Mme. Defarge
Mme. Defarge's JournalThe Court Kills by Garry Wills
Why do we slaughter our own children? Because the Supreme Court condones it.
April 4, 2023, New York Review of Books
We are the disgrace of nations because we can’t stop killing our children—along, of course, with their teachers, relatives, and innocent bystanders. We don’t even seem to want to stop doing it, not effectively, at any rate. We say we should, but we don’t. We just can’t. We are worse than the drunk who says he should stop drinking but doesn’t. At least drinking is (or was) pleasant in its early stages. But how can killing be pleasant at first?
Our children can’t fight back as they watch their classmates and teachers being mowed down. Why do we let it go on, case after case? Are we just more evil than all the other countries that do not have our murder rate—not only in schools but in churches, synagogues, and mosques? Are we just killers by breeding or tradition?
Some say we kill innocent people in large numbers because we have so many guns. Well, we do have them, more than any other country. But guns do not force themselves into our hands and fire themselves. We have to use them for them to work. Why do we want to keep doing that?
There is one thing that sets us apart. No other nation has a Supreme Court that claims its Founding Fathers wanted to make it possible for any individual to get military-grade weapons and kill like a combat soldier, spewing bullets from high-capacity magazines at split-second rapidity, racking up the tiny corpses before the police can possibly arrive.
…..
Why do we slaughter our own children? Because, through a supposed “Second Amendment,” the Court condones it. And it is allowed to do so because, unlike the executive and legislative, it is our unaccountable branch. It does not have to report how it is wined and dined at spas or hotels, or require any justice to recuse himself or herself if wooed by a commercial lobby like the gun industry, an ideological lobby like the National Rifle Association, a legal lobby like the Federalist Society, or a moneybags lobby like that of Ginni Thomas. Guns keep killing us because the Court, and the Court alone, has made them sacred.
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/04/04/the-court-kills/
Good old Joe Lieberman! Talk me down...
No Labels group raises alarms with third-party presidential preparations
It has money, name-brand political backers and declines to describe either President Biden or Donald Trump as acceptable candidates
By Michael Scherer
Updated April 2, 2023 at 4:51 p.m. EDT|Published April 2, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Former senator Joe Lieberman knows better than most the impact third-party bids can have on presidential elections. His 2000 Democratic campaign for vice president fell just 537 Florida votes short of victory, in a state where Ralph Nader, the liberal activist and Green Party nominee, won more than 97,000 votes.
But that didn’t stop the Connecticut Democrat turned independent from joining a meeting Thursday in support of plans by the centrist group No Labels to get presidential ballot lines in all 50 states for 2024. The group calls its effort an “insurance policy” against the major parties nominating two “unacceptable” candidates next year.
Asked if President Biden, his former Senate colleague, would be unacceptable, Lieberman said the answer was uncertain.
“No decision has been made on any of that. But we’re putting ourselves in a position,” Lieberman said. “You know, it might be that we will take our common-sense, moderate, independent platform to him and the Republican candidate and see which one of them is willing to commit to it. And that could lead to, in my opinion, a No Labels endorsement.”
Uncertainty over the $70 million No Labels ballot effort has set off major alarm bells in Democratic circles and raised concerns among Republican strategists, who have launched their own research projects to figure out the potential impacts. As Lieberman spoke, the Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to block No Labels from ballot access in that state on procedural grounds. Matt Bennett of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way has argued that the plot is “going to reelect Trump,” and Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has accused No Labels of wanting “to play the role of spoiler.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/02/no-labels-third-party-election/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjEwNjYzNDExIiwicmVhc29uIjoiZ2lmdCIsIm5iZiI6MTY4MDQ5NDQwMCwiaXNzIjoic3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ucyIsImV4cCI6MTY4MTc5MDM5OSwiaWF0IjoxNjgwNDk0NDAwLCJqdGkiOiJmYmU4Yzc4NS05OTE2LTRiNmMtYWEzYi1hZjcxOWQ0OWJkMGIiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vcG9saXRpY3MvMjAyMy8wNC8wMi9uby1sYWJlbHMtdGhpcmQtcGFydHktZWxlY3Rpb24vIn0.fsgGFAz_I3iF11plqykqSMkRNwh3B7sDbjS37Fil168
Republican outrage over indictment for campaign finance fraud...
So, they all think it should be okay? 
Just asking…
This is not the end,
this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.
Winston S. Churchill
Pow! Right in the kisser!!!
After all of the gloom and doom over the speculation that Bragg might be dropping the case…
Portland may be making a comeback!
Preventing catastrophe and crafting cat calendars. That's the Portland Army Corps of Engineers.
by: Amanda Arden
Posted: Jan 13, 2023 / 08:00 AM PST
Updated: Jan 13, 2023 / 11:44 AM PST
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Engineering — it’s not something that draws massive engagement on social media. But cats? Cats will get clicks.
Chris Gaylord, a public affairs specialist with the Portland District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers learned this back in 2021 when he was managing the government agency’s Facebook page.
He and his coworkers photoshopped images of cats onto Oregon infrastructure and engineering equipment for National Cat Day and it was a huge success.
So, in the fall of 2022, Gaylord thought, why not make a calendar out of those images?
“It was to spotlight our projects, spotlight our infrastructure, give people kind of an introduction to some of the different things that our organization does, some of the ways that we add value to the Pacific Northwest, but in a fun way,” he explained.
The free calendar was published in November 2022 and anyone can download it from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ digital library.
https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/army-corps-of-engineers-in-portland-makes-infrastructure-cool-with-cats/?utm_source=koin_app&utm_medium=social&utm_content=share-link
This helped calm my nerves on the GOP's debt ceiling threat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/10/house-republicans-rules-package-biden/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjEwNjYzNDExIiwicmVhc29uIjoiZ2lmdCIsIm5iZiI6MTY3MzM3MDE1NywiaXNzIjoic3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ucyIsImV4cCI6MTY3NDU3OTc1NywiaWF0IjoxNjczMzcwMTU3LCJqdGkiOiIxOTY4MmMwMy04ZmM2LTRhZTgtODlmOS00ZmY1OTJkMDJmNGEiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vb3BpbmlvbnMvMjAyMy8wMS8xMC9ob3VzZS1yZXB1YmxpY2Fucy1ydWxlcy1wYWNrYWdlLWJpZGVuLyJ9.AfGvvoQBRFh8h1Z0QIoxSO8v0_VuoIRSxDsI6d2zzZM
The rules package that House Republicans passed Monday night provides an indication of just how much damage House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has wrought in capitulating to the most extreme members of his caucus. The good news is that the Biden administration can thwart McCarthy’s schemes.
For starters, the House GOP is spoiling for a fight on the debt limit. The rules package eliminates a long-existing parliamentary rule that automatically raised the debt ceiling whenever the House passed a budget. This will empower the House to hold the economy hostage to extract dangerous cuts to national security and crippling reductions in entitlements.
But the White House can defuse the extortionists’ bomb before it is detonated. It should plainly state that the president has the power to ensure Congress does not sabotage the full faith and credit of the United States.
Section 8 of Article I of the Constitution states that Congress has the power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts.” It further states that Congress has the power to borrow “on the credit” of the United States. Plainly, the Founding Fathers did not envision lawmakers deliberately refusing payment of debts and destroying the credit of the United States.
But the 14th Amendment makes clear that this power does not include the power to trigger a default. As constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe succinctly tweeted, “The debt ceiling is a misnomer: it does nothing to cap spending but just creates an illusory threat to stiff our creditors.” That’s because “[Section] 4 of 14th Amendment forbids defaulting on the nation’s debts.”
iPhone question
Awhile back I changed my Apple ID to my new email address and changed my password at the same time. Then something happened and my ID reverted back to my old, discontinued email. Since my password is hidden I’m not sure if it’s the old or new one, and I’m not even sure if I remember my old one. At first I wondered if my phone had been hacked but so much time has gone by without incident that I’m thinking my attempt to change my ID was simply unsuccessful.
Now, however, I really do want to make those changes but am afraid to try for fear of getting locked out of my phone since I can no longer access email sent to that old address.
Suggestions welcome!
REPUBLICANS IN DISARRAY!!! n/t
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