Monday, April 25, 2022

"A Man Hears What He Wants To Hear, And Disregards The Rest"--Paul Simon

Last time I heard talk like that, Nixon released the tapes.

Yeah, I know.👴🏻
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We're All Conservatives About Something

(Really don't care who runs Twitter or how it operates. Musk may change nothing, or he may turn it into "Truth Social." In the latter case, a new "Twitter" will arise, because obviously the narrow appeal social media platforms have not proven themselves viable. So it goes.)
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Sunday, April 24, 2022

Critical Hoss Theory

I grew up watching “Bonanza,” and Hoss was my favorite character. I never knew Dan Blocker was such an honorable man; but how could it have been otherwise? Ron DeSantis and the Florida GOP have put themselves on the side of the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. In 1964. How did that work out for him?

Disney will be fine. But the two counties in Florida where Disney World is located, will be forced to take on $2 billion in debt, and have to raise taxes by 25%. If the special district created for Disney even can be repealed. Florida law requires a majority of the county vote to allow it; that is, to take on the debt, as well as the expense of Disney utilities. Democracy inaction. Again.

I guess it’s a chilling effect, huh?

Whatever happens, the Florida GOP is standing firm with the mayor of Jackson. In 1964. That stance didn’t work out then, either.

People who live in fear want everyone else to be afraid, too. See that for what it is, and don’t be.
Believe it! 😂
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😨

Why?
But in a statement to NBC affiliate WJHG-TV, Walton County School Superintendent Russell Hughes said "it was necessary in this moment for me to make that decision and I did it for just a welfare of all involved, including our constituents, our teachers, and our students." 
“I'll continue to do those things and perhaps add some," Hughes said.
You’ll notice that’s not an answer. The author of the book can only speculate:

“I think there's one illustration they don't like, where it's two men. But how do they see this, that any time a man puts his arm on another man's shoulder, it means they're gay? It doesn't seem obvious to me," she said.

 Meyers added that "Everywhere Babies" had previously been featured on LGBTQ children's book sites. 

 "It seems odd to me that this is banned, because it's a preschool book, a family book," Meyers said. "You read it to kids when they're 2. But maybe they think we're trying to indoctrinate kids from the cradle on. I don't know. I mean, you can't figure out this mindset."
One of my oldest friends hugs me every time we see each other; which is not often, alas. We live in different states. But I guess this means we are gay. And probably a bad influence on children.

The school district can’t explain why they are afraid of this book. They seem to even be afraid of their explanation. You have to feel sorry for people who live in so much fear.
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Saturday, April 23, 2022

Bill Maher Is Neither A Political Guru, Nor Original



I don't really care about what Maher is saying.  If I could, I'd have posted a screengrab of that, rather than the commentary.  It's the logo I'm interested in:  "We gotta make the world safe from democracy."  It's a variation not on Wilson's original statement (though Maher undoubtedly thinks it is), but on Walt Kelly's:  "We gotta make democracy safe for the world!"

Kelly said it in the '50's.  In the midst of the McCarthy Era.  Granted, he was a little less pessimistic.  But I think he was a little more realistic, too.

"The Skin Of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder.  Maybe that play needs to be assigned reading for all 350 million Americans.  We're sure not gonna blah-blah and out-Cassandra the other blabbers our way out of this mess.  

Maybe education will do it.  Which, come to think of it, is why so many people are anti-education right now.

It's still the same old story, a fight for love and glory.  And power.  It's always been about power.  The shock among the pundit class that America was all about one for all and all for one until just recently, is the really silly and ahistorical part of all this.  Some white people are still shocked that Donald Trump won the office of President in the first place.    Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock weren't.


We still need to relearn our history, before we can proceed. Odds are we won't, and we'll proceed anyway. And be shocked, again, to find out this is not our beautiful house, and this is not our beautiful wife.

Same as it ever was.
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Just A Reminder....

This was approved by the pilot of that plane (not a Delta flight, to be fair) The stupidly intrusive has always been with us, and always will be. I find the second case more offensive, because I grew up around that shit and felt like a captive audience once too often in my childhood.  Put me on a plane with it, and I'm likely to do violence.  Seriously.  My tolerance for it is very low, when I can't walk away from it.  Maybe it has to do with my sense of identity. 🤨

My analysis is their sense of identity is too dependent on those around them, and they must make as many of those others match their own sense of identity as possible. Because any people with a wholly different identity around them (say, Hasidic Jews, who would be readily apparenty by their dress as "not Christian," for example) challenges their identity and they must either make that identity mirror theirs, or they must dispense with it as irrelevant and even improper.

People want to be surrounded by people of like mind.  Call it tribalism, call it nationalism, partisanship; sociology has a whole category of category terms for it.  Context, vocabulary, definitions; pick your poison.  "Birds of a feather flock together" is the nice way of explaining it; everybody wants to be around people just like them, for psychic protection, is, I think, a bit more accurate.

Same old same old.  It is a wonder tall trees ain't layin' down.
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I Don't Understand Either

My son-in-law is a mechanical engineer, and he can't understand why people buy Teslas.  He thinks they're poorly made (and the record of them exploding into flames is not a good one.  I've never owner a car that was prone to combustion all on its own, but anyway....) and badly designed.

Maybe part of the design problem (and simultaneously answer to the question "Why are people buying these things?) is because of all the stupid gadgets in them that people think are actually magical (i.e., in the modern sense of the word "magic," an extension of our will over objects in the world.  You know, "technology.")

There was the car crash here in Houston where it was obvious the driver and his passenger had climbed into the back seat to show off the autopilot aspect of the car.  It crashed into a tree a few yards from his house, having built up enough momentum in that space to ram the tree and explode into flames.  It took hours just to put the fire out.

And then there's this idiot.....

I can't wait until Musk has turned Tesla production over to making robots. What could go wrong? (Hint:  they'll probably be powered by lithium batteries, just like the cars.  Sure, no problem, right? I'm sure their autopilots will work well, too.)
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Nobody’s Saying Greg Abbott Is Not Bad At His Job

Nobody’s saying it’s not true! It really would help if they clarified which true statement in the news they disagreed with.

And since we’re on the subject of Greg Abbott, he really is very bad at his job.
Turns out the only authority DPS had was to conduct safety inspections. They couldn’t open the trucks (CBP can’t either, not without probable cause). So Abbott cost border cities and counties millions, endangered the state and national economy, and got a few oil leaks.
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Friday, April 22, 2022

Perjury Taylor Greene

Which oath of office is that? That McCarthy defense is not nearly as helpful as she imagines it is. Her supporters are going to love this one:
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"I Don't Recall"

Let's start there, because "I don't remember" is not a lie. It's an evasion. You can "get away with it." But it doesn't do your credibility any good.

During a court hearing on Friday, attorney Andrew Celli asked Greene about statements she made about trying to stop President Joe Biden's election victory from being certified.

"You said in the video on your Facebook page that the peaceful transfer of power ought not be allowed to occur," Celli said.

"I don't recall," Greene replied.

"You said the peaceful transfer of power should not be allowed to occur because [Biden] did not win the 2020 election, correct?" he asked again

"I don't recall," Greene again replied.
 
Celli then played the court a video of Greene saying exactly that.

"This is an important time in our history," said Greene. "We cannot allow this to be let go. You cannot allow it to just transfer power peacefully, like Joe Biden wants, and allow him to become our president. He did not win this election. It is being stolen, and the evidence is there."

Greene objected that this was only a "partial statement" that she made and was being taken out of context.


It was a video she made in preparation to objection to Biden's cerfication on Jan. 6.  At least the lawyer says it is; she doesn't know.

Remember when Bill Clinton said "It depends on what the definition of "is," is"?  (Ask your grandpa!  Punk kids.)  Yeah; same energy here.  She don't know nuthin', even what she said, when she said it, why she said it.  It's all taken out of context and she didn't mean it that way but she can't tell you know how she meant it, because she don't know.

See?  Who needs perjury, when you have mendacity and blank idiocy.  This is not the defense she thinks it is. It's not even as clever as Bill Clinton thought he was; and Bill Clinton was actually clever most of the time.


While being cross examined about her past violent rhetoric, Greene was asked whether she believes Pelosi is a "traitor to this country."

The question immediately made Greene uncomfortable.

"I'm not answering that question," she said. "It is speculation."

"You have said that, haven't you?" the attorney pressed.

"No, I have not said that," Greene replied.

Again, the McCarthy defense doesn't work for her.
 
The attorney would go on to read aloud a past statement from Greene in which she said exactly that.

"She's a traitor to our country, she's guilty of treason," Greene said of Pelosi in a 2019 Facebook video. "She took an oath to protect American citizens and uphold our laws. And she gives aid and comfort to our enemies who illegally invade our land. That's what treason is. And by our law representatives and senators can be kicked out and no longer serve in our government. And it's a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason."

I also like her non-response response "That's speculation."  Somebody's been watching too many TeeVee courtroom dramas.  Word to the wise:  those aren't written by lawyers.  It may be a valid objection (in this case it isn't, actually) coming from her lawyer; but it doesn't work at all coming from her.

The lawyers may not win this case, but she's proven she doesn't have the courage of her convictions.  That may hurt her with her supporters.  There's no wizard of Oz, just a dumb blonde (sorry, but it's true here) behind that curtain.

I mean, that's just not a good look for her brand. How it's going. If you miss it at the very end, the judge overrules the objection. "The President of the United States" he represents is Trump, not Biden. One President at a time, and all. And yes, MTG cannot be protected by executive privilege, even if she did discuss martial law with Trump ("I don't recall" is, I'm sure, the answer). Trump has to assert the privilege, he isn't there, it's the wrong objection any way you slice it.

These people are really scraping the bottom of the legal representation barrel. But that doesn't explain (to me, anyway) why this case is in court, and so many other challenges have been tossed around the country.
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Truth Is Scarier Than Fiction

 Raskin suspects the vice president's Secret Service agents were reporting to Trump's agents, and the plan was to take Pence away from the Capitol to corrupt the certification process as part of the insurrection.

"[Pence then] uttered what I think are the six most chilling words of this entire thing I've seen so far: 'I'm not getting in that car,'" Raskin said. "He knew exactly what this inside coup they had planned for was going to do."

Be honest:  if you saw this scene in a political thriller, you'd go along with it if the story was good, but you'd also be thinking "That's where the story left reality behind."

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Pity This Busy Monster Delicate Flower Democracy

I've heard an anecdote which may be true, and may be apocryphal. The story goes that LBJ told an aide to release a story about an political opponent, a particularly scurrilous and scandalous charge (what it was is irrelevant).

"But sir!," the aide responds in shock, "That't not true!"

"I know it isn't," LBJ responds.  "I just wanna seem him deny it!"

"Disorienting effect of lying all the time?"  Ted Cruz took office warning Texans the UN was going to take away their golf.  You could look it up. Republicans for half-a-century, at least, have denounced government spending as the original sin which saps the will, impurifies the purity of our national essence, leads to sloth and sin among the non-white people of America, and causes all manner of economic (and therefore spiritual) evil, becuase God wants the rich to be rich and the poor to cleanse themselves of their moral turpitude (which makes them poor) by hard, hard work and unceasing effort to get rich and thus be among the elect and morally upright.

Or, at the very least, that government spending sends money to the place where the socks in the dryer go, and business spending is good for America because it channels money to the people most suited to have it; even if most government spending is far more equitably distributed in the economy than business spending is, which tends to go to the wealthy like they had a vacuum cleaner sucking it up.  And as we have seen in recent history.

Mostly the sham story is aimed at Democrats who spend money on people (LBJ, even though he dropped billions down the rathole of Vietnam), while Republicans understand that the business of American business is business, and government should act accordingly.  When Trump ran up the deficit, it was good.  When Biden took office, suddenly the deficit was all his fault and the reason we were all going to die.  Again.

Disorienting effect of all the lying?  What, because you just noticed people lie?  Or because Trump was so clumsy at it?  Give it six months, even the tapes won't prove anything against McCarthy.  I remember the Watergate tapes.  There are people who are still convinced Nixon did no wrong.  There were people convinced of that even after the tapes were transcribed and published and became, briefly, a national best-seller.

Go and please the world.
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I Guess We'll Have To Call This "Pulling A McCarthy"

(And before you get excited: No, this is not perjury (likely not, at least). It is, however, just stupid. This, on the other hand, is an absolutely genius use of the passive voice: Not that she's fooling anybody, but for context: Yeah, that's stupid, too. Like I said: Pulling a McCarthy.
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When You Think About Whose Ox Is Getting Gored

And then think about the issue without someone you despise being involved. This is a twitter lesson in what thinking like a lawyer looks like. That is a twitter lesson in thinking you know how to think like a lawyer, but you don’t.
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Thursday, April 21, 2022

“Orwellian”?

So, let's see what this is all about:

HOUSTON – Houston City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that will now require security cameras and lighting at certain businesses.

 Houston Police Chief said the new requirements would help combat an increase of violence crime in the city. 

Under the new guidelines, nightclubs, bars, sexually-oriented businesses, convenience stores and game rooms operating in the city will have to install security cameras for enhanced safety, ensuring coverage from the exterior of the business to its property line. The cameras must be working at all times.

 It will also require convenience stores to install lighting in any place where customers are allowed and turned on between sunset and sunrise. 

 According to the ordinance, a business owner must save video footage for no less than 30 days, and provide HPD with the footage within 72 hours of a request. 

The amendment would take effect about three months after it’s approved.

Lot of shootings and other violence in and outside these businesses.  Seems reasonable to me for the community to ask some concessions from such businesses, especially since they are already subject to health laws and alcohol laws.  There’s a lot of harrumphing at the Twitter link about the 4th amendment, but businesses aren’t being forced to incriminate themselves by having surveillance cameras focused on their patrons. And the link avoids making any such argument/analysis, because it just can’t be made here.

I can understand the objections to this from a business point of view, mostly to do with the expense.  But I can also understand the public safety issues. So would it be “Orwellian” to post a police officer at every such business, and charge these businesses a fee for the officer as a requirement for doing business? It might be an even more effective means of dissuading crimes.

Then again, it probably wouldn’t.
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Now Explain To YouTube Viewers…

...who Walter Conkite was.

As for the question raised in the NPR tweet: no. Libel suits will be as useless as an umbrella in a hurricane. Unless you can sue YouTube (no, you can’t), it’ll be an international game of whack-a-mole. Lawsuits are slow, tedious affairs. Lies pop up like mushrooms 🍄 and spread like kudzu. By the time one suit has reached the verdict stage (and you’re suing individuals, not corporations. Good luck ever collecting your damages. That can be practically a lawsuit in itself.), thousands more will beg to be started.

A lie is halfway around the world by the time truth is getting its boots on. And so on and so on. That’s why I say libel suits are for the British upper class twits who think their standing in society depends on their unblemished reputations. They sue to prove themselves pure, and being rich snobs on a small island with centuries of tradition behind their status, might actually win redemption.

In America?  Nobody even knows you went to court, or will remember the verdict ten minutes later if they do know. Law4Truth is not going to be the law west of the Pecos.  It's going to be mostly useless and ignored.

Case in point:  Alex Jones and the Sandy Hook families.  They won a judgment, mostly by default (not to say they wouldn't have won on the merits, but Jones saved them (and himself) the expense of the trial). They had to get a court order to get Jones to sit for a deposition so they could seek property to seize for the judgment.  He responded by filing for bankruptcy, presumably individually but I only heard he'd filed for three businesses he owns (reporting on legal matters is usually worse than useless).  The families allege he moved an ungodly sum of money off his books before that judgment was entered.  If it was recent enough, the bankruptcy court could claw that back to pay Jones debtors (they now "own" his property, not him; except for broad exceptions under Texas law).  But the families are an unsecured creditor; they move to the back of the line, and may find their claims discharged by the court.

And Alex Jones is still spreading lies.  Maybe that's because he's well to the east of the Pecos.  Sheriffs really don't have a very wide-ranging jurisdiction, ya know....
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"Takes One To Know One!"

Somehow and for some reason all these old schoolyard taunts keep coming back to me. Amazing what the memory retains over the decades.

“I think I’m a very honest man … much more honest than you, actually,” Trump said at one point. 

“Really?” Morgan asked. 

“Yeah,” Trump responded. 

....

“With respect, you haven’t produced the hard evidence,” Morgan said of Trump’s claims as the former president attempted to interject.

“I don’t think you’re real,” the former president said to Morgan, later turning to the production crew and calling his interviewer “very dishonest.” 

That's probably my favorite line:  "I don't think you're real."  What does he think, that Morgan is animatronic?  A cartoon character?  A figment of Trump's imagination?  It's probably the most honest thing he's said in years, because it's a complete refusal to cope with reality by, well, denying reality.  The "very dishonest" crack is on firmer, if dumber, footing.  The expostulation?  That's raw Trump.  Scary, huh?

Describing the experience in a Thursday column for The Post, Morgan revealed he also told the former president that he blamed Trump’s refusal to admit defeat for the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. 

“Then you’re a fool! And you haven’t studied,” Trump responded, according to Morgan. 

Again, very revealing, from the guy who couldn't be bothered to read a briefing report unless it was less than a page long and included pictures.  He also remained narcisstic to the end:

Morgan recounted that Trump called him a fool six more times in the interview, described Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as “stupid” and his own vice president, Mike Pence, as “foolish and weak.” 

The host added that Trump initially tried to end the interview by declaring “That’s it!” but remained in his seat to discuss a recent hole-in-one he scored while playing golf. After that discussion, the former president stood up with a “hateful” look and ordered the crew members to turn the cameras off. 

Because, of course he did.  All I can do is recall an entire book written about how Trump cheats at golf.

My father played golf most of his life. He scored a hole in one four times. He never bragged about it, or even talked about it, not even to his family. My mother commemorated them all in cross-stitch, which hung in a room of the house until they moved out. But he never brought them up. He also wasn't a liar. Yeah, probably. Doesn’t change my analysis. They may be faking their outrage, but it’s not like somebody else wrote them a script.
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Deterrence

We really need to prosecute these people so we deter this kind of behavior.
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“Outside Agee-tators! States rights!”

Sixties redux. What Randy Fine said, I mean.

I swear this is where I came in to this movie. (And yes, that is a dated reference. Ask yer Grandpa!)
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Imagining Steven Hotze As The Baby Screaming "Help Me!"

Steve Hotze is the guy behind this insanity from several years back.


That was the year the entire Democratic slate of district judges (highest level of trial court in Texas) for the county was elected:  all black women.  I'm still surprized Hotze didn't plotz over that one.

He's also the guy who sued the city for shutting down the Texas GOP convention in the city-owned convention center.  He went to the Texas Supreme Court on that one.  He lost every step of the way.

This new story goes back to December over a year ago (I have archives, I'm not afraid to use them).  Here's the version from the Tribune article:

The charges stem from Hotze’s hiring of more than a dozen private investigators to look for voter fraud in Harris County ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

One of the investigators, former Houston police captain Mark Aguirre, was arrested in December 2020 and charged with aggravated assault. Prosecutors said Aguirre used his vehicle to run an air conditioning repairman off the road before dawn on Oct. 19, 2020.

Aguirre then detained the repairman at gunpoint and ordered an associate to search his truck, according to court filings. When a Houston police officer happened upon the scene and stopped to investigate, Aguirre said the truck contained 750,000 fraudulent mail ballots prepared by Democrats.

The truck contained only air conditioning parts and equipment. Hotze’s investigators have not produced any credible evidence to support allegations that Democrats orchestrated a wide-ranging mail ballot scheme in Harris County during that election.

Yes, "ahead of the 2020 presidential election."  Any voting by Democrats is inherently fraudulent, you know. And: "Hotze’s investigators have not produced any credible evidence to support allegations that Democrats orchestrated a wide-ranging mail ballot scheme in Harris County during that election" just proves how good the Democrats are at pulling off their fraud.  Why they aren't this effective in the rest of the state remains a mystery.

So, Aquirre's actions were insane on a very large level; like the guy who invaded Comet Pizza to find not only no kids, but no basement.  The connection to Hotze is the interesting part, and so far, he doesn't present a very good defense on the facts:

Polland said the charges against Hotze are “outrageous” and his client had no knowledge of the roadside incident until he read media reports of Aguirre’s arrest. He said Aguirre asked Hotze for funds to investigate alleged election fraud, Hotze agreed, and that was the extent of his involvement in Aguirre’s affairs.

“All I know is Hotze didn’t aid or abet this in any way,” Polland said. “The donation of funds was for a righteous activity of rooting out ballot fraud.”

Grand jury subpoenas in Aguirre’s case show that Hotze paid Aguirre $266,400. Most of that sum, $211,400, was paid to Aguirre on the day after the alleged holdup. (emphasis in original)

I don't know about you, but I'd like to get paid over $250,000 for just following random trucks around.  I'd skip the actual ramming one to pull it over and threatening the driver at gunpoint to open the back doors.  If Hotze is so free with his money as to hand it over to random people even after he knows they've been arrested for criminal assault charges, maybe he needs my e-mail address or something.  Sounds like I just need to talk nuts to him.

If that's the story.  Somehow I don't think the grand jury thought it was.  Which is not to say Hotze is guilty of the charges.  But he ain't a babe in the woods either, or a kindly old man handing out large sums to strangers because he's so charitable.  The grand jury seems to think dropping 200 large on Aguirre the day after the incident (and two months before the arrest) indicates some knowledge and approval of Aguirre’s actions. And Hotze is quite sure Democrats are only winning in Texas because of fraud (how the Republicans overcome that fraud in so much of the state is not explained).

Hotze, however, plans to continue monitoring election activity in Houston. At a “Freedom Gala” fundraiser Hotze hosted on April 2 with Attorney General Ken Paxton, Hotze said donations would be used to investigate voter fraud in Texas.

Also attending the event was Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who has promoted the baseless theory that former President Donald Trump was the rightful winter [sic] [but metaphorically sound] of the 2020 presidential election.

Polland said Hotze does not plan to alter his plans because of the indictments.

The rest of us hope the indictment will alter his plans for him.
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