Also shows: when the big one comes, a solid 20 percent of people will be filming it instead of running https://t.co/hSpCyL3Ys5
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 18, 2022
U.S. President Joe Biden will use his trip to Massachusetts to announce additional measures on tackling the climate crisis, according to White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre https://t.co/TxATdm5pMl pic.twitter.com/CskM91UNim
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 20, 2022
Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday as she began a series of high-profile appearances in Washington that will include a session with U.S. counterpart Jill Biden. https://t.co/qGDlIUfqt9
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 18, 2022
ICYMI…
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, July 19-20
raven
NotMax, How does a mouth swell make big surf at Jaws??
Dorothy A. Winsor
Kos has a couple of interesting bits this morning. First, results of a CNN poll:
Also there’s a story about the Indiana doctor suing the AG with some new info. The attorney filed another motion (I think? The threads of this story are hard for me to sort)
And
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone
Scout211
Here is the entire vote from ProPublica for the Respect for Marriage Act.
I see that my congressman (Tom McClintock) voted no. My California congressman voted no.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Ken
@raven: I can’t decide if that’s an esoteric surfing question, the lead-in to a joke probably involving a terribly bad pun, or a code phrase used by a spy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Scout211: Yeah, so did mine. What a surprise! Not.
Neither will either of my Senators, least of all Hawley who said,
Soprano2
It’s funny that Gym Jordan says the House voting on marriage equality is some kind of slam against the Supreme Court. No, Gym, it’s actually the House doing what the Supreme Court opinion says should be done – having the legislature vote on a law rather than depending on a court decision! Tells you that they are of course gunning for the Obergfell decision next.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s too bad Blunt won’t use his lame duck status to be brave and vote for it.
Nicole
So the right-wing, anti-marriage equality bill from the 1990s was the “Defense of” Marriage Act.
The pro-equality bill is “Respect for” Marriage Act.
That’s the right vs left in a nutshell for me. For the Right, it’s always about some imaginary war they’re fighting in their heads against… human decency, I guess?
BobbyK
You can actually hear people laughing in those videos from the Hawaii, pretty sure people won’t be laughing in a couple years. Also, when do you suppose the islands will be lost to sea level rise?
NotMax
‘@raven
It’s mandibular magic. Waves come in, waves go out. No can explain it, brah.
:)
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: Courage has never been Blunt’s strongest suit, and he doesn’t want to damage his reputation just as he enters the Wingnut Welfare circuit.
eta and much to my surprise, I see Anne Wagner did vote for it.
satby
I get this newsletter and thought the jackals would find her explanations of the probable DOJ processes interesting and more understandable. The author was a teacher of political science and law, so makes sense that her explanations are easy to follow and include context most discussions don’t.
Jeffro
I’m pretty sure it’ll be more than 20% of folks filming these things as they happen.
Oh well, as long as there’s one survivor each time, I’m sure the word will get out that the world needs to hurry up and take action, right? Right?
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The polls are moving in the right direction, so that’s encouraging! Dems have to overperform just to break even given the structural disadvantages, but there’s still time to move those numbers.
zhena gogolia
@satby: That looks really good, thanks.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Interesting that not even Hawley will go full Cruz and say he opposes marriage equality protections.
Lapassionara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: There are actually two proceedings. The doctor, through her counsel, is taking steps to sue the AG, as an arm of the state. Then someone has filed an ethics complaint with the state bar association, based on the AG’s lies (as an attorney, he is subject to discipline by the bar). I don’t know who filed the ethics complaint.
Steeplejack
Nice rant à la Tony Jay:
(Note: Colin is a recurring spoof caller. “Love to the family!”)
catclub
@BobbyK:
Millions of years from now. Do you know how high the volcanoes on Hawaii are?
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: She is a great follow on Twitter too. And also check out her YouTube channel.
raven
@Ken: There has been a big south swell on the islands but Jaws is on the north side of Maui so I was wonder why the surf got big there.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I was surprised by that too.
Betty Cracker
Got a chuckle out of the first two grafs of this CNN analysis of the state of the AZ senate race:
Or maybe it’s a sign that Masters is behind in the polls, and Republicans who are losing are big fucking crybabies about it like Citron Cthulhu.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Hawley is a gutless weasel with one damp finger in the air. He knows the vast majority of Americans are in favor of marriage equality, but his Christo Fascist base loathes the idea. So next year when the SC 5 overturn Obergfell he’ll just say that he respects the SC’s decision in the matter.
rikyrah
@satby:
Thanks satby
How is retirement treating you
Yutsano
@catclub: Eh. Histrionics get attention I guess. Now will sea level rise affect the arable/habitable land on the Hawai’ian islands is a different story. But again: those volcanoes are huge. And still active.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
So he’s ok with the insurrection, but opposing marriage equality is a bridge too far?
Must be a moderate.
OzarkHillbilly
Secret Service turned over just one text message to January 6 panel, sources say
with an extended finger.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Moderately crazy.
NotMax
Well, that provided a brief moment of amusement.
Watched one of those by now generic ‘coolest products on [insert retailer site] this month/year/whatever’ videos on YouTube. As some modicum of compensation for their generally being waist deep in gushing hype, the AI-generated narration is almost always good for a chuckle, whether due to the bizarre vocal cadence and/or eccentric pronunciation.
This particular one included in its product line-up the Apple TV 4k gizmo. Excerpt the artificial voice repeatedly announced it as the “Apple TV Fork.”
If going solely by the audio track, that sounds like a way cooler gadget to contemplate.
satby
@zhena gogolia: @schrodingers_cat: Teri Kanefield is really good at the explaining thing! I was a litigation paralegal for only two years, but I worked on two huge cases: the multistate tobacco settlement and another on AIDS drugs. I don’t think most average lawyers understand the scope of getting large scale litigation with hundreds of moving parts organized for trial.
WaterGirl
I Nancy Pelosi: “We don’t know which marriage he was defending.”
I love that so much. I am still giggling about that 5 minutes after reading it.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: A whole lot of people in the Secret Service should be fired and heads should roll. Figuratively.
kindness
House Democrats rock! The unfortunate thing is if these bills get killed in the Senate there will be a portion of ‘Democrats’ (and the MSM, but that is another issue) who will say that the Democratic Party has done nothing to help them and whine about whether or not Democrats deserve their votes in November. These same people don’t remember what they did to Hillary by supporting Jill Stein.
Xantar
Any Marylanders on here watching the primary results? I’m quite pleased to see Franchot sitting in third place. My preferred candidates in Baltimore also seem to be doing well.
satby
@rikyrah: Not retired, just tired. I worked 9 days in a row last week between the dr’s office and the market. Had Monday off and worked yesterday at the drs when I was supposed to be at the market. Until I sell the booth, I may as well keep going for most of the rest of this year. But the end is near on the Drs office, we have a new wonderful office manager, two new part timers, and another new one soon to be hired. It’s 100% improved from when I took it over just under two years ago; 80% new staff. Pretty pleased by that.
The Esty store is on hiatus because I just don’t want to charge the inflated prices there I need to to cover all the fees. I’m reachable by the store email: skinluvvers (at) gmail (dot) com. When someone emails, I return a list of what I have in stock and I can charge my market prices, which are $1.50 less than I needed to on Etsy.
Van Buren
@WaterGirl: Literally works for me. Just a few, “pour encourager les autres”
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: Remember, the legitimate process for getting a desired policy position enacted is always the one that it’s impossible to actually do.
WereBear
@satby: Thanks. That is really helpful.
Matt McIrvin
@kindness: I still would like to know how Joe Biden could have kept the Supreme Court appointed by his predecessors, after a series of elections in which the further Left rejected “gonadal politics” and called calls to vote on the basis of SCOTUS “extortion”, from overturning Roe.
J R in WV
@BobbyK:
Seriously? These are really tall / high islands. The Big Island is over 14,000 feet above sea level at the top of the volcano, where the Gods dwell and the observatories do their work.
So never going to be lost to sea level rise…
destroyed for human habitation? That’s a more complex question… I dunno about that.
Mike in NC
Today’s local rag has this front page article: “SC’s Haley Teases 2024 Republican Presidential Run”. Because it’s not bad enough that we have miserable shitheads like DeSatan and Abbott and Noem running. Nikki Haley was both a terrible wingnut governor and a deplorable excuse for a human being.
Kent
They will be lost to erosion eventually. And then new islands will form as the Pacific Plate slowly slides over the Hawaiian Hot Spot which is a weak spot in the the upper layer of the earth’s mantle or asthenosphere. But that is geological time.
The Hawaiian islands are too mountainous to be greatly affected by sea level rise. Low flat coastal regions like Florida and the Gulf Coast are more susceptible. Miami and other coastal Florida cities are the places we will eventually have to kiss goodbye.
satby
@WereBear: I thought so, and learned new stuff too!
Pappenheimer
@catclub: Some islands go under, but some don’t go under atoll.
Ken
@Matt McIrvin: Obviously* Biden should have invoked the Patriot Act to declare the Federalist Society a terrorist organization, and whisked all members off to Guantanamo for waterboarding.
* For certain values of “obvious”.
WereBear
@satby: i follow her on Twitter.
May your wind-down go well.
David Anderson
@Pappenheimer:
Damn, that is impressive punning.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
If I were in charge of the DoJ there would be a slurry of subpoenas issued as of this morning for everyone who carries a Govt-issued cell phone in the Secret Service, and everyone who manages security for the Serivce, both managers all the way up and hand-on techs.
They would all get to tell their story of how their specific data got destroyed despite all the legal data preservation requirements. They would get to explain their understanding of the federal data preservation standards and law, and how their specific actions were expected to preserve their data for the Archive.
Then they would all be indicted for destruction of federal data in violation of retention policies and law, suspended without pay, lose their pensions and their jobs and spend a few weeks in jail to get used to their no-longer-in-law-enforcement lives.
I would also like a small flying unicorn that deposits small gold nuggets after eating fresh fruit, thank you very much.
Mike E
From Teri’s post:
Oh well, we know that’s going to be a heavy lift from our indolent free press so a more direct hands-on approach is warranted:
Here’s what you can do.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
This is going to be interesting.
rikyrah
@Xantar:
Will you explain your happiness at the results?
rikyrah
@satby:
I had gone on Etsy and didn’t see an open store, so I thought that you were finished there.
NotMax
‘@J R in WV
Book early to lock in the best rates.
;·)
Baud
@Ken:
He. Didn’t. Even. Try.
Quiltingfool
@satby: I know what you mean about Etsy. I raised new quilt prices a bit, but that was due to rising costs of materials, not my labor. If I factored in Etsy costs, whew.
Several Juicers have purchased quilts from me via Etsy (thank you!), but I’m planning to open a PayPal account so I can mitigate 3rd party fee increases. I don’t want to close the store (yet) because I need to figure out how I can provide myself and buyers with a safe transaction place. I don’t need to increase my business exactly, just keep it reasonably steady. My spare bedroom is getting rather full of quilts, and they need to find a new home!
satby
@rikyrah: sorry! Shoot me an email.
Ken
@NotMax: I already bought into a timeshare with an ocean view.
Scout211
From CNN Apparently, it’s the darned rank and file USSS officers who are at fault. (my bold)
WereBear
@Quiltingfool: if you are looking for a online shopping cart, check out E-junkie. Happy for years, not complicated or expensive, and will let you sell branded downloads.
catclub
@J R in WV: I still think that the telephone companies that transmit those texts – and know the phone numbers, also have records of them on their servers. Also NSA
catclub
@Scout211:
So why didn’t the congress request them of the cellular providers on Jan 16 2021? Are they incompetent investigators?
Brachiator
OT British political news.
Well, now we are down to the final two candidates to replace Boris Johnson.
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss
Now there will be some campaigning and a final vote by 160,000 Conservative Party members. The results will be revealed in September. The winner becomes prime minister.
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: I heard they’re also going to do a bill on contraceptive access. The vote totals on that one will be extremely interesting. Not wanting to have it in the law that people can legally have access to contraceptive methods is still a relatively fringe position, so I wonder how many R’s will vote “no” on it.
Barbara
@catclub: Because you go outside of the entity that owns the data only when you have exhausted the possibility of getting it from the primary source. Because the third party is highly likely to protest that you have to go through the primary source first.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Scout211: Carol Leonnig said last night on msnbc that trump wanted to appoint his goon Ornato to head the secret service but the goon didn’t want the job for whatever reason
the current lame duck director was Ornatos recommendation
Barbara
@Soprano2: I personally think that the way to do this is to have a bill to protect the right of privacy of individuals to manage their own sexual and reproductive lives, including access to marriage, contraception, and abortion. It really doesn’t occur to most people that right to abortion is an offshoot of the right to reproductive freedom, including access to contraception.
UncleEbeneezer
One of my fave podcasters, former US Attorney Barb McQuade makes many of the points I raised yesterday. If you like this, please subscribe to CafeInsider.com newsletter (free with email address):
“Where is Merrick Garland?
Many media commentators have lamented his apparent absence in holding former President Donald Trump criminally accountable for his role in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and various schemes to cling to power. It’s frustrating to see so little outward action, and angering to think that Trump could get away with what appears to have been a plot to overturn a presidential election, a crime that would go to the very existence of our democracy. It’s difficult to imagine a more serious offense a president could commit.
But investigating complex, high-profile cases takes time — a long time. I am quite confident that no prosecutor could complete such a sweeping investigation by now, or even before the midterm elections, and so an absence of charges is not surprising. And, because most of DOJ’s work is done behind the scenes, a lack of overt investigative action is also unsurprising. Secrecy protects those under investigation as well as the investigation itself. If witnesses knew every step that was occurring, they could thwart the probe by getting their stories straight, destroying evidence or tampering with witnesses. And so most of DOJ’s investigative activity is done outside public view, either under seal in court filings or within the secrecy rules of a grand jury.
…
Exploiting digital communications has one downside: it takes time. For attorneys, the devices must undergo a review to shield information protected by the attorney-client privilege. Devices can then be searched for the nuggets of gold that can make a case, but finding those morsels requires running searches through thousands of other meaningless messages. Prosecutors would want to question members of Trump’s inner circle only after arming themselves with the facts by first reading their communications, and then talking to the other party to those conversations to understand the context, jargon, and shorthand used in the messages. By educating themselves first, investigators can confront witnesses with damning admissions and detect when they are being less than fully forthcoming.
Two other things to note about the absence of public challenges to grand jury subpoenas. First, prosecutors usually start with friendly witnesses before calling hostile ones. A friendly witness is one who is unlikely to fight a subpoena, like many of the witnesses who have testified before the January 6th Committee. There are plenty of witnesses to question first before reaching the hostile ones. Second, DOJ typically does not subpoena targets of an investigation. Therefore, those most likely to challenge a subpoena may never receive one.
For those who are frustrated with the pace of the investigation, I get it. But there are no shortcuts when building a case of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, a heavy burden by design.
And so where is Merrick Garland? If the attorney general is where he should be, he is at the Justice Department, receiving closed-door briefings about the latest admissions found on someone’s phone, and authorizing investigative steps to follow those leads.
Stay Informed, Barb”
Scout211
Good question. I hope that they are being too clever right now and have already subpoenaed the cell provider but they are playing a “gotcha game” with the USSS.
But some say I believe in unicorns . . .
NotMax
‘@Brachiator
In a political stunner, the announced top vote getter is a write-in candidate, Primey McPrimeface.
//
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Personally, in this case I’m OK with literally… of course, after indictment, trial, and conviction.
Joe Falco
I’ve been following along the story of TFG’s misadventures in Georgia with his now-infamous call to the GA Secretary of State and his goons both in the House and Senate. As a former resident of District GA-10, the current (lame duck, ha!) representative was subpoenaed by the Fulton County DA. So come on down, Jody Hice (R-Gilead)!
cnn.com/2022/07/18/politics/jody-hice-georgia-subpoena/index.html
It’s long overdue that this slimy SOB won’t hold a political office next year, but I’m really hoping the DA is going to make the next few months hell for him. Unfortunately, he’ll probably won’t face any actual punishment, but I’ll take for now him having to squirm and explain himself to a judge why he shouldn’t comply with the state subpoena. Looks like Jody will have to make money hawking supplements on the radio or live with whatever some Dominionist church will pay him.
sab
@Brachiator: I’m guessing that Truss gets it because they always put women in charge when the predecessor has made the job impossible.
frosty
@satby: That was a good article on DOJ and Garland. It summarized a lot of things I’ve read elsewhere.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Ha! Unfortunately, that can’t happen.
Even though Rishi got more votes here, the early polls say that Truss will win. She is getting heavy support from BREXIT hardliners.
Ken
Great, now you’ve got me worrying I’m the target of a federal grand jury investigation.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: As well you should be. You know what you did.
Betty Cracker
CNN says a judge has ordered Rudy Colludy to testify before the Fulton Co. grand jury.
satby
@catclub: just because the J6 committee isn’t stating in public every request they make doesn’t mean they didn’t do it.
Brachiator
@sab:
Could be the case.
Also, BREXIT hardliners prefer Truss.
emmyelle
Well I’m glad to see that certain members of congress took time out from their busy schedule of getting fined for blocking traffic to legislate.
I’m assuming that, anyway.
Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if they had used the money that they now must pay in fines to donate to Democrats in touch races, or to Planned Parenthood, or to the legal defense funds of doctors who are doing their jobs (which, presumably, is not, you know, blocking traffic).
Adulting is hard.
satby
@Quiltingfool: yeah, I’ve been having payment run through PayPal. I’ve offered Zelle too, but most people opt for PayPal. A couple of folks send checks.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I want a president who will fight!
Xantar
@rikyrah: Peter Franchot is currently Maryland’s Comptroller. He spent the whole time cozying up to our Republican Governor Larry Hogan and giving him bipartisan cover. If that was all he did, I would consider him unworthy of representing me but at least someone I could work with.
The problem is he got his start in Montgomery Council as a firebrand liberal. His sudden about face indicates that he has no true principles and I can’t trust him as a result.
In other news, my preferred candidate for State’s Attorney in Baltimore is in the lead. The incumbent Marilyn Mosby made her name by indicting the police officers who killed Freddie Gray which was the right thing to do. But then she secured no convictions. And since then, she’s been ineffective at prosecuting real dangerous people and she doesn’t talk to anybody in the press or in neighborhood groups. She didn’t participate in a debate in this race. And on top of all that, she is under federal indictment for property fraud in Florida. I’ve seen her in person and she’s a compelling presence who says all the right things. But she has to go.
Now the nail biter in Baltimore is our sheriff. The current incumbent doesn’t even use a computer and has failed at executing the basics of the job. He has to go if only so that someone who knows how to use email can take his place. The race is only separated by a few hundred votes.
Miss Bianca
@emmyelle: da fuq?
JGreen
@sab: According to Phil at “A Different Bias”, Truss is very much like Boris Johnson, She’s lazy, she’s stupid and she wouldn’t be interested in actually governing. She just looks for photo ops. So, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Tories did select her. And, apparently, Sunak isn’t any better; just differently bad. It’s still the Tory party and there aren’t any good choices (from the perspective of anyone outside of the party.
Subsole
@Jeffro: What, and sacrifice all this viral coverage?!
Subsole
@kindness: Oh, they remember. Bet.
They’re hoping for a repeat.
Subsole
@Kent: Houston is probably not going to have much fun, either…
For that matter, what does Seattle/Vancouver look like? Not familiar with the actual geography.
Kayla Rudbek
@Kent: my initial thoughts on retirement are that I want to make sure that I am well above any sea level rise, and fresh water available. I love going out to the Eastern Shore of Maryland/Delaware, but I don’t think that it’s going to be there in another 30 years.
Dan B
@Subsole: Both Seattle and Vancouver have hills, lotsa terrain, but the ports and industrial areas are on flood plains. Vancover’s agricultural lands are on the flood plain of the Fraser River. Development is not allowed because it’s nearly the only agricultural land in B.C. Seattle will be islands in a much larger Puget Sound.
Subsole
@Dan B: Belated, but thanks.
Original Lee
@Xantar: I’ve been out and about, not really paying attention. I will say I am opposed to Franchot, mostly because his running mate screwed my community rather thoroughly before she resigned to join his ticket.
Ramona
@catclub: At least higher than the clouds in the sky. Drove through clouds while driving up Mauna Loa…