The GOP Threatens Yet Another Government Shutdown

I have a book, Linda R. Monk's The Words we Live By, that contains the complete text of the US Constitution with intercalated explanations of the interpretations that various Supreme Court rulings over the centuries have settled on. It may not turn me into a Supreme Court Justice, but it's a good starting place for an ordinary citizen who gives a damn about process in lawmaking.

I have read that book perhaps four times through in the 12 years since the first edition was published. In it, I have found nothing that would indicate that members of Congress can use the threat of a government shutdown to accomplish by blackmail something they cannot bring about by the well-defined process of legislation (see video of "I'm just a bill"). Can Congress really do that? Maybe; they've come close in the past. Can they do it legally? That's not nearly as clear. Doing so certainly belies the notion that our government is a representative democracy.

I also find no support for the legitimacy of forcing the implementation of a law that is detrimental to one specific individual or nongovernmental institution. Such a law is not quite a bill of attainder, but this particular threatened act is damned close, because it would effectively "execute" Planned Parenthood without any sort of due process. (And we all know, don't we, that corporations are people; the R's told us so...)

But that doesn't seem to matter much to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Hell) or the Teabaggers. To them, it's all an exercise in maximizing their power to get what they want, and if the process is illegitimate, well, so are they, and they just don't care what anyone else thinks. Or votes.

Blackmail... an evil, ugly technique... is what the Tea Party is all about.

Have a nice day. </irony>

(Usual reminder: IANAL. - SB)

Jane Fonda Aims At Reviving Fight For ERA, Demands Answers From Candidates

Please read her post at CNN. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the ERA Coalition. It's been 40+ long years since the last great battle for the constitutional amendment that would... do what? require unisex bathrooms? force all women to be trained as lesbians? Actually, the wording is a lot simpler than what some opponents (damned liars) will tell you:

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

To paraphrase Fonda, who could take issue with that, apart from some politicians, mostly men, who genuinely wish to see women's subjugation in the political arena? Answer: you'd be surprised, in a nominally "free country," how much resistance there was back in the 1970s, and while many of those opponents have died off, their extremist views run rampant in today's America. I'll let Fonda tell you about it; she's in the middle of the battle herself.

A Kossack Explains How To Choose Between Bernie And Hillary

... and they get it just right. Please read.

Blue Bell Update — And It's Not Good News

This updates my post on the return of Blue Bell ice cream to the market.

Suggested new Blue Bell slogan

My thanks to regular reader George ('B'-but-not-Bush) who points in comments to an article from last Sunday's Houston Chronicle, Inside Blue Bell: Grime and discontent, that indicates a culture of indifference to worker safety and plant cleanliness... or as George put it, in what may or may not be a terrible pun, "the manufacturing culture that existed at the Blue Bell plants." Here's George:

...

My saying I probably would not buy any more Blue Bell products was not based on the likelihood that I or my family might get listeriosis, but on the manufacturing culture that existed at the Blue Bell plants. The Chronicle article gives some graphic descriptions of employee injuries apparently due to failure by management to maintain a safe facility. Providing lots of jobs is a good thing, and Blue Bell did that until the latest crisis, but the working conditions should be safe, which they were not. Indeed, some of the safety features on machines were overridden, and that caused one or more employees to lose parts of fingers.

I simply cannot see supporting a company that operates that way.

[Bolds mine. - SB]

Added to the Houston Press article I offered in the same comment thread, an article George says is lacking in some important details, the total impression is that Blue Bell has more to rectify than just contaminated equipment. For all I know, this may be common in older companies manufacturing dairy products, but even if so, Blue Bell should get its own house in order, the sooner, the better.

AFTERTHOUGHT: whatever you do about the ice cream, please do view the TV ad from a decade or so ago, one of the all‑time best.

I Wish Bernie Could Become President: We Need Him

Unconvinced? Watch him as he summons his poise and diplomacy to wrap the RWNJs at Liberty University around his little finger. Part of being POTUS is having all the skills necessary to engage one's own... and the nation's... adversaries face on, and walk away with more than anyone expected from the encounter. Bernie's got those skills, packed full and running over.

---

Oops. That was the livestream, which was over a couple hours ago. Here is a YouTube of (I think) the same encounter.

Oops. Not the same encounter, but rather a speech on the same day in the same place with many of the same people; it makes my point.

Possible Gov't Shutdown Attempt Over Defunding Planned Parenthood Has Political Implications For GOP — Who Knew? Apparently Not The GOP

Tierney Sneed at TPM, in an article well worth reading on its own merits, quotes Senate Majority Leader John Cornyn (R-TX) and the number 3 GOPer Senator John Thune (R-SD) on... what else... the politics of the matter:

...

"I think it's nearly unanimous the view that a shutdown doesn't defund Planned Parenthood, and it doesn't help us maintain our majority so we can have some influence who the next members of the Supreme Court are and can elect a Republican president," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the majority whip, according to CNN.

Likewise, the Senate GOP's Number 3, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) also admitted the political costs of a shutdown when explaining to the plan to focus on the 20 week abortion ban, instead.

 “I think there’s a good, strong co­ali­tion be­hind [the 20 week abortion bill] who want to see that bill de­bated, voted on, and so I think it’s cer­tainly something that’s con­sist­ent with ad­van­cing the pro-life move­ment,” Thune told the National Journal. “I think a lot of the pro-life move­ment also re­cog­nizes that a scen­ario that might end up in a gov­ern­ment shut­down would not be good for the cause.”

The 20 week bill passed in the House earlier this year and has already been introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in the Senate. ...

...

It's all about the politics, the politics, the politics, and not about the women or the nation as a whole.

As noted by Sen. Corny, an attempt to use a shutdown to force defunding of Planned Parenthood likely wouldn't work anyway. Sneed explains:

Any budget bill that defunded Planned Parenthood would likely be blocked by Democrats and vetoed by President Obama. GOP leadership has acknowledged that such a shutdown fight could have political consequences for the party, as Planned Parenthood's popularity among Americans has continued despite the allegations. [Bolds mine. - SB]

Damn Repubs anyway; they do not share the goals of America's citizens, and they seem unable to tie their shoes when it comes to effective politics. Why do we keep them around?

Where No Ma'am Has Gone Before

Thanks to Stella's Catherine's generosity back on my birthday (yeah, I know; that was soooo last month), I am now working my way through viewing Star Trek: The Animated Series (Wikipedia; Memory Alpha; IMDb), a continuation of Star Trek: Classic or Star Trek: The Original Series (Kirk, Spock, Bones, et al). As astonishing as it may seem for a confirmed decades-long Trekker like me, I have never viewed these before today. Most of you will have seen the 22 episodes in 1973‑4 when they were first aired by NBC; I was too busy with other young-man activities in those days, so I have some catching up to do today.

The first thing that struck me is, as in the ST Classic series, the lack of women among command-level officers in Starfleet. Classic/Animated (essentially one series begun with human actors and concluded with animations) was the last ST context with that limitation, and I am always astonished for a few minutes watching any episode from that series. That deficiency, both in the officers and in the canonical declaration (as parodied in the post subject above), was remedied starting with Next Gen and all subsequent ST series.

The next surprise to me was the animation. The animated series was done by Filmation, reputedly one of the best in the business 40 years ago; nonetheless, any typical kid's cartoon aired today has markedly superior animation to ST:TAS. It does my heart good to see something that has actually improved over my lifetime. 

The crew voices, at least of the stars, were performed by the original cast of Classic (William Shatner and his late lamented sidekicks Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley). All in all, it was a convincing job. They even enlisted Dorothy Fontana to write or edit some of the new episodes, which means they were a significant improvement over some of Classic's disappointing third season episodes.

September 11 Thought: What If They Gave A War And Everybody Came?

As a child born three years to the day after the A-bombing of Hiroshima, I actually asked myself that question once in a while over the years, not as an hypothetical extreme, but as a real possibility. So, I believe, did most American kids who did literal duck-and-cover drills in our elementary school classrooms before we were old enough to understand what we were covering ourselves from.

As the years passed and the details of the consequences of even the smallest nuclear war were filled in for us... anyone else remember a made-for-TV movie titled "The Day After"? ... at least a few teens like me came to see what it meant for the world, especially the part of it divided into "the free world" and "the Commies," if that scenario were ever realized. The weapons to destroy literally all humankind existed; "we" had them; "they" had them... and every time the US and the USSR fought a proxy war, I wondered if it was to be our last encounter.

Fast-forward 25 or more years. Some actual reduction of tension was achieved, to a point at which many of us held some hope that the Cold War need not become hot, at least not right away. Some weapons reductions were actually performed, although both sides still had enough nukes to destroy the "civilized" world several times over. Most of us learned to live with the conflict. Uneasily. Looking over our shoulders every day...

... Except the likes of Ronald Reagan, John Bolton, Dick Cheney, and... Osama bin Laden and his ilk, including Bush Junior. Every nation had its share of nut-jobs willing at least in theory to blow us all to kingdom come in an ultimate ideologically triggered and driven war. I actually knew Americans in the 1980s who would say, out loud, the Russians have these weapons so we have to have more of them. You talk about people unclear on the concept...

Fortunately, I knew damned few ordinary American citizens... and "damned" those few truly were... who actually thought Armageddon was a good idea. As long as those held no leadership positions, there was still some hope that humankind would not be vaporized en masse. But then some of them, not in any real sense power brokers but still determined to have their way, discovered terrorism, and then some opponents of those people discovered they could use the terrorists for their own purposes in projecting the classic "fear, uncertainty and doubt" (FUD) onto understandably concerned and occasionally terrified ordinary individuals, to achieve the effect of their great ultimate ideological battle without having the raw political power to order the necessary ultimate engagement of forces.

Most people, even so, thought it was a crack-brained idea actually to do those things. But "most people" don't always control the disposition of real-world forces... and then there are the utterly crazy people who sometimes do.

We've managed to survive 14 years from Osama bin Laden's attempt at, and of course George W. Bush's collusion in, provoking their respective worlds into indulging in some sort of ultimate engagement of forces. I probably won't live another 14 years, but many of you will.

Can you... please, I urge you... stave off the crazies for at least another 14 years? What with ISIS and all, Armageddon kinda nervous about the direction of things...

Jeepers Peepers, Where'd They Get ‘Oaf Creepers?’

Tierney Sneed at TPM:

Oath Keepers On Their Way To 'Protect' KY Clerk Kim Davis From US Marshals

Did they get night soil
on their watches
while slinging sh!t
from the chamber pot?

The Oath Keepers -- the armed, anti-government vigilante group known for popping up at the Ferguson protests and elsewhere -- has told Kim Davis' legal counsel that they would be willing to "protect" the anti-gay marriage Kentucky clerk from being detained by the U.S. Marshals Service. According to Right Wing Watch, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes has said he is already on his way to Kentucky.

In a statement posted to the Oath Keepers' website, Rhodes claims that the federal judge who ordered Davis' detention after she refused to issue gay marriage licenses "grossly overstepped his bounds and violated Mrs Davis’ due process rights, and in particular her right to a jury trial."

...

TPM's David Kurtz says it all:

What the Kim Davis saga in Kentucky has really needed is the potential for a confrontation between the US Marshals and the Oath Keepers. What could possibly go wrong?

<steve-rolls-eyes />

---

It's been an aggravating morning already. During a 6:00 A.M. CT thunderstorm, a lightning bolt that struck less than a block away took down the power, with everything that implies in Houston: no A/C, only natural light to read by, no computer, no internet, no TV moment-to-moment weather reports during morning rush hour, ... Amazingly, the cats did not hide (or at least didn't stay hidden), but instead claimed that the stress from the thunderclap required more or at least fancier food. Some things never change!

---

(A note about the date: it's really time for American civilians of every political stripe to stop acting as if they see a terrorist behind every Bush. Uh, I mean, every bush. I'm not saying forget September 11, but do at least stop obsessing over it. If you don't stop your obsession, the terrorists will have... oh, f^<k, just forget I said anything!)

Two Oregon County-Level Judges Stop Performing Marriages, Citing Personal Conscience

Katherine Krueger at TPM sketches the story.

Judge Vance Day

Judge Thomas Kohl

In the judges' defense, some are pointing out that Oregon permits, but does not require, judges to perform marriages. To that, I can only say that such a state law would allow such judges to remain silent on the subject, but not to announce a policy of refusing to perform marriages, their announcements coming specifically in response to the legalizing of same-sex marriages. If a judge has the power to perform a marriage and ceases to exercise that power directly in response to the now legally required institution of gay marriage, that judge should resign his/her office or prepare to be jailed in contempt.

When judges begin playing legal tricks to avoid the clear intent of a Supreme Court decision, they no longer serve their rightful purpose. That has been true when I've disagreed with the Court's decision, and it must in turn be true when I happen to agree with the SCOTUS decision.

Otherwise... we have no justice. Those among us who are unwilling to see justice subverted to the religious purposes of individuals must draw the line RIGHT HERE.

(The usual warning: IANAL.)

Kim Davis For GOP Presidential Nominee

This gal is in and out of jail faster than a two-dollar... ah, never mind; it's not her sexual behavior that I take issue with but rather her willingness, indeed, eagerness to ignore her (presumed) oath of office. I doubt seriously she herself thought of doing that: someone put her up to it, I'm certain. It's a stunt. No, I said "stunt": 's', 't', 'u' ...

Putting aside her willful default of a significant duty of her office, or perhaps in light of that dereliction, she could be the perfect GOP presidential candidate:

• She believes her religion always, in all circumstances, trumps all other considerations in decision-making.
• She doesn't think rules... nay, laws... apply to her as they apply to other people.
• She has found a way to use her criminal nonfeasance to her political advantage with constituents who apparently actually appreciate her family's resemblance to the Clampett family:
  
  
  
  
  
• And she wants to have it both ways: to substitute her personal judgment for that of a federal judge, but nonetheless suffer no legal consequences.

As I said... she's the perfect Repub presidential candidate. The GOPers seem to be having difficulty picking a candidate; maybe they should consider... nah. I forgot: no Republican president will ever be a... woman.

Like Asking The Cats HumansWho Gets The Cream Blue Bell

This morning as we dressed for our Labor Day outing, Stella favored me with a wicked grin and flashed me. It is probably illegal in Texas for a mid-sixties-ish woman to look that enticing, but she does, and I, remembering that Blue Bell Ice Cream came back on the market about 2-3 days ago after what seemed an eternity to those of us addicted to it, couldn't help thinking... but not saying aloud... "By the way, Stella, let's remember to stop by a Blue Bell outlet [note: not every store has been favored with a restock yet, and only four flavors are available] and pick up some Homemade Vanilla just before we return home." Instead, I said something equally complimentary and a lot less publicly repeatable, and indeed we did get some Blue Bell on the way home. Mmmmm! It's been a day full of treats!

Those without a steady supply of Blue Bell have to understand: when the company calls their vanilla ice cream "Homemade," I don't question their choice of word for even a second: what they sell bears a respectable resemblance to the ice cream both sets of grandparents hand-cranked when I was a tot... and little else on the market here evokes that memory the way Blue Bell does. Their traditional flavors do not assault the ice cream lover with too much sugar or overly intense flavorings; if you buy Dutch Chocolate or Homemade Vanilla or plain old Strawberry, the flavors are about 99 percent like those you once cranked, and the Strawberry contains small chunks of, um, strawberry, the real thing.

Welcome back, Blue Bell. Don't ever go away again!

[Be]Labor[ed] Day: Obama Orders Paid Sick Leave By Gov't Contracting Firms

It's a start. Lisa Mascaro at LA Times:

Obama adds another worker benefit: paid sick leave

...

President Obama plans to use Labor Day to announce a new step toward increased benefits for workers -- ordering companies that do business with the government to provide paid sick leave for their employees.

The move, which Obama plans to announce with labor leaders in Boston, adds to a series of executive actions Obama has taken and comes as Congress resists legislation to change labor conditions and pay to cover all private-sector workers.

Obama's executive actions directed at the labor market, which many Republicans see as excessive use of presidential authority, have been designed to boost worker pay and benefits. White House economists say that will lead to higher productivity in an era of stagnant wages, while nudging private companies and Congress to join in updating work conditions.

...

Hey, working men and women... GOPers despise, detest and disrespect you: take note, and don't ever vote Republican again!

Enjoy your BBQ or "whatever makes ya happy," as the late great do-gooder Marvin Zindler used to close his editorials. G*d, we could use a few Marvin Zindlers today...

RWNJ Kentucky County Clerk Ordered Jailed For Contempt Of Court Over Refusal To Issue Gay Marriage Licenses

Katherine Krueger and Tierney Sneed at TPM:

Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue gay marriage licenses, has been found in contempt of court and taken into federal custody.

According to AP, U.S. District Judge David Bunning said Thursday that Davis would be held in jail until she complied with the previous court orders to begin granting the marriage licenses.

...

And thus it must be in a society where the rule of law prevails over the rule of wo/man. If people start choosing which judges' orders they obey and which they do not, the required balance between freedom and order in society will quickly collapse in favor of wanton freedom, and the laws of the land will become utterly unenforceable.

Someone could do Kim Davis a favor by explaining the workings of civil disobedience to her: the person engaging in civil disobedience expects to go to jail for what s/he does; it cannot be otherwise, because s/he is violating the law. If Ms. Davis wants to decide in her own mind what the law means and act accordingly, but not be jailed for her lawbreaking, then she is asserting that she is some kind of queen, or at least a princess: not in America, baby, not in America.

Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz had some interesting things to say in Krueger and Sneed's article (which you really should read before proceeding)...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also rushed to Davis' defense: "I think it’s absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberties," he said on CNN.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued a statement calling for "every lover of liberty to stand for Kim Davis." “Kim Davis should not be in jail. We are a country founded on Judeo-Christian values, founded by those fleeing religious oppression and seeking a land where we could worship God and live according to our faith, without being imprisoned for doing so," he said.

(Sigh! the RWNJs always require explanation of the simplest matters of rights and responsibilities.)

Sen. Paul, it's not for exercising her religious liberties that Davis is being jailed: those are liberties of belief and expression, not of action in contravention to the law, especially as in this case where the law couldn't possibly be clearer after the Supreme Court's refusal to support Ms. Davis's position.

And Sen. Cruz, I am at least as American as you are, and the nation I fight for is NOT "founded on Judeo-Christian values" because though I am religious, I am not a Christian, whether you like that fact or not. And I'm pretty sure you don't, you un-American bastard.

Just for good measure, Mike Huckabee chimed in:

... former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said, "Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianity in this country."

No, ex-Gov. Huckabee, it "removes all doubts about the criminalization of" criminal behavior, and most of us don't have any problem with that. Sit down and STFU!

Sick

Flu? cold? hangover? food poisoning? reading a new vegan cookbook 'til 3:00 AM? Whatever this is, it's got me a bit (blue-)green around the gills this morning. Sorry about the scarcity of posts! I'll be back as soon as I'm able.

UPDATE Thursday morning 9/3: Last night, kitty Esther piled on top of me for several hours with her patented healing embrace, not to mention her considerable bulk; the result is that I'm feeling somewhat better today, albeit still exhausted. I may be ready to face politics tonight, or tomorrow at the latest.

Yes, I Seem To Be Taking A Blog Break — I'll Be Back Soon

We've had a lot of things going on lately, including some genuinely fun stuff (see next post about the concert we just attended). If I haven't blogged as much lately, it's because of the goings-on and my geezer's need for more rest than younger people. I promise I'll be back in the next day or two with comments on the concert in Miller Theatre (Hermann Park) last night.

Cool!

... cool enough for Stella, even! This morning, Stella arose, headed (as usual) straight for the thermostat, cranked the temp down to something she considers acceptable (i.e., below 70°F), and... nothing happened. No, the system was not broken; the outside temp was 67°F! After weeks of temperatures of 100+°F, heat indexes a few degrees hotter than the actual temp, we finally got a break.

Not our lawn, but no lovelier...

After doing the absolute minimal wake-up chores ("coffee! coffee!" breathed Stella; "feed me! feed me! feed me! ..." shouted  kitty Esther telepathically), I headed for the one remaining intact patio chair (repeated battering into fences by thunderstorm winds doomed the other, and my bulk finished it off a few days ago) to enjoy a perfect beginning of a Houston Spring day... yes, Spring; that's what it felt like... and to watch as the sun rose, the critters emerged, the oh-so-gentle breeze moved a few leaves, a few inoffensive clouds appeared, the sounds of morning traffic emerged and then subsided, etc. I haven't had a morning like that in a long time!

Of course it won't last. I have (as I used to say in my working days) "lines to code before I sleep, and lines to code before I sleep," and the cool weather will not survive even until noon. But what a treat it was, a respite from the relentless Summer From Hell we've been having. Like a greedy pet cat, I find myself meowing, "More! More! More! ..."

Droning On, Part (N+1)

Allegra Kirkland at TPM Livewire:

Man On Beach Takes Down Drone
By Throwing T-Shirt At It, Ends Up In Jail

A Southern California man’s relaxing day at the beach came to an unpleasant conclusion this week. After taking down a drone that was hovering over his group of friends by throwing his T-shirt at it, Augustine Lehecka found himself behind bars at the Vista County jail, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Lehecka told the newspaper he “felt threatened” by the low-flying drone, which had four whirling blades and was equipped with a mounted camera.

"Threatened"? NFK! Threatened by the blades and by the spy camera!

(NOT the drone in the story - SB)

(NOT the beach party in the story - SB)

Out of concern for his friends' privacy, he said he tossed his shirt toward the drone, knocking it into the sand. Ten minutes later, he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of felony vandalism and taken to jail.

...

Lehecka was released eight hours later after posting a $10,000 bail, according to the newspaper.

On Tuesday, however, the district attorney's office declined to press charges against Lehecka.

The aircraft belonged to a pilot who works for a drone company, who said he was not invading the group’s privacy and suffered $750 in damage from the drone’s crash landing.

...

Several of our nation's founders mentioned that there was an inherent danger in amending the Constitution with a specific Bill of Rights: namely, that the list would become a formula for limiting our rights, which by the founders' intent were too numerous to be listed with any completeness.

And here we have exactly that: there is no explicitly listed right of privacy in the Constitution (though SCOTUS Justices have found aspects of such a right in various passages); therefore, in the opinion of jerk-off small-town sheriffs, there is no right to privacy.

I realize that I argue both sides of this issue in various contexts; e.g., photographers need a well-defined right to take pics of people and objects in public, i.e., in places where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. But no right (not even speech) is completely unlimited, and if someone flew a drone with a clearly visible camera mounted on it over my beach party for more than, say, half a minute, I would be inclined to start tossing something at the drone, sand at the very least. If the drone pilot wants to avoid such physical commentary on his (I can't imagine "her") spying on a social event, he can hover a couple hundred feet up, where the drone is less vulnerable to anyone with a good arm, and... admittedly... the view probably isn't as good.

Privacy is scarce in these parlous times. If this ruling had gone the sheriffs' way instead of the beach party's, we might as well pitch privacy in the trash can designated for rights our overlords have already decided we don't get to have. I can only hope they are haunted by ghosts of Americans in history who have at least given actual thought to the matter of what privacy has to be available in a free society.

---

AFTERTHOUGHT: Drones are relatively new. Many of the technologies have been around for a long time, but the particular combination has not. How well proven is it? Who can say! The 21st-century "tradition" says to corp's, "market a product as soon as you can sell it to someone; don't wait for years of testing to prove it safe and/or effective." And that's what drone manufacturers have done, by and large. People want 'em, people are willing to pay big $ for 'em... so people get 'em, and devil take the hindmost, not to mention the people standing right underneath 'em.

In countries where America's drones were first used for military purposes, no one in the local villages had any choice but to stand underneath the drones and, angrily or resignedly, die when the drones struck. The same is not true of Americans on their own soil. We are a tech-oriented people; we have our own anti-dronecraft weapons: we have open-carry laws and... and we even have T-shirts. Megalomaniacs challenging ordinary citizens by flying personal drones into their midst: beware!

O Danny — Oy!

Is Texas liable to be affected by Hurricane Danny? Well, the short answer is...

... it's too soon to tell. Conditions are currently favorable for development, but it's somewhat fragile; quick, small changes in conditions could easily weaken or redirect it. By midweek or so we should have a better idea.

---

UPDATE: the 2:00PM AST update from a hurricane hunter aircraft shows a considerably stronger storm (Category 3), but apparently it is entering unfavorable conditions and is not expected to stay strong. Keep your eyes open if this may affect you. We're already long since stocked for a hurricane, so there's not much more for us to do except watch this truly odd storm as it progresses.

Here is Dr. Jeff Masters with something useful (as usual!):

Track models remain in fairly good agreement on a continued west-northwest track for Danny. The NHC forecast track (see Figure 3) now brings Danny to the vicinity of Puerto Rico by Tuesday and Hispanola by Wednesday. Assuming the west-northwest bearing remains solid, only a slight deviation could play a big role in Danny’s future, as interaction with the mountainous terrain of these islands could quickly disrupt weaken a storm as small as Danny. If the model trend further toward the north continues, Danny has a better chance of escaping landfall on the islands; in this case, its small size could actually result in less disruption from the islands than for a larger hurricane.

See the associated map at the "Dr. Jeff Masters" link above.

---

UPDATE Sunday about 8:15AM CDT: call Danny "The Storm that will Not Go Away"; call it that and read Dr. Masters. Danny is weakening as predicted, but is still well-defined and on track.

---

UPDATE Monday morning: Danny weakens to a tropical depression. Some rain is expected. Unless Danny cranks up again, this is my last note on it.

Annoy Your Neighbor Your Neighbor's Attractive Spouse Any Local Airport All Commercial/Private Pilots Just About Anybody ... With Your Very Own DRONE!!

Got $1k or maybe $1.5k to throw away? Have a fondness for flying things, perhaps left over from the model aircraft of your childhood? Enjoy annoying the bejezus out of people of various sorts? Yes? Then take yourself to Micro Center or Amazon and acquire your very own personal DRONE! Be the first in your neighborhood to put some hapless child's eye out, or fly your very own remote-controlled craft through a neighbor's bedroom window! There are almost no laws at this point to restrict you from doing whatever you goddamned well feel like doing with one of these things, so what are you waiting for??? <sarcasm />

Those I've seen pictures of have camera mounts, but I'll bet if you're clever you can modify those to carry a firearm instead. Oh, yes;  the possibilities are limitless... <sigh />

Stormy Weather; Stella Under The Weather

Sorry; it's not a good morning for blogging or anything else. Lightning storms are all over the city including here; of the kitties, one hides in a closet and one seeks company. Stella is home from work, having contracted the bug going around her office, a bug which requires proximity to the smallest room. Both storms and sickness are expected to pass by late afternoon or early evening; maybe there will be some blogging at that time, if there are no direct lightning strikes here...

Monday Miscellany On (Oops! Sorry!) Wednesday

• Kidnapped Abroad And Solitary Confinement: This Is What Due Process Looks Like For A Palestinian In Israel
  

  (Richard Silverstein at Shadowproof)

• Workers To Face Biosurveillance From Employers
  

  (Dan Wright at Shadowproof)

• A Texas Conservative Openly Calls For Violence Against LGBT People
  

  (Kossacks for Marriage Equality)

• The GOP’s deeply flawed field
  

  (Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation at WaPo)

• There was that time JEB! forced single mothers to post their sexual history in the newspaper...
  

  (SemDem at Kos)

• Krugman: Why All The Republican Candidates Are Attacking Social Security
  

  (Dartagnan at Kos refers to...)

• Republicans Against Retirement
  

  (Krugman at NYT)

Rain!

Thank goodness we arrived home today at the very moment a downpour started. Carrying in groceries and bottles of my first Two (Three?) Buck Chuck, I was literally soaked to the skin... and delighted to be so! Every day and evening of the coming week is forecast to bring rain. I realize this is not the last manifestation of global climate change, but even to have that initial three-week drought behind us is a great relief.

My Sunday Prayer: Goddamn Donald Trump Straight To Hell

NO, Don-Don, The Other Way!

... even though, like most UU's, I don't believe in a Hell. Send Trump there anyway, for telling Detroit autoworkers they make too much money.

Donald, you use up too much air...

OTOH, if you want to stick around and be the GOP prez candidate, go for it. THEN go to Hell, and take your goddamned party with you.

A Century From Yesterday...

... the industrial explosions in China may or may not be forgotten, the summer's insane weather in parts of the US may mark the onset of the most significant global climate change in all human history or it may be a distant and unimportant memory, the fires on the West Coast will be out and others may take their place, the battle between America's police and its nonwhite communities may have led to the demise of the nation or it may have been resolved in the eventual reconciliation of the disparate racial parts of our society, and surely no one will remember what "DeflateGate" was about...

... but I am willing to bet this narrowly decided Connecticut state supreme court ruling will be hailed for a century or more as one of the events that set America on the path to civilization as exemplified in our criminal justice system: the state legislature having already repealed the death penalty in 2012 for all future crimes, the court ruled that scheduled executions of those convicted earlier of capital crimes would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" and must not be carried out. For better or worse, eleven people on Death Row are spared by this decision. (DPIC offers a good short summary of the ruling: Connecticut Supreme Court Finds Death Penalty Violates State Constitution.)

It's not just a question of whether the death penalty may be legally assessed and meted out: it's a question of whether capital punishment can ever be carried out with the requisite certainty, the essential confidence of guilt and of intent, to justify a purposeful state killing of any of its citizens. (Reminder: even a confession is not as solid as is required for such a drastic action, because false confessions are astonishingly common.)

As I write this, according to Wikipedia, there are 31 US states, as well as the federal civilian and military legal systems, which still have the death penalty on the books. Some of those states have not executed anyone in many years. Other questions, e.g., the means of execution, have become the focus of legal debates leading to decisions not to execute people even in these death penalty states. So it's not an easy question, and in many states, it is a question that has not been resolved.

Again by Wikipedia, the US as a whole is fifth among countries in number of executions; our companion countries on that short list are Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, not a fellowship most Americans would like to claim as our own, but there it is. Tradition can carry a nation only so far in justifying an ancient and barbaric practice: think about our cohort of nations the next time you find yourself advocating for the death penalty in America.

Michigan Court: Gun Owners With Permits To Open-Carry May Do So Even In Elementary Schools

Andrew Bradford at Crooks and Liars sources a post from Jameson Parker at Addicting Info, in turn from Gary Ridley at MLive. Here's Ridley:

CLIO, MI – A judge has ruled that a Clio-area father can legally open carry his pistol inside of his daughter's elementary school despite a legal challenge from the school district.

Genesee Circuit Judge Archie Hayman on Monday, Aug. 10, ruled in favor of Kenneth Herman, who filed the lawsuit March 5 in Genesee County Circuit Court against the Clio Area School District after he was denied access to Edgerton Elementary multiple times while attempting to pick up his daughter because he was open-carrying a pistol.

...

School officials and district attorney, Timothy Mullins, could not be reached for comment on the decision.

...

As several levels of reporters said, what could go wrong?

So... when the first child DIES killed using a gun wielded by someone licensed for open carry, whose fault is it?

My answer: The guy who open-carries the gun (who happens also to be the plaintiff in this absurd lawsuit). The legislators who wrote the law so sloppily (craftily?) that it allows open carry around very young children. The state judge who contrived this crack‑brained ruling.

The State of Michigan's answer: NOBODY. It's OK with the great State of Michigan if that kid dies.

Miami Houston Heat — Peak Temp And Hot Miscellany

No, as far as I know, Miami's NBA team has not moved here, which is just as well; we already have the Rockets, thankyouverymuch. But the heat... not the Heat... has moved in on us and set up housekeeping. Yesterday's high was (gasps for breath) 106°F. I had stuff to do and I did it, but as I looked at various laborers in the street I was very glad that their jobs were not my job. At least we finally got some rain, for the first time in several weeks. And today is forecast to be a bit cooler. You know all that talk about climate change? I think maybe it has arrived...

Houstonians, here are a few items for you to read while you are stuck indoors, saving yourself from the heat from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, more or less:

• Akil Awan at Informed Comment writes on "Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the single greatest acts of terrorism in human history?"
  

  As I was born three years to the day after the bombing of Hiroshima, I cannot avoid a certain morbid fascination with the event. Terrorism or the saving of our nation? Dad and I used to debate the subject of whether any of our family would be living if the Bomb had not been used; to no one's surprise, I always took the "terrorism" position (without using the word).

• Tan Copsy of Risky Business, writing at Informed Comment offers the irony: "Deep South, biggest Climate Deniers, will be among worst hit by Global Warming"
  

  As the evidence emerges, it becomes clear that it is a good thing so many words have been spoken in vehement denial of climate change: the region is going to need to eat those words, or starve...

• Kevin Gosztola at Shadowproof ("the new FDL") offers us a "Podcast: Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter & Problem of Identity Politics"
  

  No one, not even Sen. Sanders, can please all the people all the time. Sensibly enough, his event organizers allowed the Black Lives Matter activists to take the mic for a period of time; after all, theirs is a compelling and legitimate issue, and though I am not Black, I too would be glad to hear Bernie address race issues more firmly... he isn't going to lose any votes already committed to him by doing so, and there's much to be gained if Sanders gains the reputation as "the fair one."

• Motoko Rich at NYT notes with grim smile and shake of the head: "Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional)"
  

  Never forget my two-parent two-schoolteacher household in my youth: that environment formed much of my political outlook, and I admit freely that it gladdens my heart when Republicans (and even some Democrats these days) try to cut corners on education costs and methods, blame teachers for the failure of a system pared to the bone and beyond in an attempt to pocket the tax money for their own purposes, and yet gaze drop‑jawed as teachers, counselors and even administrators flock to other occupations that pay better salaries for work involving a great deal less outright aggravation than schoolteaching. The ghosts of Bill and Irma are grinning at the sight!

The Pentagon Vs. Journalists

Kevin Gosztola at Shadowproof:

Pentagon War Manual Gives Military License To Target & Attack Journalists

The Pentagon has adopted a “law of war manual” [PDF], which enables commanders to treat journalists as “unprivileged belligerents.” It suggests that correspondents who report some information about combat operations may be taking “direct part in hostilities,” a disturbing argument for justifying the killing of reporters in war zones. There also is a part of the manual that encourages journalists to submit to censorship of news reports that might aid enemies.

On July 31, the Committee to Protect Journalists published an analysis on the Pentagon’s weak justifications for treating journalists as spies. The New York Times Editorial Board also condemned the guidelines in an August 10 editorial.

...

Here we go again; the Obama administration, like the GeeDubya Bush administration before it, has repeatedly treated American journalists like the enemy. Now they merely assert the right to f^<king kill the enemy. What nation did I wake up in this morning? China? Nazi Germany circa W.W. II?

Please read Mr. Gosztola's piece and then the NYT condemnatory editorial, both linked above. Then take some comfort: this is a war game the military ultimately cannot win, although they can certainly leave a lot of journalists' bodies beside the road in the process of realizing that in a genuinely free and open society,

• the press is more powerful than even the overwhelmingly powerful military, and
• between the press and the military, the press is more essential to the survival of openness and of democratic government.

Yes, you read that right: the press tops the military. Think about it for a moment. If the course of action reflected in this manual is indeed pursued, the military can successfully physically protect a society which, thanks to that very military, is neither free nor open. Ya pays yer money 'n' takes yer choice... takes yer chances, too.

The US has been through literally dozens of wars, "police actions," etc. from W.W. II to the present, and not once has the military been granted a leash on the press, let alone a whip and a chair, in wartime. In turn, the press has been largely cooperative except on those occasions in which the military has deliberately squelched things the press had every right to publish. (Obama has been as bad as Bush in trying to shut down the press.) The NYT editorial gets that part just right: the new manual is not aimed at reinforcing the unavoidably uneasy relationship between the press and the military, but rather at giving the military the authority to silence the press when it finds them inconvenient. That is not how a free society is supposed to work. I have no desire to learn military secrets or to see them exposed in the popular media, but I see no justification in America for accomplishing that protection by nailing journalists' feet to the floor. That's not merely unnecessary: it's unacceptable.

The NYT editorial asserts that "[t]he White House should call on Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to revise this section, which so clearly runs contrary to American law and principles." As I see it, that is the focus of the matter. Will the White House do that? I'm not holding my breath...

(courtesy freepress.net)

Can This Nation Be Saved? Even By Bernie?

The estimable Avedon Carol put up the following Bernie Sanders quote...

I can tell you only that if America cannot be saved, it is not for lack of available leadership, or insufficient passion for the ideals that made our nation possible in the first place. We can do this. But we do have to show up. Particularly, show up on Nov. 8, 2016.

(H/T Avedon Carol for the photo and quote.)

‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like’ Sharia Christianity Imposed By A Court?

All the complaints one sees about attempts to establish Sharia law in the US pale before actual attempts to enforce Bible-thumping fundamentalist Christianity, such as this one imposed by a state judge in Texas:

Texas Judge: Marry Your Girlfriend Or Go To Jail

By Caitlin Cruz [TPM]...

A Texas judge told one young couple in July to get hitched or have the bridegroom face 15 days in jail for a misdemeanor charge, according to KLTV.

Smith County Judge Randall Rogers told Josten Bundy, 20, to marry his girlfriend, Elizabeth Jaynes, 19, within 30 days or go to jail for 15 days after Bundy punched Jaynes' ex-boyfriend twice in the jaw, the television station reported.

The probation agreement also included writing Bible verses and getting counseling, in addition to the mandatory marriage, according KLTV.

...

Awwww, gimme a break. Even if one assumes, reasonably enough in a county halfway between Dallas, TX and Shreveport, LA, that both members of the couple are Christian, it is still a violation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution for a state judge to sentence the man to copying Christian Bible verses and engaging in a religious ceremony. No criminal court judge in America has the authority to assign religious behavior to a convict; that violates the Establishment clause... end of story.

That said, marriage is surely the least of the problems that young couple faces... I'd respond with part of one of my favorite Billy Joel songs:

They will tell you you can't sleep alone
   In a strange place
Then they'll tell you you can't sleep
   With somebody else
Ah, but sooner or later you sleep
   In your own space
Either way it's okay
   You wake up with yourself

A Real-Life Mystery

Stella and I often shop together for presents for our respective birthdays. This is easier in several ways: our birthdays are close (July and August); we both know the "rules" (books are the preferred gifts, used books are just fine, nothing excessively expensive, etc.) and we tend to prefer the same bookstores; we can always ask about a particular item because the intended recipient is there to see it; our memories are both ancient enough to have forgotten the specific gift by the time the birthday arrives, allowing some element of surprise; there's hardly ever an unsuitable gift; etc. It's almost foolproof. Almost.

E. Roosevelt

When I began unwrapping my gift yesterday, I had a pretty good idea that it was Eleanor Roosevelt's autobiography: I had seen it, held it in my hands at the bookstore, read a few paragraphs, and thoroughly approved of Stella's choice (yes, she found it; yes, she knows my tastes that well).

H. W. Brands

But that's not what it was. When the last of the tissue and ribbon headed for the floor, I found to my surprise that I held in my hands H. W. Brands's Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. With due respect to Mr. Brands, a UT history professor who has a couple dozen books to his credit and a following in his field, and notwithstanding my acknowledgment that many of "his [Roosevelt's] class" really did think FDR a traitor to it and a radical, I have to say it was not a book I'd have bought for myself. Hey, it's a free country (or so I'm told); you have to allow me my own approach to political hagiography... and this book doesn't appear to fill the bill. Now please, no lectures about reading challenging books; life is short and getting shorter birthday by birthday.

So, there are two questions. First, how did this happen? Stella admits she paid to have it gift-wrapped at the bookstore; the swap might have been accomplished there, though that still doesn't explain why the substitution was made. Second, and harder to answer, what do I do about it?

Part of me feels I should want to read the book, even if I don't really want to read it. This copy is a signed first edition, which may appeal to the collector in you, but that collector is absent in me. And it's visibly (gently) used, giving credibility to the notion that its previous owner read and appreciated the book. But part of me just wants my E.R. autobiography that I so briefly held that day a few months ago. What to do?

ing Around

Call me slow on the uptake, but I have finally awakened to the fact that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) publishes one of the most useful web sites about digital and online rights. I am now on the mailing list, and will try to post occasional links to things you may find interesting. Here's a small assortment of items, each with my (often astringent) comment:

• EFF's DEEPLINKS blog
  

  Some entries are about South America; some of those are in Spanish.

• EFF Tells Federal Appeals Court: Google Subpoena Threatens Online Speech and Innovation
  

  The AG of Mississippi is at it again...

• Movie Studios Seek SOPA Power Through Broad Site-Blocking Order
  

  MPAA is, by itself, a good argument for the corporate death penalty. Hey, if corp's are people, and our society has no qualms about killing people, why not corp's?

... and much, much more. If you're not already a regular reader at EFF, check them out.

In The Heat Of The Night Day

... and this episode doesn't feature a small Mississippi town in the mid-1980s but rather the largest city in Texas in the all-too-present day. Neither does it star the late lamented Carroll O'Connor but instead every suffering Houstonian who has to leave her or his air-conditioned home for more than 10 minutes during the afternoon.

But the good Dog knows the heat part is certainly here. One of Houston's broadcast TV meteorologists has forecast, starting today, not less than a solid week of temperatures 100°F or greater. That's actual temp, not heat index. And we're not talking about a Dallas 100°F, but the typical humidity-laden Houston 100°F. The kind of heat that regularly kills people: old people who exhibit poor judgment in leaving home without their hats, sunscreen, heavy-duty sunglasses, etc., or children whose parents show even worse judgment by leaving them in the unairconditioned car "for only 10 minutes" while they run into a convenience store for a carton of something more carcinogenic, but no more deadly, than the excessive heat buildup inside that car.

Speaking of people sensible enough NOT to live in hot climates, Happy Birthday to NTodd; may this bright and still quite young man live to see many more!

Binge-Reading Ms. Klein

I haven't slept well the last couple of nights, and have devoted the otherwise wasted time to an attempt to finish Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine before I turn 67 years old tomorrow. In sheer number of pages, I have not that far to go, but the entire book is truly depressing reading, and it is so packed full of information and examples that one gets the most out of it by reading every word. And of course Ms. Klein, of necessity, takes the reader back to the George W. Bush presidency, which was IMNSHO even worse than the Obama era. Ah, well; I have plenty of good, cheap wine on hand, and an undeniably good book, to see me through the evening...

---

AFTERTHOUGHT: let me clarify. Obama has been disappointing to me, while GeeDubya and crew were utterly disgusting. Got it?

Federal Judge Gags On Idaho ‘Ag-Gag’ Law — This Is No Gag

Gosztola

Kevin Gosztola at Shadowproof reports a federal court decision that deems an Idaho law forbidding certain kinds of ‘whistleblower’ speech... specifically in this case, the documenting and revealing of animal abuse in an agricultural processing plant... to be unconstitutional. The law runs afoul of the First Amendment to the US Constitution: the whistleblower has the freedom to speak or publish information supportive of his/her assertion that abuse of the animal(s) does take place and may be criminal in nature; otherwise, there would be no point in whistleblowing in that context.

Something similar was attempted in Texas in 1996: some cattlemen sued Oprah Winfrey and a guest on her show for libel under the False Disparagement of Perishable Food Products Act of 1995 when Oprah and the guest discussed mad cow disease in beef cattle. (Wikipedia has a decent short summary.) The jury found Winfrey did not libel the cattlemen and did not owe them the obscenely high monetary damages they sought, but after the trial, Oprah got cold feet, refused to provide copies of the video of the original broadcast to interested reporters, repeatedly refused to speak in public about the incident, etc. Living in Texas, I can understand quite well why she might exercise such restraint.

But IMHO, those cattlemen were effing paranoid, and they certainly never had any legitimate basis for attempting to suppress speech about cows. The Constitution establishes for us all the right to defame all the cows we feel like, Texan or Idahoan, now or two decades ago, mad or merely a bit quirky. Of course it speaks more about the cowboys than the cow-critics, but the notion that any commercial product, agricultural, automotive or simply asswiping, is above public criticism is, um, fucking crazy. Let it be, pardners [sic].

Firedoglake Ends; Shadowproof Begins In Its Place

The End of Firedoglake. The Beginning of Shadowproof. The Bookmark you'll need for Shadowproof in your blogroll.

Thanks to Jane for starting this wonderful site (Firedoglake; farewell!) for people like me, a place where the Democratic Party may be necessary but is unfortunately not enough in our world. Thanks to Kevin Gosztola for grabbing and lifting the torch (Shadowproof, welcome!) on behalf of all that's right Left and decent in American politics. Both of you deserve more than just our thanks for a job well-done... and a job yet to be done. Best wishes in your new endeavor!

(SP will appear here in the blogroll on the left as soon as I can construct an entry for it.)

TX DPS Agents Guarding State Senate Chamber Must All Be Suffering ‘Time-Of-Month’...

... What else could explain their confiscation of tampons from women entering the state Senate gallery? I mean, it's not as if they're protecting public safety; if they were, they'd be confiscating guns instead... oh, wait, if you have a CHP you can carry your piece right into the gallery. For a moment I mistakenly thought we were in the State of Sanity...

Bribe for
TX Senator?

If all those agents are in such desperate need of tampons, surely it would be a kindness on our part to send them a few, preferably for free (though I'll leave that up to you), preferably unused (though that, too, is optional).

Gift-wrapping is unnecessary. Indeed, the male senators would probably prefer your donation not be made in public (which may be a good reason for you to do exactly that...)

Bill Bates Passed Away,Twenty Years Ago Today

Editor of college news-
paper, San Marcos, TX

My father, Bill Bates... trained as a journalist, served in combat in W.W.II in the US Navy, worked as a middle school teacher and guidance counselor (his true calling)... passed away on Aug. 1, 1995. It's been 20 years, but to those of us who loved him, his death aches in our hearts as if it happened yesterday.

A word to the wise, gleaned from Dad's death experience: if you smoke, stop now; if you don't smoke, don't start. Here ends the PSA. [/sigh]

President Carter On American Government Today

Interviewed by Thom Hartmann (YouTube), the venerable former President Jimmy Carter has something to say about the nature of American government today:

... It [the extreme role of money in politics since the Citizens United ruling - SB] violates the essence of what makes America a great country, in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or elected president. And the same thing applies to governors and US senators and Congressmembers. So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get, uh, favors for themselves after the election's over. ...

Please, readers, be sure to listen to the entire interview. And to Mr. Carter: you go, Mr. President! (We all should exhibit such crystal clarity at age 90. Carter was not the greatest president, but he was probably the most honest one since Honest Abe...)

(H/T Sara Jerde at TPM.)

TPP Copyright Trap

As the final tricks... and traps... are inserted into the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) notes that "Officials are now working overtime to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secret controversial trade agreement that would trap the U.S. and its partners into excessive copyright term lengths."

That's all we need: more extreme copyright terms of any sort. ABC/Disney has been using copyright for years to protect the Mouse essentially forever; we don't need more of that. Copyright was never intended by our nation's founders to obstruct future generations from creativity based on our own copyrighted creations, but these traps in the TPP appear to do exactly that.

EFF has put up a letter to the Registrar of Copyrights Maria Pallante urging her to thwart these gratuitous extensions of copyright as part of an otherwise truly unfortunate trade agreement (the text of which is still being kept secret from us). Please sign the letter; your descendants will thank you some day.

Beware
the TPP ©!