Monday, November 30, 2020

Bloomberg Gets To The Point

To Rick’s point: naah.  He’ll pass and be forgotten with the rest. Trump won’t even be Millard Fillmore. He’s even going to push Benjamin Harrison out of obscurity so Trump can sink into the lowest oblivion.
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"The Votes We Don't Like Shouldn't Count!"

How much plainer can they be about it? Or can he be, for that matter?
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The First Amendment Demands....!

That news outlets be as ignorant and stupid and conspiratorial as any one member of their audience!  The "real" truth will make you free!
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Jenna Ellis

Nope, not a "hearing."

The meeting at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix is not a hearing of the Legislature as Finchem and Trump campaign's legal team has cast it. 

The state Legislature is not in session. The speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate president can call for committee meetings in between sessions but have not authorized the event.

Finchem said he requested approval a few weeks ago for a meeting of the House Federal Relations Committee, which he chairs, but has not received authorization from House leadership.


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The Legacy Of “The Atlantic”

This is literally legally impossible. Even if they wanted to, the legislatures couldn’t do this. It’s a null set. But thanks to an Atlantic article as groundless as Trump’s conspiracy theories the seed of nonsense was sown and we continue to reap the harvest.

Being so afraid of the future is what drives Trump. We should better understand he is what NOT to do.
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First Day of Advent--Dorothy Day


A brother said to an old man:  There are two brothers.  One of them stays in his cell quietly, fasting for six days at a time, and imposing on himself a good deal of discipline, and the other serves the sick.  Which one of them is more acceptable to God?  The old man replied:  Even if the brother who fasts six days were to hang himself by the nose, he could not equal the one who serves the sick.

--Desert Wisdom

"After 1976 Dorothy [Day] virtually withdrew from the affairs of the world of the Worker movement.  Her lot, as she knew, was to await death.  Content to spend as much time as she could in the company of her daughter and grandchildren, she remained in her room at Maryhouse, coming downstairs only for the even Mass that was said at the house.  In her room, which overlooked Third Street, she could look out onto the dismal prospect of a narrow street, shadowed by five-story buildings, shoulder to shoulder, whose unkempt and desolate appearance suggested that they, like the people who passed before them, felt that their existence mattered not at all.  In front of these buildings, parked cars at the curbs were jammed against one another.  One structure, ugly with shattered windows and an aspect of grotesque garishness, was fronted by motorcycles--powerful brutish machines with signs and symbols that proclaimed their  owners' defiance of civilized norms.  The building was the home of the Hell's Angels, a motorcycle gang about whose doings fearful stories were told.

"It was in this part of New York that Dorothy had spent a half-century of her own life, where just blocks away she had lived in 1917 as the acting editor of the Masses and where in that cold winterof 1918 she had whiled away the nights with Eugene O'Neill and the young radicals and artists of the Village.  A few blocks to the west and south was New York's Lower East Side, the home of the Jews.  She had never left them.  Mott Street was two blocks away, the street of the Italians.  She remembered sitting on the front steps of the Mott Street house, watching them celebrate the feast of San Gennaro.  Perhaps she remembered that night soon after the war had begun, the cool clear air and the half-moon shining brightly over Mott Street.

"Dorothy died on November 29, 1980, just as night began to soften the harshness of the poverty and ugliness of Third Street.  Her daughter, Tamar, was in the room with her.  There was no struggle.  The last of the energy that sustained her life had been used.

"The funeral was on December 2 at the Nativity Catholic Church, a half block away from Maryhouse.  An hour before the service, scheduled for 11 o'clock in the morning, people began to assemble in the street.  Some were curious onlookers, the hollow-eyed people and stumbling people who roam the streets of lower New York, but others were drawn there by some sense of propriety of paying their last respects to the woman who had clothed and fed them.  There were American Indians, Mexican workers, blacks and Puerto Ricans.  There were people in eccentric dress, apostles of causes who had fealt a great power and truth in Dorothy's life.

"At the appointed time, a procession of these friends and fellow workers came down the sidewalk.  AT the head of it Dorothy's grandchildren carried the pine box that held her body.  Tamar, Forster, and her brother John followed.  At the church door, Cardinal Terence Cooke met the body to bless it.  As the procession stopped for this rite, a demented person pushed his way through the crowd and bending low over the coffin peered at it intently.  No one interfered, because, as even the funeral directors understood, it was in such as this man that Dorothy had seen the face of God."

--William D. Miller

"ALICE Paul, the suffragist leader, had gold pins made, depicting prison bars, to give to those who went to jail with her in the second decade of this century. Dorothy Day was given one of those pins; but I would bet she did not have it when she died this week. She was not good at owning things. She was good at giving things away, including her-self. It is the only way, finally, to own oneself.

"In her own and this century's teens she was an ardent defender of other people's rights. She continued to speak up for the unprotected when no one else would do that. During World War II, her protests at the internment without due process of Japanese-Americans caused j. Edgar Hoover to open his extensive file on her. Without her, how much bleaker would be our record. She fed the poor, which may not be the Christian's final task, but should normally be the first one.

"She was the long-distance runner of protest in our time, because her agitation was built on serenity, her activism on contemplation, her earthly indignation on unearthly trust. This or that cause, with its noisy followers, came and went, but she was always there. "Rest in peace," one prays over the dead; but she reposed in restlessness, so long as there was no peace-and her moral discontent should be continued. Let her rest in our disquietude.

"Dorothy Day showed us . . . that people who stand with and for others cannot act from a calculus of individual advantage. They must act as they do from a higher urgency, a love beyond what most of us think of as loving. So far from distracting them from earth's injustice, as Marx claimed religion did, Dorothy Day's faith made effective radicalism not only possible, for many people, but imperative. We may not even be able to possess the earth unless we aspire to heaven-like our sister, who is dead and lives. "

--Gary Wills

In each of our lives Jesus comes as the bread of life--to be eaten, to be consumed by us.  This is how he loves us.  Then Jesus comes in our human life as the hungry one, the other, hoping to be fed with the bread of our life, our hearts loving, and our hands serving.  In loving and serving, we prove that we have been created in the likeness of God, for God is love and when we love we are like God.  This is what Jesus meant when he said, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta

This morning to ward off the noise I have my radio on---Berlioz, Schubert, Chopin, etc.  It is not a distraction, it is a pacifier.  As St. Teresa of Avila said as she grabbed her castanets and started to dance during the hour of recreation in her unheated convent, "One must do something to make life bearable!"

...

I feel that all families should have the conveniences and comforts which modern living brings and which do simplify life, and give time to read, to study, to think, and to pray.  And to work in the apostolate, too.  But poverty is my vocation, to live as simply and poorly as I can, and never to cease talking and writing of poverty and destitution.  Here and everywhere.  "While there are poor, I am of them.  While men are in prison, I am not free," as Debs said and as we often quote.

--Dorothy Day
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The Boats! The Boats! šŸš£‍♀️

No one with so much boat support could possibly lose!
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Why I Don't Bother Anymore

I've seen some ads for "Prager U." This stuff is so stupid it's not worth arguing with. You can't fix stupid.
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Back To The Links

It really is.
And like OJ, he'll spend that 125% of his energy after he's come in from the golf course.
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Reading Critically

And the answer is: "No."

Queeg is a fictional character whose every action is determined by Herman Wouk and screenwriters.  Trump assembled a decent cabinet, and then proceeded to ignore every one of them because he's a "very stable genius" and knows more than all his generals and "gets science" because he had an uncle on faculty at MIT.

My father was an accountant; I'm an English major.  Whatever skills he had in numbers didn't pass to me.

The "establishment" tried to work with Trump.  He wasn't Queeg.  He wasn't a hapless man in over his head but the product of a Naval system of discipline that could have been appealed to by his fictional (and non-Navy careerist) officers.  The comparison doesn't work, on any level.  Well, except the tear-the-ship-apart-to-find-the-strawberries part.
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Give Him a Cookie...

...and put him to bed.
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“And now I’m an orphan! Have pity!”

"Plausibly” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in Crenshaw’s tweet.
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A Better Question

After 4 years in office, why doesn't he understand the relationship of the Presidency to the judicial branch better?
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8th Time's The Charm?

Clearly the Republic is done for!
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Sunday, November 29, 2020

Profiles In Butter šŸ§ˆ

The GOP, I mean. Especially since the GOP only suffered one significant loss in November.
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Well, It’s Reasonable

Which means, of course, the argument doesn’t stand a chance.
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Things Are Going Well In Georgia

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This Is The End, My Beautiful Friend, The End

 Giuliani did not appeal the dismissal of the PA suit on substantive grounds. He appealed the denial of his motion to amend the Complaint a third time. He wanted to reinstate the conspiracy theories of the original. Problem was, he couldn’t provide any facts or reasons why the Court should allow that.

This is what the 3rd Circuit ruled on. That court declined to order the trial court to allow a third amended complaint. The appeal to the Supreme Court can only be on that issue: allowing the Complaint to be amended a third time. Granting that appeal would not decertify the PA vote. It would only micromanage the trial court purely on the authority of being the Supreme Court. A very bad ruling, IOW, which would weaken SCOTUS and do nothing for Trump.

In other words, nothing in Trump’s tweet resembles reality. Giuliani presented no evidence in court, and he can’t present any on appeal that isn’t already in the record. If Trump is getting legal advice he’s being lied to. Then again, he’s lying to himself and to us.

He’s finished, and he knows it. Why else would he fly off to Camp David before he can’t anymore?

BTW:
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Trump Wants Credit For The Water

...when and if it finally arrives. But he doesn’t want blame for the wildfire burning out of control for almost a year now.
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It’s Like This, Cat

Legal literacy matters. And this story is legally illiterate from the outset. It continues the journalistic (mal)practice of cleaning up what Trump actually says/does.

The story claims Trump appealed to block certification of PA’s vote. That would be the reasonable thing to do, but it’s not what Trump’s lawyers did. The opening paragraphs of the opinion make clear what was appealed: only the ability to file a third amended complaint. I know that’s a bit inside baseball, but that’s what they did. They should have asked to block certification of the vote. They didn’t.

Really, trying to make Trump make sense does a disservice to truth and to the American people.
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First Sunday In Advent 2020

 

I wrote this nine years ago, so some of the topical references may be dated, some of the links broken and abandoned.  Oddly, it sill seems to me to connect to the present situation; perhaps more so than in 2011.

Isaiah 64:1-9 64:1 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence-- 64:2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-- to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! 64:3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 64:4 From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. 64:5 You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 64:7 There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. 64:8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 64:9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people. 

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 80:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 80:2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us! 80:3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved. 80:4 O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? 80:5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. 80:6 You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves. 80:7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. 80:17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. 80:18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name. 80:19 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1:4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 1:5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- 1:6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- 1:7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1:8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1:9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Mark 13:24-37 13:24 "But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 13:25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 13:26 Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. 13:27 Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. 13:28 "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 13:29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 13:30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 13:32 "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 13:33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 13:34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 13:35 Therefore, keep awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 13:36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 13:37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake." 

"Advent" means "arrival," and every year the arrival of the new church year begins with the end of all things. Which is also about as close as the church allows itself to get anymore to talk about God's judgment. It's a curious way to begin things, to say the least. Speaking of curious, take a moment to consider these words of Isaiah:
But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Not the "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" description of sin we are used to. This is not a God who pushed the sinners away because they were unclean; they became unclean, says Isaiah, because God pushed them away. It's a curious thing about the descriptions of God in the Hebrew Scriptures: it's almost always a description of a relationship, rather than of a judgmental almost-unmoved Mover who responds only to failure. God's anger, says Isaiah, caused Israel to sin; God's absence caused Israel to do wrong. Why don't we think of God that way? Where did we get this Christian idea that God only exists to judge us, and we are only saved from judgment because of Jesus? And our only relationship to God is to stand before God in judgment, a judgment which is hidden from us until the end of time? It's an odd thing; we Christians insist God is "Father," but we then treat God like an absent, quasi-abusive, almost adoptive, father. We ask for things from God. What we don't look for is a relationship with God; except as God is going to make us happier and happier. Which means: what? Well, consider the psalm, too:
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us! Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved. O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
This is a plea. But it's not a plea for a new job, or a good bargain on Black Friday, or even better weather or a mended economy. It's a plea for relationship. It's a plea for God to come and join us and restore us and return to us. God's return would mend Israel. God's return would restore Israel. God's relationship with Israel is what matters most to Israel. 

We are not Israel. What would God's return mean to us? What would God's advent mean to us? "Advent" means "Arrival." It's the moment we all dread, when family shows up for Thanksgiving or for Christmas, and they threaten to stay longer than we can bear to put up with them. And then they arrive, and maybe it's not so bad after all; and then maybe it is, and when are they going to leave again? We don't expect family to make us happy. But we don't want them to make us miserable, either. We expect family to be related to us, and we expect to have a relationship with them, even if it's one we don't really want. The absence of family makes us sad; and perhaps even strange. It makes us lonely, and cut off. It makes us feel abandoned, even if we never knew a good family. Advent means arrival. It is the moment we are all waiting for, even if we are not waiting for it. What would it be like to have a relationship with God, instead of to simply expect things from God? Who would God be then?
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind--just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you--so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The adventus always seems to speak in apocalyptic tones: fire burning wood and mighty warriors coming to save the people. Always a final proof, a final redemption, an end to suffering and doubt. Paul instead speaks of grace and peace that come from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. "Our Father." Do grace and peace come from our Father? Do they come from God? Or do comfort and benefits and all the good things we value more and more and more in this American life? What would grace and peace be? Where would we sell them in the marketplace? Or are they not commodities, gifts given to us, but the results of a relationship, of knowing God as Father? In every way, says Paul, we are enriched in Christ Jesus: in speech and knowledge; and we are not lacking in any spiritual gift as we wait for the advent, the revealing of Christ as Lord. What do we do with these enrichments, with these gifts? Do we even recognize them? 

Did we realize they were ours, already here, already given, no need for a Black Friday sale or a last-minute shopping frenzy on Christmas Eve? Did we even realize we were called into fellowship, the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord? Do we know what that means? Advent always begins with apocalypse, but we misunderstand that, too. "Apocalypse" is the Greek word, but it doesn't mean "disastrous end to all things" and "dreadful final judgment from which there is no appeal." It just means "revelation." "Lord, when did we see you?" is the apocalypse of the sheep and the goats, the moment just before the revelation when they realize someone was there and they didn't recognize them. And who they didn’t recognize is God. Apocalypse is not when all things end in disaster; apocalypse is when you finally know the truth. But if the truth is that God has always been there, and you haven't been looking....? 

Chris Hayes said that if the American expectation that the next generation will do better than the prior generation comes to an end, it will mean a major revolution in our politics. What he meant was, it would create a crisis which would end in a completely unexpected outcome. The “good” headlines from Black Friday announce that retail sales set a new record. The “bad” other headlines are about assaults on shoppers by other shoppers, by thieves, and by store security. The story of the man who collapsed to the floor with a heart attack, while other shoppers stepped around or over him, intent on getting the bargains they came for, is practically legend now.

The fact is, in the past 40 years the expectation that this generation would live better than the last has proven to be false. Statistics make it clear the next generations cannot possible live as well as their parents and grandparents, despite the ubiquity of iPads and cell phones. The decline has begun, we are already living in it, our society and our politics are already reflecting the crisis. This is what that crisis looks like, but if we cannot recognize it, how can we even know that summer is near? How do we know it's summer at all without a calendar and someone to tell us? Do we even read the signs of the times, or do we just expect it all to be explained to us by someone at sometime and in the meantime we are busy with living, or blogging, or watching TV, or keeping up with our families? This is not a Christian nation, and this is not an argument for a Christian society.  Reinhold Niebuhr and Soren Kierkegaard marked "paid" to both those concepts some time ago. The call is not for the nation to return to Christ but rather, like the Desert Fathers, perhaps to consider the wisdom of a tactical retreat, of abandonment as salvation, or at least as fleeing the sinking ship for the few available lifeboats. It is a call to consider radical alternatives.

What life have we if we have not life together? But what life have we if we don't even understand what "living" means? What life have we without relationships, but we do even understand what relationships are? Do we have a relationship with God? Or do we just expect something from God? In a relationship, the absence of someone from it means we are missing something, perhaps something that will keep us whole. If we just expect something, absence just means we haven't gotten anything lately; and surely we deserve another gift! But if we have a relationship with God, if we truly want God around simply because God is God, then we are always waiting for God to show up again. And what would that waiting look like? What would that kind of living look like? And what would happen if we recognized, not that God was going to show up someday and really up end things, but that God was already here? How would that challenge things as we know them? And do we even want it to?
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No, You Don’t

I have that right. You just memorialize it.

Just as I have the “inalienable right” to liberty. No one ever died to give it to me , and I don’t have it because someone is supposedly willing to die for “freedom.” By definition, my right to freedom can’t be given to me, and it can’t be taken from me.

We are much closer to fascism than Donald Trump has ever driven us. And we got there long before he started telling people “You’re fired!”
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Tweets Are Not Legislative Acts

Saying it in a tweet doesn’t make it so. The legislature of PA is out of time, and has no interest in “helping” Trump. EOD.
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Saturday, November 28, 2020

And Yet...

Your hand-picked lawyer fired everybody on that suit, parachuted into the hearing, told the judge it was NOT a fraud case, and failed to turn aside the motion to dismiss. The motion said you had no evidence, and your lawyer produced none. The appeal was on the refusal to allow a third amended complaint, which has already been rejected by a panel of the 3rd Circuit. By time you get a motion for rehearing denied (necessary predicate to further appeal), it will be moot.

But all you want is to con the rubes paying you to scream on Twitter.
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I Like The New President More And More

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Well, If “Act” = “Tweet”

...or call a cell phone in a hotel conference room.

And fundraising. Can’t ignore how much fundraising he’s doing.

Trump’s idea of leadership is asking “What is somebody doing for ME!?” He’s never resolved to act. His only resolve is to expect others to act for his interests.
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How Will The Republic Survive?(Another Continuing Series)

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Overheard

"Respect mah authoritah!" "We don' need no steenken' badges!" The Supreme Court is poised to disapprove from the safety of their video conferences. The judges would have also accepted: "Grift.". Got to prove the government, top to bottom, is corrupt ("corrupt"="anti-Trump"). What We Are Up Against. Why They Don't Matter.
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Countdown To Florida

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Friday, November 27, 2020

How It’s Going

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Calvinball

Guilty until proven innocent! "I WIN!" Yeah, he's goin' to Florida. Sooner rather than later.
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So Say We All!

Never have understood that one.
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All I Want For Xmas

And is it small enough to fit under the tree?
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Maybe If He’d Call Mitch McConnell

Rather than tell Twitter, it would be slightly more effective. But Mitch is tied up with replacing judges. And I doubt he’s taking Trump’s calls.

You know Pelosi won’t talk to him.
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Chronicle Of A Loss Foretold

I’m guessing that’s a Xmas tree Melanie hasn’t painted red yet.
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What Were We Thinking?

OJ ruined his legacy. Guiliani is making us wonder why we ever honored him. A super dangerous concept that will never get to court. Or a legislature, since that wasn’t a hearing. Nor can you take the election away from the people without consequence. (Although which is more dangerous: that the state government gave power to voters, or that voters gave power to the state government?)
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Good Question

I’ve seen more and more the “kneel for the cross/ STAND for the flag” meme. I think some people just don’t like being reminded of their racism. Because honestly, why give a shit otherwise?
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But remember, this is all part of the scheme to own the libs, because the media is distracted:

But remember this is all a plot to own the libs: Because the Biden camp is secretly terrified:
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Thursday, November 26, 2020

Clown Chatter

Because it's all about you? Do us all a favor: leave early. And a very narrow definition of “the people.” 

I still say he bails by Xmas. It’s all over on December 14th for him.
Book it. He's vapors. What, you think he thinks he’s being coy?
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More Catholic Than The Pope

And in a case that’s moot, to boot.

(And to underline the absurdity of the quote, I used to take communion to people who couldn’t attend worship because of medical issues. Churches have learned to roll with it. I would argue against the church (if not the synagogue) that Christ tells us to be last of all and servant of all. How is demanding privileges in a public health emergency being a servant of all?)
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The State Bar of Texas Won’t Do Jack-Shit

This is not entirely wrong. Unless Powell is guilty of misusing client funds (i.e., dipping into the escrow money), I doubt the Texas Bar will do shit. Scamming people on the internet is not yet a violation of the DR’s, I don’t think. It could be, but I don’t see them making the effort to make that case.
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Barking At The Moon

And a day late and a dollar short. It’s perfectly appalling how much of his information comes from Twitter. As good an explanation as any.
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The Internet Is A Con Man’s Delight

There really is one born every minute.
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Because All That Matters

...is what's on TeeVee.
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Ignoring The Science

...in favor of cheap shots and no desire to note distinctions between time spent in a shop (even in grocery stores one can "socially distance") and worship, where one cannot (how do you sing hymns and recite prayers with masks on?). This isn't legal argument, it is petulance. Trial court judges would be slapped down for such comments. Supreme Court Justices walk the earth, well....supreme. Which makes it better? Or just "okay"?
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Did Somebody Finally Tell Him?

So what's he gonna do about it? Beats spending time with family, I guess. The end can't come soon enough.
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Thanksgiving 2020


Deuteronomy 26:1-11
26:1 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it,

26:2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.

26:3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us."

26:4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God,

26:5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.

26:6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,

26:7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

26:8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders;

26:9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

26:10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God.

26:11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.

Psalm 100
100:1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.

100:2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing.

100:3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.

100:5 For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

"We're all forgiven at Thanksgiving, and everybody's welcome at the feast."--Garrison Keillor

PRAISE AND HARVEST

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, from whom cometh every good and pefect gift, we call to remembrance thy loving-kindness and the tender mercies which have been ever of old, and with grateful hearts we would lift up to thee the voice of our thanksgiving,

For all the gifts which thou hast bestowed upon us; for the life thou hast given us, and the world in which we live,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the work we are enabled to do, and the truth we are permitted to learn; for whatever of good there has been in our past lives, and for all the hopes and aspirations which lead us on toward better things,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the order and constancy of nature; for the beauty and bounty of the world; for day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; for the varied gifts of loveliness and use which every season brings,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the comforts and gladness of life; for our homes and all our home-blessings; for our friends and all pure pleasure; for the love, sympathy, and good will of men,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the blessings of civilization, wise government and legislation; for education, and all the privileges we enjoy through literature, science, and art; for the help and counsel of those who are wiser and better than ourselves,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all true knowledge of thee and the world in which we live, and the life of truth and righteousness and divine communion to which thou hast called us; for prophets and apostles, and all earnest seekers after truth; for all lovers and helpers of mankind, and all godly and gifted men and women,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the gift of thy Son Jesus Christ, and all the helps and hopes which are ours as his disciples; for the presence and inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, for all the ministries of thy truth and grace,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For communion with thee, the Father of our spirits; for the light and peace that are gained through trust and obedience, and the darkness and disquietude which befall us when we disobey thy laws and follow our lower desires and selfish passions,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the desire and power to help others; for every opportunity of serving our generation according to thy will, and manifesting the grace of Christ to men,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the discipline of life; for the tasks and trials by which we are trained to patience, self-knowledge and self-conquest, and brought into closer sympathy with our suffering brethren; for troubles which have lifted us nearer to thee and drawn us into deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the sacred and tender ties which bind us to the unseen world; for the faith which dispels the shadows of earth, and fills the saddest and the last moments of life with the light of an immortal hope.
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

God of all grace and love, we have praised thee with our lips; grant that we may praise thee also in consecrated and faithful lives. And may the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.
AMEN.


THANKSGIVING

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, we call to remembrance they loving-kindness and they tender mercies which have ever been od old, and with grateful hearts we would lift up to the the voice of our thanksgiving.

For all the gifts which thou has bestowed upon us; for the life that thou hast given us, and the world in which we life,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the work we are enabled to do, and the truth we are permitted to learn; for whatever of good there has been in our past lives, and for all the hopes and aspirations which lead us on to better things,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the order and constancy of nature; for the beauty and bounty of the world; for day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest; for the varied gifts of loveliness and use which every season brings,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the comforts and gladness of life; for our homes and all our home-blessings; for our friends and all pure pleasure; for the love, sympathy, and good will of men,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the blessings of civilization, wise government and legislation; for education, and all the privileges we enjoy through literature, science, and art; for the help and counsel oj those who are wiser and better than ourselves,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all true knowledge of thee and the world in which we live, and the life of truth and righteousness and divine communion to which thou hast called us; for prophets and apostles, and all earnest seekers after truth; for all lovers and helpers of mankind, and all godly and gifted men and women,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the gift of thy Son Jesus Christ, and all the helps and hopes which are ours as his disciples; for the presence and inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, for all the ministries of thy truth and grace,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For communion with thee, the Father of our spirits; for the light and peace that are gained through trust and obedience, and the darkness and disquietude which befall us when we disobey thy laws and follow our lower desires and selfish passions,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the desire and power to help others; for every opportunity of serving our generation according to thy will, and manifesting the face of Christ to men,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For all the discipline of life; for the tasks and trials by which we are ained to patience, self-knowledge and self-conquest, and brought into closer sympathy with our suffering brethren; for troubles which have lifted us nearer to thee and drawn us into deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

For the sacred and tender ties which bind us to the unseen world; for the faith which dispels the shadows of earth, and fills the saddest and the last moments of life with the light of an immortal hope,
WE PRAISE THEE, O GOD.

God all all grace and love, we have praised thee with our lips; grant that we may praise thee with also in consecrated and faithful lives. And may the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.

AMEN.
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The Constitution Is Not A Suicide Pact

It is now.
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A (Possible) Continuing Series

I could do a series, I think, on the theme of  “what the client expects v. courtroom reality.” Here we have a “client “ disappointed they couldn’t buy evidence. Which may actually be an unenforceable (bordering on illegal action) contract.

But clients never break the law; only other people do.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2020

None Dare Call It...

There is absolutely no mechanism for doing this, short of coup/revolution. To say it is unAmerican and unconstitutional is to call it treason. Which is exactly what it is. Any lawyer attempting to engage it needs to be disbarred. Period.
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Pardons Do Not Protect The President

They only mean the pardoned cannot plead the 5th.

Nor is Trump going to pardon his way out of the Mueller investigation, a la Poppy Bush. Bush’s pardons shut down a prosecution that could have implicated him. But he was not directly involved enough without the cases he stopped proceeding to judgment, and he might never have been prosecuted anyway. The investigation was ongoing when he shut it down.

Mueller explicitly stated Trump could not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice while he was POTUS, but Mueller had evidence to prosecute. The investigation is finished, only a prosecution remains. Trump can still be prosecuted and Flynn and Manafort and even Stone can still be compelled to testify, or face prosecution all over again. Convictions and pardons have no effect here. Like Bush v Gore, the example of Poppy Bush has no application here.
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Completely Lost The Script

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