March, 2017 archive
Clearing the Air No More 0
Daniel Ruth summarizes the administration’s environmental outlook in a few little paragraphs:
Phffft! Folks with Ph.Ds in science. Please. They’re just a cabal of showoffs. What do they know? Lead is actually good for you. It strengthens your bones.
It’s about time we had a presidential administration with the courage to be clueless when it comes to stuff like pollution, climate change and clean water.
Who needs clean water, anyway? It just encourages people to drink it, when gin (which looks just like water) tastes even better.
More paragraphs at the link.
“Pre-Planning”* 0
_____________________
*One more time: Is there any other kind of planning?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Celebrate courteously.
After they returned to the vehicle with Graham driving again and Gonzalez sitting in the back seat with the shotgun, the weapon accidentally fired, striking the Round Lake Park man in the head, according to sheriff’s police.
A sawyer? Really?
Poor Baby 0
For all their bleating about “personal responsibility,” Republicans always seem surprised to find out that their own actions have consequences.
Immunity Impunity, Politzei uber Alles Dept.
0
Perhaps you heard about the cop who tried to roust an Uber driver who refused to get out his car when ordered and who recorded the incident to boot; the driver turned out to be a Not Black lawyer. Here’s bit from the story as reported in the Raleigh News and Observer:
There is no such law.
Now comes Barry Sanders a-wondering:
Follow the link for his answer.
Portrait of the Con Artist as a Younger Man 0
Lady Cardinal 0
Another picture from my brother in Virginia’s Northern Neck.
Mythbuster 0
In the Bangor Daily News, Gordon Weil busts some myths. Here’s one:
In his confirmation hearing, Sessions swore he would tell “the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” The term “the whole truth” ought to mean he left nothing out.
But in denying he had talked with Russians during the presidential campaign, he omitted two meetings with the Russian ambassador. Later, he said those meetings had nothing to do with the campaign but only with his job as senator. Fair enough, if true, but still his answer was not “the whole truth.”
He might have avoided subsequent controversy if instead of telling “the truth,” he had revealed “the whole truth.” As a lawyer, he should have known better.
Follow the link for the other four.
Facebook Frolics, Dis Coarse Discourse Dept. 0
Eerily illustrating David Frum’s comments in the interview in the previous post, here’s more on the theme of “All the News that Fits.”.
“Kleptocratic Authoritarianism” 0
Thom talks with David Frum about Donald Trump. Excerpt:
Authoritarianism goes where the people are, and where is the traffic? It’s on line. If the public realm is the town square, you try to take over the town square. If the public realm is Twitter and Facebook, you try to take over Twitter and Facebook.
(snip)
The benefit of controlling a modern bureaucratic state is not the ability to persecute the innoncent; it is the ability to protect the guilty.
Shunned 0
The Girl Guides (that’s “Girl Scouts” in USAn) of Canada have had enough of Trump and Republican “mean for the sake of mean.”
The ban does not mention the latest Executive Order by President Trump barring travel to “the States” by citizens of six predominantly Muslim countries, and imposing a 120-day moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees.
“While the United States is a frequent destination for Guiding trips, the ability of all our members to equally enter this country is currently uncertain,” GGC executives Sharron Callahan and Holly Thompson said in an advisory Monday afternoon.
More at the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Play politely.
Investigators determined the boy and another teenager were handling the gun and accidentally fired the weapon. Deputies say the 15 year old is in good condition at the hospital.
It’s All about the Benjamins 0
Catherine Rampell looks at the backstory of the Republican “they laughingly call it health care” bill. A snippet:
(snip)
The presence of expensive tax cuts in a bill purportedly about health-care reform is not a side effect; it’s the entire point. They make it easier for Republicans’ (much bigger) individual and corporate tax cuts to sail through the Senate with minimal Democratic obstruction in a few months’ time.
