Friday Reads: Losing Constitutional Rights is not an American Value
Posted: May 6, 2022 Filed under: just because 54 Comments
Good Day Sky Dancers!
Well, it’s my turn to grieve with our community as our democracy turns to rule by reactionary theocrats. Both Lady Liberty and Blind Justice are women. Both will be less than second-class citizens soon by the pen of angry white men and a Hand Maid. Theocratic fascists on the Supreme Court-appointed by Republican Presidents who did not win a majority vote are taking down the rights of the majority of citizens and doing so without the consent of the governed.
Are we all going back to the place where only land-owning white men are recognized by the Constitution and U.S. Law? Is that where the Federalist Society is leading us? A country where the rest of us are ruled by their whims and superstitions? Will some of us go back to being their chattel? Their property? How can we remedy this gross injustice?
Rep Adam Schiff reminds us that the number NINE is only used in the Constitution for unenumerated rights and not for the number of judges on the Supreme Court. UnJust Alito sure forgets this one as he hammers his gavel of religious oppression on a majority of Americans. The superstition of a witch burner in 17th century England gets say over our bodies and we don’t?
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
The irony of their findings is as perverse as their outcomes. Let me remind you of a 2014 ruling “Supreme Court: Abortion ‘Buffer Zones’ Violate Freedom of Speech”. Evidently, harassing women getting health care at a clinic is free speech while protesting their decision in front of their building needs a large buffer zone plus cement barriers and huge fences.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that putting up “buffer zones” around abortion clinics is a violation of the First Amendment.
The decision, which reversed a lower court ruling, found that a Massachusetts law that imposes a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics puts an unconstitutional limitation on protesters’ freedom of speech. Written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the unanimous decision in McCullen v. Coakley is an immediate victory for pro-life groups, which have fought hard for the right to protest outside of abortion clinics, and a loss for some pro-choice groups that sought to provide blanket protections for people attempting to enter and leave such facilities.
Evidently, anything that gets women killed and harmed is free speech. They don’t need to see or hear from us. It is really obvious now that the SCROTUS 4 plus the Hand Maid don’t care about anything but their zealotry and crusade to push us all out of the way of the divine white, male christoban hegemony.
The Republicans have been wrong and dishonest in so many ways that it hardly should surprise anyone. It’s fully documented that the last 5 Republican-appointed justices lied under oath. Yet, it is unlikely any of them including the openly corrupt Clarence Thomas will face any kind of real justice.
We continue to see the deceit employed by Republicans to cover up the insurrection on January 6th. And they are still at it. From Dana Milbank at The Washington Post: “McCarthy’s lying at the border cements him as the Great Prevaricator.” Republicans are trying and saying anything to change the narrative. Our southern border and the leak of Alito’s hate manifesto are just two issues of no substance they’re passing off as issues using their best jazz hands.
The Great Prevaricator stood on the banks of the Rio Grande and released a mighty river of deceit.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in a news conference Monday afternoon with fellow Republican lawmakers at the southern border and in a separate interview with Fox News, misrepresented the source of illicit fentanyl. He grossly distorted a description of phones the federal government is using to track immigrants who crossed the border illegally. He teased the dubious notion that Democrats somehow obtained and leaked the audio of a private meeting he had with fellow Republican leaders.
And then there was this showstopper: He dissembled about his own lie.
First, he claimed he wasn’t lying when he falsely denied a New York Times report that he had told colleagues after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that he would advise President Donald Trump to resign. He suggested he misunderstood the question.
Yet McCarthy then appeared, in his garbled syntax, to repeat the original lie that he never told colleagues he planned to ask Trump to resign: “If you’re asking now, ‘Did I tell my members that we’re going to ask?’ Ask them if I told any of them that I said to President Trump. The answer is no.” (According to the audio recording of that meeting, McCarthy in fact said he was “seriously thinking” of telling Trump “it would be my recommendation you should resign.”)
Telling a baldfaced lie, particularly one of such magnitude, is a sign of low character. But repeating the very same lie just seconds after explaining you hadn’t told the lie in the first place is a sign of low brain activity.
Alas, this may well be the next speaker of the House.
I bolded that last sentence for emphasis. This is how I feel every time one of them opens their mouth. This means you Senator Say Anything, Susan Collins.
I called BB earlier this morning just so I could say Fuck you Susan Collins out loud to someone. And no one believes you’re shocked by Justice “I like Beer”‘s bald-faced lies either. It’s obvious you wouldn’t know the truth if it fell on you.
“Rally Mohawks! Bring out your axes, and tell King George we’ll pay no taxes on his foreign tea . . . — a song of 1773,” Panel 3 (1955) from “Struggle: From the History of the American People” (1954–56), by Jacob Lawrence.
Earlier this week, Republican senator Susan Collins claimed to be shocked and dismayed at the draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. Specifically, the Maine lawmaker was beside herself at the idea that Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch had misled her about their positions on the landmark ruling during their Supreme Court confirmations. Collins, you see, was one of the only people on the planet—along with her colleague Lisa Murkowski— who thought that the two conservative justices, nominated by a president who vowed to exclusively appoint judges who would overturn Roe, would not, in fact, overturn Roe. (While the votes could change, Politico reported that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh had preliminarily agreed with the majority to strike down the 1973 decision after hearing oral arguments last December.) “If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office,” Collins said in a statement.
Given how angry the lawmaker was about having apparently been lied to, how much she supposedly cares about preserving the right to an abortion, and how the whole thing blew up in her face so embarrassingly, you might think she’d be doing everything in her power right now to prevent such a right from being axed. But you would be very wrong!
In addition to saying Tuesday that she would not support abolishing the filibuster to allow the Senate to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade ASAP, Collins declared on Thursday that she would vote “no” on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish the statutory right to an abortion and is expected to be voted on by lawmakers next week. Why? According to Collins, it just recognizes too many rights for pregnant people. “It supersedes all other federal and state laws, including the conscience protections that are in the Affordable Care Act,” she told reporters when asked about her support of the bill, adding: “It doesn’t protect the right of a Catholic hospital to not perform abortions. That right has been enshrined in law for a long time.”
Incidentally, according to Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Collins’s claims about what the bill would do—and her excuse for not voting for it—are completely unfounded. “Some are saying that this legislation would tell hospitals—certain religious hospitals—that they have to perform abortions,” he said at a press conference without referring to Collins by name. “That is simply not true. This bill simply gives providers the statutory right to provide abortion care without medically unnecessary restrictions. That’s plain and simple. So this rumor is false.”
Collins is possibly lying to herself, but definitely to us if she thinks she’s really pro-choice. I think she’s mostly Pro-Susan Collins not wanting to be harassed by the same free speech given people charging and shouting nasty hellfire shit to women seeking healthcare at clinics.
Remember how we all couldn’t understand the attack on Iraq, much less Afghanistan based on 9-11. Remember how an illegitimate Dubya got the Supreme Court to make him a POTUS? Well, Uncle Joe did a good thing today.
It’s no secret that the Saudis were involved. Watch this story. I believe the fallout will be big.
For more than 20 years, successive US presidents have given Saudi Arabia a pass on the question of whether the kingdom’s government had anything to do with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As the story goes, plenty of individual Saudis were involved — including 15 of the 19 hijackers and Osama bin Laden — but there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government itself was behind the attacks. That’s more or less what the 9/11 Commission concluded, and the Saudi government continues to cite the commission’s report in official statements as proof that “Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with this terrible crime.”
In its report, the commission took particular pains not to implicate Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who met two of the 9/11 hijackers in Los Angeles shortly after they arrived in the US. Bayoumi then helped them move to San Diego, where he signed as the guarantor on an apartment they rented.
Bayoumi has long maintained that he met the hijackers by coincidence, a claim the commission did little to contradict. Instead, it painted a mostly innocuous portrait of Bayoumi’s background, concluding that he was in the US “as a business student” and that he worked for the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority. “I don’t believe he was a ‘Saudi government agent’ working to help terrorists,” wrote Philip Zelikow, the 9/11 Commission’s executive director, in response to questions from a journalist in 2007.
But over the past several months, a raft of new documents released by the American and British governments suggest that the 9/11 Commission got it wrong. An FBI memo declassified in March, in response to an executive order by President Joe Biden, reported that Bayoumi was receiving a monthly stipend from Saudi intelligence. In other words, he was not a student but a spy. According to the FBI memo, dated June 14, 2017, Bayoumi was tasked with gathering information “on persons of interest in the Saudi community” and passing the intelligence to Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador at the time.
“Allegations of Albayoumi’s involvement with Saudi intelligence were not confirmed at the time of the 9/11 Commission Report,” writes the memo’s author, an FBI special agent at the bureau’s Washington field office, whose name is redacted. “The above information confirms those allegations.”
A second declassified FBI memo shows that a confidential source told the FBI there was a “50/50 chance” that Bayoumi had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and “assisted two of the hijackers while residing in San Diego.”
The FBI declined to comment. But the revelations appear to undercut the Saudi government’s claims that it had no ties to the 9/11 attacks. While US intelligence agencies have repeatedly concluded that the Saudi government as a whole had no advance knowledge of the 2001 plot, they have flagged specific Saudi agencies and members of the royal family as having ties to Al Qaeda. Last year, newly declassified FBI files complicated another crucial piece of Bayoumi’s narrative, suggesting that his initial meeting with the two hijackers had been arranged by contacts at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles.
1915 February Frontispiece Suffragette – VOTES FOR WOMEN – for The American Magazine – painted by Mary Green Blumenshein a.k.a. M.G.B.
Republicans Lie. Women Die. Soldiers Die. Immigrants and Asylum Seekers Die. Children languish in cages and Die. Native Americans Die. Black, Brown, and Asian Americans Die. We get Insurrection, less voting rights, more expensive drugs and healthcare, subsidized Fossil Fuels that kill us and the planet, and the last guy in the White House that enough bad things cannot be said about including his role in the statistic yesterday that OVER 1,000,000 Americans have died of Covid-19. And just open any social media of any republican voter and you’ll see their lies repeated back at you. They are knee-deep in Lies. The Big Lie.
1 million have Americans died of Covid. That’s an “unfathomable number”. Remember all the Trump lies about nothing to see here when it was first diagnosed on his watch? (via NBC News)
The U.S. on Wednesday surpassed 1 million Covid-19 deaths, according to data compiled by NBC News — a once unthinkable scale of loss even for the country with the world’s highest recorded toll from the virus.
The number — equivalent to the population of San Jose, California, the 10th largest city in the U.S. — was reached at stunning speed: 27 months after the country confirmed its first case of the virus.
“Each of those people touched hundreds of other people,” said Diana Ordonez, whose husband, Juan Ordonez, died in April 2020 at age 40, five days before their daughter Mia’s fifth birthday. “It’s an exponential number of other people that are walking around with a small hole in their heart.”
How many more of these lies do we have to live through? Just imagine if the Supreme Court had not appointed Dubya. No Bush V. Gore enablers on the current court. No war in Iraq or Afghanistan. A real plan to save the planet. Just imagine if Hillary had won. A strong Nato checking Putin’s intentions. Diversity so that our country represents all the people and protects the right to vote! Laws that support all of us! Access to every bit of healthcare Women need! A country where you’re safe from religious indoctrination by a vocal and violent minority! Just think of what we got and what we missed out on!
Well, we’ve been through most of that as a community. Let’s hold each other in our hearts and do what we can to stop this attack on our democracy and our constitutional rights! Even our old friends the French See us.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Oh, and btw, FUCK SUSAN COLLINS!!!!!
Monday Reads: Changing your Ways, Changing those Surrounding You
Posted: May 2, 2022 Filed under: just because | Tags: Aborton Rights, Opioid Crisis, Senior Health, Universal Early Childhood Education 30 Comments
Paul Gauguin, Interieur avec Aline Gauguin, 1881
Good Day Sky Dancers!
I spent the weekend avoiding the news mostly. I did go out to vote for the one thing on our ballot here in Orleans Parish which passed. It was to increase the millage on our property taxes to expand the early childhood education programs here in our schools. It passed although the number of people voting was small and appeared to be those of us deeply committed to universal preschool.
I got into a discussion with the vote workers. It ended with they are all our children and they deserve it. It felt good to vote for the benefit of the village children. We all raise them.
Then, one of the forgotten headlines brought the news to me. Remember the Opioid Crisis? It’s still out there. I was spending the evening with my neighbor across the street and decided to check on the ballot returns at about 8 p.m. I couldn’t do it because I’d accidentally left my phone at home. I crossed the neutral ground about the same time I heard a series of shots coming from the abandoned naval base and the main buildings. I’m so immune to the sound of gunshots from there I really thought nothing of it.
I couldn’t locate my phone so I went back across the street to have my neighbor call me and then back across again. By that time, I heard a series of 10 shots, coming from back behind my house towards the canal where a large encampment sits at the far end of the old base’s parking lot. They live in the old gym facilities. They nearly burnt it down a few months ago. But, that’s another story.
Henri Matisse, Portrait de Marguerite Matisse (The Reader), 1906, Musée de Grenoble, France.
I had just gotten to the sidewalk by my gate when I saw this huge white guy with a white t-shirt and Bermuda shorts on running straight at me followed by his much shorter wife having come from the bar on the corner where the base entrance happens to be. I asked him what was going on. His reply was “oh, usual New Orleans shit, I’m just getting my ride and getting out”. At that time a van showed up in front of my house and he beat your basic beeline into it while his wife waited for him to negotiate the process. (Such gallantry!) I shouted these were white mostly rural folks dumped over there from Mississippi and other places because they don’t want to deal with their opioid issues there. I honestly have never met one New Orleans person hanging out there.
By that time, the street was a swarm of police cars and the ladder truck from the fire station down the street where I had voted earlier today. I headed straight for the side door to grab Temple, chase cats to the back, and head for my bedroom. My evening out was over. The next morning I heard exactly what was going on other than it was a shootout between a man and a woman and was the usual domestic violence scene these days with guns on both sides. Except, it poured into the street. To be precise, it poured into my street.
I know some of the people who live there. I know some of their parents too that show up to look for proof of life and take the newly born grandchildren from their addicted daughters to raise. That’s a village over there of someone’s children.
I’ve taken to writing my posts later and later because the news is filled with items that show that we’re not a functioning democracy anymore with a firm social contract to others. It causes me great sorrow and dismay. Today, was no different. The headlines are brutal be they from my neighborhood, our country, or our world. Dementia Don showed up in Nebraska Saturday night and created his usual hatefest, liefest, and bizarre mix-up of words. This, of course, reminded me of that time Ronald Reagan dumped the country’s mentally ill on the sidewalks of America and no one ever looked back.
These series of embarrassing rallies have got to say something about the way Republicans ignore the real problems that people in this country live with day-to-day. What family would let their elderly father appear in public like this? What merciful group of friends would encourage it?
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Pierre Renoir in a Sailor Suit, 1890,
I continue to think the bullies in this country are getting away with murder while the compassionate among us are derided as snowflakes. The Supreme Court issued an astounding unanimous vote on a flag display in Boston. I understand the logic but one of these things is truly not like the others. From USA Today: “Supreme Court: Boston can’t deny Christian flag if it flies other flags on City Hall flagpole. “This case is so much more significant than a flag,” a representative for the Christian group said. “Boston openly discriminated against viewpoints it disfavored,” when it excluded a Christian flag.”
So my first question is WTF is a Christian flag? I’ve never seen anything like that hanging in front of any church I attended or visited. The second is that I’ve basically come to avoid a lot of Christians these days seeing them mostly as grandstanding bullies and this comes off like that.
As I’ve said before, these folks are not your mother’s Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. Church ladies who attend their church potluck in the basement over prayers and scripture. Nor are they the social justice arms of the “normal” churches that care about drug addicts, early childhood education, and the provision of appropriate senior care. I’ve got a small group of nuns in a convent around the corner who are likely horrified by the entire flag idea. These are the ones that provide the local free clinic and the senior living center down the street. This is the kind of good trouble Christians of my youth used to take on. We visited rest homes, fed hungry people, and fixed up homes. We never flew flags. Just did good. But, anyway, here we are. This is from USA Today.
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Boston may not deny a Christian group the ability to raise a flag at City Hall alongside secular organizations that are encouraged to do so to celebrate the city’s diversity.
The unanimous decision was the latest in a series of rulings from the high court favoring the protection of religious groups, though in this case the issue was more about the First Amendment’s protection of free speech than its promise that Americans may practice their religion without government interference.
“We conclude that Boston’s flag-raising program does not express government speech,” Associate Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court. “As a result, the city’s refusal to let (the group) fly their flag based on its religious viewpoint violated the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”
A mix of conservative and liberal justices joined the court’s opinion, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. There were no dissents.
That vote appeared to reflect the fact that the religious group had support that transcended traditional ideological and partisan lines. The Biden administration, for instance, sided with the group and against Boston in the case.
Vincent van Gogh, Mother Roulin with Her Baby (1888).
Well, I’m sure that’s going to attract all kinds of flags that we never imagined showing up there in Bean Town. I foretell the entire display coming down shortly before the Grand Wizard and other groups have a go at it. I’m not sure free speech is supposed to be a free-for-all of toxic one-upmanship.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper charges in a memoir out May 10 that former President Trump said when demonstrators were filling the streets around the White House following the death of George Floyd: “Can’t you just shoot them?Just shoot them in the legs or something?”
Why it matters: The book, “A Sacred Oath,” contains vivid, first-person revelations by a top Cabinet member, bolstering outsiders’ accounts of extreme dysfunction in Trump’s White House.
- Esper, who had earlier been Secretary of the Army, was fired by Trump after the 2020 election.
That moment in the first week of June, 2020, “was surreal, sitting in front of the Resolute desk, inside the Oval Office, with this idea weighing heavily in the air, and the president red faced and complaining loudly about the protests under way in Washington, D.C.,” Esper writes.
- “The good news — this wasn’t a difficult decision,” Esper continues. “The bad news — I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid.”
Behind the curtain: The book was vetted at the highest levels of the Pentagon. I’m told that as part of the clearance process, the book was reviewed in whole or in part by nearly three dozen 4-star generals, senior civilians, and some Cabinet members.
- Some of them had witnessed what Esper witnessed.
- During the book’s security review, Esper sued the Pentagon over a classification dispute.
Context: Esper enraged Trump by publicly stating in June 2020 that he opposed invoking the Insurrection Act — an 1807 law that permits the president to use active-duty troops on U.S. soil — in order to quell protests against racial injustice.
- Michael Bender — then with The Wall Street Journal, now with the N.Y. Times — reported last year in his book, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” that Trump repeatedly called for law enforcement to shoot protesters during heated meetings inside the Oval Office.
Breakfast in Bed’ Mary Cassatt, 1897
So, the most cogent take on all of this I feel is out there in The Atlantic with this piece by Derek Thompson: “This Is How America’s Culture War Death Spirals. Why Disney vs. DeSantis is the future of politics.” Declaring an end to the Republican-led culture war might make us more of a compassionate, caring, and functional democracy.
If you’re a conservative wondering where all this Millennial corporate activism is coming from, try to see things from the liberal perspective. Trump is a wannabe authoritarian who desperately tried to overturn a democratic election. He failed, but his clownish followers still stormed the seat of government, apparently thinking they could accomplish by force what the president couldn’t accomplish by law. State-level Republicans are purging bureaucrats who refused to go along with Trump’s attempted cancellation of the election. Meanwhile, Republicans have moved ever further to the right on LGBTQ issues; they are empowering citizens to enforce severe anti-abortion laws in Texas and many other states; and the Supreme Court’s conservative majority may soon overturn Roe v. Wade.
If Republicans have reasons to feel paranoid about liberal companies stomping on their values, Democrats certainly have reasons to feel paranoid about conservative lawmakers flirting with authoritarianism as revenge. Looking around at their political leadership, Democrats are bereft. The president is feckless, the Senate is pathetic, the House of Representatives is powerless, and the courts are strewn with Republican appointees. What lever of power is left? The cultural lever. This is the context in which LGBTQ Disney employees find it necessary to urge their executive team to act as their proxy army in Florida politics.
…
To review, today’s culture-war death spiral is being accelerated by reactive polarization on both sides. Republicans, freaked out by what they see as cultural disempowerment, are yanking politics right; Democrats, freaked out by what they see as political disempowerment, are pulling institutions left.
The Three Ages of Woman,1905, Gustav Klimt,
And ah yes, ladies, they are coming for our birth control, our uterus, and our basic right to our moral agency with aplomb. This is from the Washington Post and Caroline Kitchener: “The next frontier for the antiabortion movement: A nationwide ban. Advocates and some GOP lawmakers have started mobilizing around potential federal legislation to outlaw abortion after six weeks of pregnancy”. These folks are on the edge of the fight against democracy. They are theocratic fascists.
Leading antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress have been meeting behind the scenes to plan a national strategy that would kick in if the Supreme Court rolls back abortion rights this summer, including a push for a strict nationwide ban on the procedure if Republicans retake power in Washington.
The effort, activists say, is designed to bring a fight that has been playing out largely in the courts and state legislatures to the national political stage — rallying conservatives around the issue in the midterms and pressuring potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates to take a stand.
The discussions reflect what activists describe as an emerging consensus in some corners of the antiabortion movement to push for hard-line measures that will truly end a practice they see as murder while rejecting any proposals seen as half-measures.
Activists say their confidence stems from progress on two fronts: At the Supreme Court, a conservative majority appears ready to weaken or overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that has protected abortion rights for nearly 50 years. And activists argue that in Texas, Republicans have paid no apparent political price for banning abortion after cardiac activity is detected, around six weeks of pregnancy.
While a number of states have recently approved laws to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy — the limit established in the Mississippi legislation at the heart of the case pending before the high court — some activists and Republican lawmakers now say those laws are not ambitious enough for the next phase of the antiabortion movement. Instead, they now see the six-week limit — which they call “heartbeat” legislation — as the preferred strategy because it would prevent far more abortions.
And no matter what lies they spin, that ain’t a heart. It’s a cluster of vibrating cells. The good news is that Women’s Groups are not asleep on reproductive rights issues.
BTW, Covid-19 isn’t done with us. New York Numbers are escalating into the yellow zone and there are still new variants on the horizon? Will that be the next public health issue thrown on the heap of let’s ignore the opioid crisis, let’s toss grandma out of her facility, and let’s just let women die of childbirth while we discuss pet religious and economic fetishes like tax cuts to rich people and corporations based on something other than science and reality?
Field Workers, Ellis Wilson, circa 1958-41
Oh, and back to my original concern. States are now determining what they will do with the Opioid settlement today. It’s time to make sure the people with the issue get the help they need.
The Sackler family and Perdue Pharma are being forced to confront their victims. (Via NPR)
For the first time during the long legal reckoning over the opioid crisis, members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma heard directly from people who say their company’s main product, Oxycontin, wrecked their lives.
David Sackler, Richard Sackler and Theresa Sackler listened and watched during the roughly two-hour long hearing as people described surviving addiction and spoke of losing loved ones to the epidemic.
The Sacklers spoke briefly to confirm their presence, but did not respond to the testimony.
“You created so much loss for so many people,” said Kay Scarpone, whose son Joe Scarpone, a retired Marine, died of an opioid overdose.
“I’m not sure how you live every day. I hope you ask for God’s forgiveness for your actions. May God have mercy on your souls,” Scarpone said.
Many of the people who testified held up photographs of dead loved ones.
“As a physician and a mother, I have been consumed with grief,” said Dr. Kimberly Blake, whose son Sean died of an opioid overdose.
“In 2020, I was hospitalized with depression because I couldn’t face another Mother’s Day without him,” she said.
Here’s an update of what’s happening from BioSpace located in Seattle.
Arguments regarding the Purdue Pharma opioid settlement continue to be heard in court. On Friday, attorneys representing the Connecticut-based company and the Sackler family squared off against the Department of Justice over the question of whether or not legal wording can protect the family from future lawsuits.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported the Department of Justice is wrangling over a cornerstone provision of the settlement agreement that will provide a level of protection for the Sacklers against future opioid-related lawsuits. The settlement agreement locks the Sackler family into paying approximately $6 billion into the nationwide fund that will be used to manage the opioid settlement.
While the deal has been widely supported by state attorney generals, a division within the Department of Justice is questioning if the U.S. Bankruptcy Court has the power to craft an agreement that provides protection against future legal action, such as the one granted to the Sacklers.
The legal question will play out in court and, if the DOJ is correct, could dismantle the opioid settlement and clog up the courts with additional opioid-related lawsuits, according to Bloomberg.
The latest settlement agreement includes a provision that the Sackler family gives up all ownership of Purdue Pharma. It will allow the company to move forward with its reorganization plan and rebrand to Knoa Pharma. A majority of the new company’s profits will be used to lessen the ongoing crisis.
Purdue isn’t the only company to see legal action. Texas-based Natera is the subject of a securities-related class-action lawsuit that alleges the company withheld information regarding the reliability of its prenatal test, Panorama, and screening test for kidney transplant failure, Prospera.
There are updates on many states via Google as well as this site. I can speak from experience that ensuring these addicts have some form of treatment or care is important. Most of our major cities have issues that are worse than mine here in New Orleans.
I still try to work and vote local. If we all improve our neighborhoods and care about our neighbors, we build a better world. Most of us don’t need to let our religious flags fly. What we need to do is let our personal values and beliefs take flight with action. Love one another. Take compassionate action. Be kind to yourself and others. These are my daily mantras in these difficult days.
Have a good week Sky Dancers!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Shaking the Tree
by Peter Gabriel
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Waiting your time, dreaming of a better life
Waiting your time, you’re more than just a wife
You don’t have to do what your mother has done
She has done, this is your life, this new life has begun
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Turning the tide, you are on the incoming wave
Turning the tide, you know you are nobody’s slave
Find your sisters or brothers who can hear all the truth in what you say
They can support you when you’re on your way
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Changing your ways, changing those surrounding you
Changing your ways, more than any man can do
Open your heart, show him the anger and pain, so you heal
Maybe he’s looking for his womanly side, let him feel
You had to be so strong
And you do nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all
We’re gonna break it down
We’re gonna shake it down, shake it all around
No no no no no no
No no no no no no
No no no no no no
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
You had to be so strong
You do nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all
We’re gonna break it down
We’re gonna shake it down, shake it all around
Friday Reads: Massive Respect to Congressman Jamie Raskin
Posted: April 29, 2022 Filed under: just because | Tags: Greene, House January 6 Committee, Jamie Raskin, The Insane Mrs 28 Comments
Emil Nolde’s Peonies and Irises (1936)
Good Day Sky Dancers!
The tone of speeches in the House of Representatives–pretty much from its inception–has always had outliers that prefer to rage against the other side rather than behave in a strict parliamentarian manner. The brilliant prosecutor and representative Jamie Raskin was called-out for using unparliamentary language against, of all people, Majorie Taylor Greene. The pearl-clutching is pretty amazing given the antics of Ms. Green have been so shameful she no longer holds any seats on any committee. But, sure, let’s call out Mr. Raskin for speaking the truth to crazy.
The controversial words were calling her “cheerleader for the insurrection.” That sounds like a pretty accurate description to me. Frankly, I wish more congress critters would stand up to these people on the floor and elsewhere. They deserve to be maligned for their actions and words. But then, watch Raskin’s speech to see what you think before I start going to the Beltway pundits and pearl-clutchers. Also, ask yourself wtf is that woman wearing on the floor of the House of the People? Is that outfit professional or do they have Pajama Thursdays now? The speeches were about setting up rules of the debate on a program of lend/lease for Ukraine similar to the one used for the United Kingdom of Great Britain prior to U.S. entry into World War 2. It wasn’t a PJ party.
Wassily Kandinsky’s Murnau The Garden II (1910)
So, I don’t see what all the fuss is about do you? However, some old white Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania complained. This is from The Hill which notes Raskin’s apology.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Thursday withdrew words he made on the floor after he called Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) a “cheerleader for the insurrection,” admitting that he had used “unparliamentary language” on the House floor.
Raskin, the lead manager during former President Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, did so after Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) asked for Raskin’s words to be taken down, a request that is made if lawmakers use offensive language or make remarks that could be considered unparliamentary.
The dispute took place during a debate on the rule for the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, legislation that would essentially speed up the delivery of military aid to Ukraine as it fights off an invasion by Russia.
Raskin criticized Greene immediately after her own two-minute speech on the bill. Greene had not mentioned Ukraine in her own remarks, but had focused on what she said was an “invasion” at the southern border. Greene has been critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
“Gentlelady talked about a massive invasion. We had a massive invasion of our own chamber. And she continued to be a cheerleader for the insurrection, and deny what happened here,” an animated Raskin said.
Reschenthaler at that point asked for Raskin’s words to be taken down.
There was then a pause of about 15 minutes in proceedings before Raskin asked for unanimous consent to withdraw his words, which was agreed to without objection. He admitted to using “unparliamentary language.”
Die Blumenterrasse im Wannsee-Garten nach Süden – Max Liebermann, 1921
Check him out on Twitter. He appears to be another big fat liar for the right.
The real news that concerns Congressman Raskin is his role on the January 6 committee and what we know about the upcoming Public Hearings. This is the best news I’ve heard in some time. This is breaking news from NBC: “Jan. 6 committee to hold series of hearings starting in June The hearings will start June 9, with some taking place in prime time and others during the day.”
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol will hold a series of hearings on the probe in June, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said.
There will be as many as eight hearings, the first on June 9, with some scheduled for prime time and others during the day, he said.
Thompson told reporters as he left the Capitol on Thursday that the public will hear from outside witnesses, people “we’ve not heard from before,” adding that “their testimony will be on point as to why this investigation was so important.”
“We’ll tell the story about what happened,” he said. “We will use a combination of witnesses, exhibits, things that we have through the tens of thousands of exhibits we’ve interviewed and looked at, as well as the, you know, hundreds of witnesses we’ve deposed or just talked to in general.”
Joaquín Sorolla’s Louis Comfort Tiffany (1911)
Jamie Raskin gave us a bit of hope with his press interview yesterday. Here’s a bit of what he said via MSNBC and Steve Benen: ‘Raskin: Jan. 6 probe to expose previously unreported crimes. Jamie Raskin said we’ll soon learn about crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack “that have not yet been alleged.”‘
There’s been ample speculation of late about whether the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack will make criminal referrals to the Justice Department, most notably against Donald Trump. In fact, The New York Times reported this past weekend that the question of whether the former president crossed legal lines has effectively already been answered.
The evidence suggests the former president obstructed a congressional proceeding and conspired to defraud the American people, which could serve as the basis for a criminal referral to federal prosecutors. The report came two weeks after a federal judge released a ruling in a civil case that concluded Trump “likely attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress” on Jan. 6, which would be a crime.
Judge David Carter added, “The illegality of the plan was obvious…. Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”
But as striking as these revelations are, there’s no reason to assume that we know the full scope of the possible criminal misconduct. Rep. Jamie Raskin spoke yesterday to The Washington Post and suggested new revelations are on the way.
“We have not been shy about criminal evidence we encounter, and our report will be profuse in setting forth crimes that have not yet been alleged. But, having said that, we are not a prosecutorial entity. Our job is to make a report to Congress and the American people about what happened on Jan. 6 and what needs to be done to prevent coups and insurrections going forward.”
When the Post asked whether there will be consequences for those behind the insurrectionist violence, the Maryland Democrat added, “As in most mob-style investigations, the Department of Justice seems to be working its way up from the bottom to the top. They have charged a lot of people with violent assault, destruction of federal property, interference with a federal proceeding and now, increasingly, seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to overthrow the government.”
I will never forget this nor should any other present or future citizen of the U.S.
Well, that’s interesting too. And, I imagine he has some dirt on MTG which is sure to raise eyebrows and justify his words on the floor. There are a few interesting ‘guests’ that will be questioned next month by the Committee.
Rudy Giuliani is expected to appear next month before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The expected appearance comes after months of negotiations between lawmakers and the former mayor of New York, who served as former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney for much of his presidency.
Giuliani, a central figure in Trump’s failed bid to overturn the 2020 election, was subpoenaed by the committee in January and has been engaging with lawmakers, through his lawyer, about the scope of the subpoena and whether he may be able to comply with some requests.
In its subpoena, the committee alleges Giuliani “actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of the former President and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results.” The subpoena also states Giuliani was in contact with Trump and members of Congress “regarding strategies for delaying or overturning the results of the 2020 election.”
CNN has previously reported that Giuliani oversaw efforts in December 2020 to put forward illegitimate electors from seven states that Trump lost, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme.
CNN also has previously reported that Giuliani may be willing to testify about claims of election fraud but that he did not intend to waive executive or attorney-client privilege.It is unclear whether the committee has agreed to honor Giuliani’s concerns about privilege, but he can invoke privilege protections in response to individual questions if he so chooses.As with other witnesses under subpoena, the committee has previously said it expected Giuliani to “cooperate fully.” The committee declined to comment Wednesday on Giuliani’s expected appearance.
So, that’s it from me today! It’s Friday so there’s got to be more things coming! BTW, all the artists’ gardens paintings in today’s post were suggested in this article from The Guardian written by Sarah Crompton in 2016. “Flower power: the gardens that caused modern art to bloom.” There are stories about each of these artists.
Monday Reads: It’s always the same Nonsense!
Posted: April 25, 2022 Filed under: Crimes against Children, Psychopaths in charge, public education, Putin’s War, religion, Republican Code Words and Concepts, Republican politics, Republican presidential politics, Russia, Russia-Ukraine War, Stock Market, Ukraine | Tags: Kellyanne Conway 20 Comments
Seated Female Clown (Mlle Cha-U-Kao), 1896 Wall Art, Henri
de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Met
Good Day Sky Dancers!
BB is the authority on this, but I’d just like to say if you want any of the best examples of projection as an ego defense mechanism, choose any Republican. The Encyclopedia of Britannica sums it up nicely. “Projection is a form of defense in which unwanted feelings are displaced onto another person, where they then appear as a threat from the external world.” From the existence of Pedophiles to Cancel Culture, Republican sloganeering puts a target on something “liberal” and then focuses on getting the attention off the incredible number of instances of it that appear in the Republican Party domain.
A few days ago, I put this Newsweek article up down the thread. “GOP Senator Ray Holmberg Resigns Chair After Texts to Child Porn Suspect.” The details of anything other than the texts aren’t known right now, but it sure seems a lot of Republicans are overly intrigued with pedophiles these days. Of course, we know of many recent Republican officeholders–most notably Denny Hastert, the former Speaker of the House– that were actual pedophiles. A judge referred to him as a “serial child molester” after determining he had been molesting boys he coached over decades. We also have the examples of MagaRats Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan. There’s an awful lot of deflecting and projecting dealing with that horrid behavior.
And who could forget this one from a few weeks ago? From Vanity Fair: “TED CRUZ WARNS DISNEY PROGRAMMING WILL SOON DEPICT MICKEY AND PLUTO F–KING.”
In an extremely weird set of remarks, even for him, the Texas lawmaker opined at a live recording of his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz: “I think there are people who are misguided, trying to drive, you know, Disney stepping in, saying, you know, in every episode now they’re gonna have, you know, Mickey and Pluto going at it. Like, really? It’s just like, come on guys, these are kids, and you know, you could always shift to Cinemax if you want that. Like, why do you have—it used to be, look, I’m a dad. You used to be able to put your kids on the Disney Channel and be like, alright, something innocuous will happen.”
And then there’s this: “Kellyanne Conway Knew Of ‘Sexual Allegations’ Against Nebraska Candidate Months Ago. The former White House adviser and Donald Trump are working for Charles Herbster’s election as governor despite allegations he groped eight women.” This is from HuffPo, as reported by Mary Papenfuss.
Former Trump administration White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said she heard last year about “some kind of sexual allegations” against GOP Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster — but she’s working to get him elected anyway.
Conway alleged on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast that groping allegations raised by eight women, including a Republican state senator, were somehow cooked up by current Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who does not support Herbster, a corporate CEO who has never held office.
…
Ricketts “got in my face” 10 months ago vowing to “destroy Charles Herbster,” said Conway. She offered nothing else in the way of proof that Ricketts is behind the assault accusations.
A key accuser is GOP state Sen. Julie Slama. She said in an emotional radio interview earlier this month that she was “in shock” at what she called an “assault” by Herbster at a Republican dinner in 2019.
As I was … walking to my table, I felt a hand reach up my skirt, up my dress and the hand was Charles Herbster’s,” Slama said, her voice shaking, in an interview on News Radio KFAB in Omaha. “I was in shock. I was mortified. It’s one of the most traumatizing things I’ve ever been through.”
Slama added: “I watched as five minutes later he grabbed the buttocks of another young woman. … This was witnessed by several people at the event.”
You may read more about the allegations at the link. And here’s my cartooning friend from Nebraska on the Pornhusker candidate. By the way, Ricketts also graduated from our High School! ICK!!!!
We have more on the orange snot blob and his crime syndicate family as I’m writing this. This is fresh off the virtual presses from the New York Times. “Judge Holds Trump in Contempt Over Documents in New York A.G.’s Inquiry. Former President Donald J. Trump was ordered to turn over materials sought by Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and will be fined $10,000 per day until he does so.”
A New York judge on Monday held Donald J. Trump in contempt of court for failing to turn over documents to the state’s attorney general, an extraordinary rebuke of the former president.
The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, ordered Mr. Trump to comply with a subpoena seeking records and assessed a fine of $10,000 per day until he satisfied the court’s requirements. In essence, the judge concluded that Mr. Trump had failed to cooperate with the attorney general, Letitia James, and follow the court’s orders.
“Mr. Trump: I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously,” remarked Justice Engoron of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, before he held Mr. Trump in contempt and banged his gavel.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said she intended to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Still, the ruling represents a significant victory for Ms. James, whose office is conducting a civil investigation into whether Mr. Trump falsely inflated the value of his assets in annual financial statements.
Illustration by Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone
So a few more stories about other thuggish clowns. Wherever you see a thuggish clown, there will be a thuggish religious figure to give him a messianic complex. This is by Tom Nichols, writing for The Atlantic. “Putin’s Unholy War. Putin, the Patriarch, and the corruption of Orthodox Christianity.”
For most of the Christian world, Easter is over. For Orthodox Christians, however, Easter week has just begun—and Russia, the largest Orthodox country in the world, is still relentlessly pursuing the invasion and barbaric destruction of its mostly Orthodox neighbor, Ukraine. In fact, the renewed Russian offensive in the Donbas, replete with day and night bombardment of mostly Orthodox, mostly Russian-speaking areas in eastern Ukraine, began just after Russians and Ukrainians observed Palm Sunday.
I note this because I, too, am an Orthodox Christian, and I am watching one nominally Orthodox nation try to slaughter another.
In most of my comments on the Russian war against Ukraine, I’ve tried, as best I can, to provide you with dispassionate analysis. But I hope this week you’ll allow me a few personal observations as I head toward Easter. I realize that sometimes the cold equations of political analysis can seem far removed from our emotions, and so I thought I would share with you some of my own.
Although my career was mostly spent as a scholar and Russia expert, it is difficult for any area specialist to be completely objective about the countries they study, because our lives end up unavoidably connected to the subject of our profession.
…
Nonetheless, whether friend or enemy, I have spent my life trying to understand Russia and its people. Now, like everyone, I am disgusted by Russian savagery. Fury grows in me each time I see the mutilated corpses and leveled homes—not only because of the sadistic violence, but also because I know that the Russian regime, in trying to destroy the Ukrainian nation, has destroyed a chance, at least for some years to come, for a better world.
And for what?
For the messianic dreams of a small man, a frightened and delusional thug leading a criminal enterprise masquerading as a government, who believes that he is doing God’s will.
You might be surprised at the last sentence, but Vladimir Putin really believes this. He thinks he’s on a mission. I’ll come back to this in a moment, but it’s a reality that too many in the West have either overlooked or chosen to ignore. And as much as I’d like to lay all of this mayhem on Putin’s shoulders alone, we now have to accept that his butchery of innocent people is either tacitly or openly supported by millions of Russians. Yes, there are brave Russians who have risked their lives to protest this war, but there is no way, any longer, to deny that Putin enjoys more support than any decent nation should give to such horror.
And so I grieve not only for Ukraine, but for the knowledge that no matter how this war ends, the era of hope that began in 1989 is over. Ukraine is now the scene of the largest conflict in Europe since World War II. NATO and Russia are openly enemies again. Nuclear war, for a time a forgotten abstraction, is a real danger.
Putin Gay Clown meme, Illegal Russian Memes That Poke Fun at Vladimir Putin Prove the Power of Digital Art
Putin’s messianic madness is magnified by the blessings of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church leader for the invasion of Ukraine. This has split the church. (Via WAPO) This so reminds me of all the evangelicals who see Trump as some kind of messiah. White Patriarchal Nationalism is just a potent poison wherever it manifests itself.
Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers. His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that President Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.
“Let this image inspire young soldiers who take the oath, who embark on the path of defending the fatherland,” Kirill intoned as he gave a gilded icon to Gen. Viktor Zolotov during a service at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in mid-March. The precious gift, the general responded, would protect the troops in their battles against Ukrainian “Nazis.”
One more clown to send in today.
If you haven’t gotten the idea that my post today is all about the clowns who want money and power and will do any schtick to get it, well, you know now. Now, this has nothing to do with Musk’s diagnosis of having Autism Spectrum Disorder but I think we can see more than a bit of Narcissism in all the folks we read about today. I will leave Twitter if the Orange Cheeto and his hateful cult are allowed back on. Free speech isn’t about lying or harassing people and calling them ugly names. I use my block and report button continually because I prefer not to see hateful people try to take over a discussion.
Twitter is said to be nearing a deal to sell itself to Elon Musk, according to The New York Times and other outlets, 11 days after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO shocked the industry by offering to buy the company in a deal valuing it at more than $41 billion.
A deal could be finalized as soon as Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal. Twitter declined to comment on the reports.
Reports that a deal is imminent come after Musk revealed last week he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to acquire the company. Twitter’s board met Sunday to evaluate Musk’s offer to buy all the shares of the company he does not currently own for $54.20 a piece, a source familiar with the deal confirmed to CNN. The source said that discussions about Musk’s bid have turned serious.
Musk appeared to hint at the completion of a deal on Twitter on Monday when he tweeted, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”
The potential sale agreement caps off a whirlwind news cycle that began less than a month ago, when Musk revealed he had taken a more than 9% stake in the company and ramped up calls for changes to the social media platform.
I just want quick access to breaking news as reported by the reporters. Oh, well. To me, there are critics and then there are damn liars with a mean ax to grind. I want none of the latter.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Friday Reads: QAnon Queen on Trial
Posted: April 22, 2022 Filed under: QAnon Queen Marjorie Taylor Greene, U.S. Politics 24 Comments
By David Horsey
Seattle Times cartoonist
Good Day Sky Dancers!
I’m watching CSpan this morning and it’s a painful display of an old white codger defense attorney objecting to every question put to MTG by the plaintiff’s lawyer. The defense is trying to wrap her entire career up in the first amendment. She’s cornered by the plaintiff’s lawyer and instead of giving yes or no answers, she’s just blathering on and basically committing perjury because the yes or no questions are backed up with evidence and her own words.
She just said she only supports “peaceful” protests while this is on the record.
https://twitter.com/richardhine/status/1517525504387129345
The judge keeps telling her to answer yes or no and she’s now answering with “I don’t remember” most of the time. She doesn’t remember what she said to CNN when it’s clearly on the record. She doesn’t remember what she tweeted when it clearly came from her now-defunct Twitter account.
The Old Coot Defense lawyer is having difficulty looking at the pile of evidence of what MTG has said that clearly indicates she’s said things like calling Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi a traitor or posting and retweeting a lot of seditious tweets from others. She denies being aware of any of this and it was all supposed to be wild like spring break.
Everything now is “Sorry, I don’t remember.”
From NPR: ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene is in court as part of a legal challenge to her candidacy.’
Controversial Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia on Friday faces a challenge to her reelection by voters and a supporting legal group, who are seeking to knock her off the ballot for her role prior to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Greene is answering questions Friday in an Atlanta court as part of the candidacy challenge. That makes her the first Republican member of Congress to testify publicly under oath about the Capitol riot, even as a Democratic-led committee back in Washington, D.C., has spent months investigating the attack.
Greene is in front of a judge because a handful of voters in her district, represented by a nonprofit called Free Speech For People, say Greene should be disqualified because they allege she encouraged and supported the rioters who stormed the Capitol.
Lawyers with Free Speech For People are leaning on a provision in the U.S. Constitution that forbids any member of Congress involved in an insurrection from serving in office. It’s a section of the 14th Amendment, passed in the years after the Civil War to prevent former Confederates from returning to their seats in Congress.
The legal theory is mostly untested in modern history because there hasn’t really been a serious insurrection since the Civil War.
Greene has long deployed violent rhetoric against her political opponents and has routinely spread false claims about the 2020 election, including in the leadup to Jan. 6, 2021.
Specifically, lawyers for Free Speech For People point to a tweet sent on Jan. 5, calling the next day a “1776 moment,” which is code for political violence in some far-right circles.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene fomented an insurrection on Jan. 6,” says Ron Fein, legal director for Free Speech For People. “She’s a danger in office to the entire republic.”
Mike Luckovich
Wow! She must have amnesia!. From CNN: ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene testifying at hearing over whether she should be disqualified from running for reelection.’
A potentially precedent-setting disqualification hearing is underway Friday in an Atlanta courtroom, aimed at determining if Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is constitutionally barred from running for reelection because of her role in the January 6 insurrection.
Greene is testifying as a witness during the marathon hearing — making her the first lawmaker to testify under oath about their involvement in the insurrection. She is currently on the stand, was sworn in and is being questioned by lawyers for the voter who challenged her candidacy.
At the disqualification hearing, Greene said under oath that she “had no knowledge of any attempt” to illegally interfere with the counting of the electoral votes on January 6.Greene also testified that she believes President Joe Biden lost the election to Trump.
From Newsweek Tweet: “Marjorie Taylor Greene Testimony Live: Greene Says She Called for Peaceful Protest.”
‘I Never Mean Anything for Violence,’ Greene Says
After resolving IT issues, Andrew Celli, one of the lawyers for the prosecution, continued to grill Greene about her social media posts.
Greene said the prosecution was speculating her intentions behind tweeting about expected “wild” protests in support of Former President Donald Trump on January 6. She repeated that she was encouraging attendance at a peaceful demonstration that day to support Trump. Greene said no one tweeted on her account without permission, but she cannot recall who was responsible for the tweets in question.
“I never mean anything for violence, my words never mean anything for violence,” Greene said.
Whoah! MTG just made a big mistake! She brought up Q Anon and said she didn’t believe it. And Old Codger is of course objecting while MTG just keeps whining about being persecuted. I’m pretty sure the defense didn’t want that subject introduced into the mix.
You may follow all the obfuscation with me here on NPR’s feed.
Good thing there’s all this evidence of everything she’s said and done. She sure seems to have a sudden bout of amnesia. Oh, and everything from CNN is a chop job on her.
Well, hopefully, somebody gets rid of her presence in Congress if not the Georgia voters, maybe they’ll toss her from the House. She’s out for lunch now.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
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