Personal Musings category archive

Thom warns us not to get taken in by “smishing” (he explains the term in the video). His advice is well worth a listen.

Aside:

I ignore emails and texts from (those purporting to be) political activists. And, believe me, I get a lot of emails and an annoying number of texts. (In Thunderbird, my preferred mail client, I filter the emails into a special folder and delete them unread.)

I also get texts from persons who think I am Jeremy from North Carolina, even though I’m not Jeremy and I have never lived in North Carolina (and given what’s happening in North Carolina these days*, I wouldn’t move there on a bet) and I’ve had my cell phone number for years.

Even when said emails and texts are legitimate, they are almost always overwrought and often obnoxious. They are designed to appeal to emotions, not to brains.

My advice, for what it’s worth: Use your brains.

I do my contributing, political and otherwise, the old-fashioned way.

I use the United States Postal Service.

As I told someone who called me on the telly phone yesterday claiming to represent a cauxe that I support, “I do my contributing by mail.” Then I hung up the phone.

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*I’m so old, I can remember when North Carolina was considered a “progressive” Southern state.

The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump’s role in fomenting insurrection disqualifies him from appearing on the 2024 ballot in Colorado under the Insurrection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, an amendment which was passed after–er–an insurrection. This was properly a state matter because, in the United States, individual states are responsible for administering elections.

From the Denver Post:

The Supreme Court, in a 4-3 opinion, found that Trump is barred under a provision of the 14th Amendment that prohibits people who engaged in insurrection from running for office, based on his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach and riot by his supporters.

“We conclude that because President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three (of the 14th Amendment), it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Secretary to list President Trump as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot,” the court’s majority opinion says. “Therefore, the Secretary may not list President Trump’s name on the 2024 presidential primary ballot, nor may she count any write-in votes cast for him.”

Trump is expected to appeal to the Supreme Supremacist Court. (It may be the only time in his long history of litigation that he does not try to draw things our as long as possible.)

I do not think it a foregone conclusion that the Court will accept his appeal or rule in his favor,* but that’s just me.

But if they do accept his appeal, we might finally have an answer to this question:

How many laws must a lawbreaker break before breaking the rule of law?

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*A majority of the Justices might be happy never to hear his name again . . . ..

Sam discusses our deplorable political news coverage.

A Quibble:

I do not endorse Sam’s comments about Biden and Hamas. In particular, I disagree with Sam’s claim that Biden is “completely enabling” Netanyahu’s tactics.

Expressing support for the existence of Israel, which is what Biden has done, is not “enabling” Netanyahu’s tactics. Netanyahu would do what he is doing with or without Biden’s support for the existence of Israel.

I also deplore the deaths of civilians in Gaza and in Israel. But I think it’s delusional to think that the U. S. is either responsible for or could have prevented them.

But that’s just me. (And international history was not my field. My field was U. S. Southern.)

But I think Sam’s primary message regarding dis coarse discourse is spot on.

Jim Wright watched the Republican candidates debate so we didn’t have to.

I sure didn’t waste my time watching it. I’ve successfully avoided Silence of the Lambs all these years.

I’m certainly not going to subject myself to Squeals of the Damnable.

Spending a few minutes (or even a few hours, if it comes to that) once a year to cast a ballot is a small price to pay for preserving democracy . . .

. . . especially when you consider that persons are willing to spend days getting a ticket to a Taylor Swift concert.

If someone running for public office wishes me contribute to his or her campaign, sending an unsolicited text to my cell phone is a sure way not to make it happen.

If anything, that’s even more irritating than the unsolicited emails.

I can filter the emails.