September 13, 2017

The kindness of strangers.

This was posted on Facebook by a friend of mine. She lives on Sanibel Island and was forced to evacuate (with her husband, dogs, and parakeet) to Pensacola:

Talk about the kindness of strangers. David and I were having dinner tonight at Pot Roast and Pinot in Pensacola tonight and mentioned to the server we were evacuated from the hurricane. Apparently, the young couple the next table overheard our tale of the difficult drive up, worry of our home and Sanibel, prep to brace the traffic back. When we went to pay the tab, which was not light, to our surprise, (you know what's coming), the couple who had already left had paid the bill! We are amazed and heartened to have such kindness.

September 9, 2017

Researchers Identify Gene for Awfulness (Borowitz)

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/researchers-identify-gene-for-awfulness

LEEDS (The Borowitz Report)—In a finding that has wide-ranging implications for society, British researchers at the University of Leeds announced on Saturday that they have identified the gene for awfulness. The study, which focussed on one adult male and three of his adult children, makes a persuasive argument that there is a “powerful dominant gene” that makes people heinous.

Additionally, certain subtraits of awfulness, such as an inability to tell the truth, appear to be genetically mediated, Dorrinson said. “If the father is unable to explain honestly why a meeting took place, for example, the son who carries the same gene will also tell crazy lies about that meeting,” he said.

Hopes that the gene for horribleness might eventually become diluted as its carriers mate with the general population were dashed when the scientists studied the mating history of the adult daughter in the sample group. “Unfortunately, those who carry the gene for awfulness are more likely to reproduce with other carriers of the same gene,” the scientist said.

September 9, 2017

Messaging at White House reaches Biblical Proportions

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=480

September 6, 2017

Coast Guardsmen Share Emotional Reunion With Kids They Saved During Harvel

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/coast-guardsmen-share-emotional-reunion-with-kids-they-saved-during-harvey_us_59adbf95e4b0354e440be1b6

Coast Guardsmen Share Emotional Reunion With Kids They Saved During Harvey

During the height of the flooding in the Houston area caused by Hurricane Harvey, the Coast Guard and Texas Children’s Hospital coordinated “mission impossible,” a plan to rescue 33 children with kidney failure who were stranded throughout southeast Texas.

They needed immediate transport to the hospital for dialysis; without it, they might die.

Zaiden lives in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles from the hospital where he receives treatment four times a week. Gardner, alongside three other Coast Guard personnel, planned and executed the boy’s rescue by Blackhawk helicopter last Tuesday, Aug. 29.

By Wednesday morning, all 33 children in need had made it safely to the hospital, thanks to the daring mission.

Full story at link, with pictures. Worth a look.

September 5, 2017

Obama Cruelly Taunted Trump in Letter Riddled with Multisyllabic Words (Borowitz)

http://bit.ly/2gDySoJ

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Barack Obama used the occasion of Donald Trump’s Inauguration to viciously taunt the incoming President by writing him a letter riddled with multisyllabic words, sources revealed on Sunday.

According to those familiar with the letter, Obama packed it with intentionally challenging words such as “reflections,” “adventure,” and “ladders,” in order to bewilder and infuriate Trump.
Sources said Trump attempted to read the first line of the letter but, realizing that he was the victim of Obama’s cruel prank, crumpled and discarded it in a rage.

Kellyanne Conway, the counselor to the President, said that the letter episode revealed a “very ugly side of Barack Obama. The media is obsessed with the feud between these two men, but Obama totally started it by using words like ‘international,’ ”.

September 4, 2017

Dear God, how long are we going to continue to let this monster */rant mode on/*

go on destroying our country? Seven months and look what he has managed to do. He has destroyed our standing as the leader of the free world, put us on a nuclear collision course with North Korea, he is stirring up racial hatred, giving aid and comfort for Neo-Nazis and the KKK, making our allies nervous and our enemies comforted. He has no policy except those dreamed up on the spur of the moment, he is wiping out an entire generation of civil servants and destroying institutional memory, messing with out economy, fucking with our climate, fighting with Congress, obstructing justice, making his personal fortune by using his position to basically extort money from foreign governments and raid our own treasury.

When are we going to put politics aside and say ENOUGH! When is Congress going to start putting country ahead of their damn jobs and just DO their damn jobs? Do they really think that winning another term is more important than the country they took an oath that says, in part: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

We have a bloody domestic enemy in the White House. Just his overt ignoring of the Emoluments Clause should be enough to impeach him. They are NOT supporting the Constitution when they let him leech off the government teat! But, oh well, they have to be concerned about their base. What the hell would happen of their 'base' decided it would be a good idea to bring back slavery? And Trump agreed. If they felt that slavery was popular enough in their districts would they support that as well?

What is it going to take? We keep saying 'this is it' and it never is. Adios America. It was a good ride while it lasted.

August 30, 2017

FEMA Director scores big in prime time and Trump sells asshats for $40. (Margaret & Helen)

FEMA Director scores big in prime time and Trump sells asshats for $40. In other news, Obama wasn’t president during Katrina.

https://margaretandhelen.com/2017/08/30/fema-director-scores-big-in-prime-time-and-trump-sells-asshats-for-40-in-other-news-obama-wasnt-president-during-katrina-harvey/

From Helen:

Margaret, that man is so stupid if he threw himself on the ground he would miss. And in that ridiculous hat he looks like something the dog is hiding under the porch. Honestly honey, I just don’t like him. He makes my ass itch every time he opens his mouth.

At the same time thousands in Brazoria County were being told literally to get out now because a levee had been breached, Trump was declaring job well done and commenting on the size of the crowd that showed up to hear him talk. My God that man thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow. At one point he actually marveled about how famous the FEMA director was becoming on TV as if FEMA Director Brock Long should be paying attention to his Neilson ratings.

Look, I don’t care what shoes Melania was wearing and I don’t care that Trump didn’t do any photo shots with victims. I don’t even care that he’s selling that USA hat he was wearing for $40 dollars on his own website. Ok. Maybe I care a little bit about that. I mean how shameful is this man? I’ll give $45 to shove it up his ass. But I digress…. What I do care about is our president has the vocabulary of a third grader and the empathy of a tree stump.
....
But you know what is most telling about this whole situation? It’s the number of Trump supporters who were bitching to me on the internet that “at least Trump showed up because Obama was playing golf during Katrina.” Hey asshats, Obama wasn’t the president during Katrina. Bush was. And for the record, Obama volunteered in Louisiana during Katrina.

Much more at link. And what a treat. Two Margaret & Helen in just two days!

August 30, 2017

Legal challenge to Arpaio pardon begins

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/08/30/legal-challenge-to-arpaio-pardon-begins/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.18f72244a14e

Protect Democracy*, an activist group seeking to thwart Trump’s violations of legal norms, and a group of lawyers have sent a letter to Raymond N. Hulser and John Dixon Keller of the Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division of the Justice Department, arguing that the pardon goes beyond constitutional limits. In their letter obtained by Right Turn, they argue:

While the Constitution’s pardon power is broad, it is not unlimited. Like all provisions of the original Constitution of 1787, it is limited by later-enacted amendments, starting with the Bill of Rights. For example, were a president to announce that he planned to pardon all white defendants convicted of a certain crime but not all black defendants, that would conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Similarly, issuance of a pardon that violates the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause is also suspect. Under the Due Process Clause, no one in the United States (citizen or otherwise) may “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” But for due process and judicial review to function, courts must be able to restrain government officials. Due process requires that, when a government official is found by a court to be violating individuals’ constitutional rights, the court can issue effective relief (such as an injunction) ordering the official to cease this unconstitutional conduct. And for an injunction to be effective, there must be a penalty for violation of the injunction—principally, contempt of court.

Put simply, the argument is that the president cannot obviate the court’s powers to enforce its orders when the constitutional rights of others is at stake. “The president can’t use the pardon power to immunize lawless officials from consequences for violating people’s constitutional rights,” says one of the lawyers who authored the letter, Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People. Clearly, there is a larger concern here that goes beyond Arpaio. “After repeatedly belittling and undermining judges verbally and on Twitter, now President Trump is escalating his attack on the courts into concrete actions,” says Ian Bassin, executive director of Protect Democracy. “His pardon and celebration of Joe Arpaio for ignoring a judicial order is a threat to our democracy and every citizen’s rights, and should not be allowed to stand.”

* https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org/about/

More at link. Note that the Washington Post has dropped its paywall for the duration of the Harvey emergency.

August 30, 2017

The incredible shrinking president

https://www.axios.com/the-incredible-shrinking-president-2479454494.html

As President Trump formally launches his tax-reform drive this afternoon with a no-details, "vision-casting" speech in Springfield, Missouri, the self-inflicted wounds of the past 222 days are adding up.

The "most powerful man in the world" is suddenly looking mighty powerless:

-Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are going their own way on tax reform.
-Hill sources believe his original targets, including a 15% corporate rate, are dead.
-SecDef Mattis didn't immediately embrace his full ban on transgender troops.
-His Justice Department won't drop the Russia probe.
-Courts won't allow his full Muslim ban.
-Mexico won't pay for his wall.
-Congress won't pay for his wall.
-The Senate won't pass his promised health-care reform.
-Gary Cohn and Sec State Tillerson won't tolerate his Charlottesville response.
-North Korea won't heed his warnings.
-China doesn't fear his trade threats.
-CEOs won't sit on his councils.
-Mexico and Canada won't bend to his will on NAFTA.

19 days in August: Trump's road not taken ... Now imagine where Trump would be today if he had instantly (and only) condemned the racist violence in Charlottesville, blown off the Arizona meltdown rally, and held off on the Arpaio pardon till the usual protocol could be followed.

More at link.

August 29, 2017

In A First, Connecticut's Animals Get Advocates In The Courtroom

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/02/531283235/in-a-first-connecticuts-animals-get-advocates-in-the-courtroom

A Connecticut law makes it the first state to provide animals with court-appointed advocates to represent them in abuse and cruelty cases, similar to laws that provide for victim's or children's advocates.

Seven lawyers and a law professor in the state are approved as volunteer advocates, the AP reports. Judges have discretion on whether to appoint an advocate; defense attorneys and prosecutors may request them.

This week University of Connecticut student Taylor Hansen was the first of the advocates to testify in court, in a dogfighting case, alongside the approved law professor, Jessica Rubin.
....
"The animal advocates are an official party to the case," the AP explains. "They can do investigative work prosecutors often don't have time for, such as interviewing veterinarians and other witnesses. They also make arguments, write briefs and make recommendations to the judge."

Another large step in the right direction. More at link.