yea, the law's purpose above all seems to be turning the attention of furious parents away from complaining to lawmakers and turning it instead to complaining about teachers if they don't like what a teacher says in the classroom.

The law will probably put a damper on the more outspoken teachers. Fact is, a lot of Texas teachers were themselves Texas public school students, so it's hard to say how many are fully versed in the nuances of the 1619 project. It's pretty clear, though, that most teachers are taking the law as a challenge they'll beat. Because -- REALLY.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-republicans-ban-teachers-racism_n_60b18524e4b06da8bd76bf50?fbclid=IwAR2vQnnbf4g-IhoIScBtUZagnh9VDxWKynK1D3BRRapJ0JOxiD6Y0CaeApM

6/15/21 Texas's Grid Is About to Go Up in Smoke -- Again!

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott saw fit last week to declare the Texas power grid "fixed."

It's true -- as long as "fixed" doesn't mean "repaired." The grid was fixed (meaning “had predetermined results”) from the start, when Texas decided to go solo with its energy grid rather than hooking up to the national grid -- that way, the state wouldn't have to keep up with pesky standards and public accountability.

In saying what he did, the governor played up to the far-right crackpots who insist on making Texas what it is today, a one-liner with hella-hot weather.

One could charitably question whether Abbott knew about the numerous and ongoing repairs that are not under a central authority, repairs that have now prompted the ordinarily silent ERCOT -- the Electronic Reliability Council of Texas (don't laugh!) -- to say "Please, people, turn down your air conditioners this weekend!"

About 11,000 megawatts' worth of generators is under repair, ERCOT says. In 2018, demand spiked at 69,123 megawatts. On Monday, demand is supposed to top 73,000 megawatts, and all the while, those generator operators are going to be out there in their overalls with wrenches sticking out of every pocket and a bandanna to wipe the sweat off their brows. Why not? Nobody's watching.

No, in answer to your question, I have no idea how generators run. I just have an idea of how Texas runs, and I picture those mechanics kicking the side of a metal building to see if it's working now, only to see a rising puff of black smoke. Seen too many movies, I guess.

“We will be conducting a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service,” says Woody Rickerson, vice president of ERCOT’s grid planning and operations. “This is unusual for this early in the summer season.”

At least most of the cars in Texas have air conditioning. This could be the weekend that the state finally gets on the road. Unlike the winter freeze, there won't be veterans desperately trying to run portable oxygen tanks off car batteries because the roads are too icy to drive to a hospital. That happened in Houston this year. The guy didn't make it.

If stuff like that doesn't make you want to roar with rage like a gorilla, you might be a Texas Republican.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texans-conserve-energy-power-grid-struggles_n_60c7c8b1e4b0e25921b6ccdd?fbclid=IwAR2s6PqR3u6UcGcJLcusGbN-nnWeqetacLTBePMf9C4R8gX_WggVF9ZKBmE

6/18/21 Rep. Clyde Meets a 1/6 Defender in a Capitol Elevator

Congress has awarded its Congressional Gold Medal to those who defended the Capitol on January 6. There will be three group medals, one for the Capitol police, one for the District of Columbia police, and one for other groups who played a part in the Capitol's defense.

The House vote was not unanimous: 21 Republican legislators voted No. One of them was Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.). He was the one who claimed that "If you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit."

Michael Fanone, a DC police officer, was not in a hallway where the invaders stayed between velvet ropes; he was getting a life-threatening beating outside the Capitol entrance. He was also in the Capitol building on the day after the medal vote, and he found himself in an elevator with Representative Clyde. He told the story to Don Lemon, a CNN newsman, on "Don Lemon Tonight."

"I was very cordial," Fanone said. "I extended my hand to shake his hand. He just stared at me. I asked if he was going to shake my hand, and he told me that he didn't who know I was.

"So I introduced myself. I said that I was Officer Michael Fanone. That I was a DC Metropolitan Police officer who fought on January 6 to defend the Capitol and, as a result, I suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as a heart attack after having been tased numerous times at the base of my skull, as well as being severely beaten," Fanone said. "At that point, the congressman turned away from me."

Fanone said that when the elevator door opened, Clyde "ran...like a coward."

Is anyone surprised?

While we're on the subject, here's a quote from David Gosar, a brother of Rep. Paul Gosar, another Republican who voted Nay: "I'd like to thank Officer Fanone ... and the other Capitol Hill police officers for their bravery and heroism on that day....And on behalf of the actual sane members of our family, which is everyone but Paul, we apologize ... for his despicable comments and disgraceful conduct through this whole incident." That's from Politico, "GOP hands Dems a new line of attack," 6/17/21.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/politics/michael-fanone-us-capitol-insurrection-cnntv/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3zTsoGdRKObE34nplLrCFVU1r5z8ulw_zXp7Zk6K8j6zMczMwSRqhvWto

6/16/21 Juneteenth is Finally Becoming a Federal Holiday!

Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the news, traveling slowly, finally reached the island of Galveston in southern Texas. On that day, June 19th, 1865, Union Major-General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3 there in public:

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor...."

Texas has been celebrating "June teenth" ever since, pausing only for World War II. Think "Fourth of July," and you have the idea. Subsequently, Black groups bought land for parks to celebrate -- Houston's and Austin's Emancipation Parks and Booker T. Washington Park in Mexia.

Juneteenth ("Emancipation Day") has been a state holiday in Texas since 1980 -- and is a holiday in a few other states.

Now, however, the U.S. Senate has unanimously voted to make June 19th a federal holiday, one of eleven on the annual calendar. (Only federal employees have the day off so far.) As soon as the House votes Yea and President Biden signs the bill, it'll be official.

It's about time!  

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-passes-juneteenth-national-holiday_n_60c915dde4b09ba204a9d24b?fbclid=IwAR36rI2OQS_3FBKtoiOHlqz1qxVKAEZaSYwUWStzy6NjLuLuG7fGef8Py_g