Pill Ban Banned, Fox Stomped, Pillow Smothered, Thomas Trips, Shootings

  • Hackwhackers has the big, but not exactly stunning, news. SCOTUS put a hold on lower court restrictions to the medical abortion drug mifepristone.
     
    Really. Did they have a choice?
     
    The original judge had issued an opinion that was less legal than a blog‑level diatribe. It could have been written in crayon.
     
  • Another big bit of news:
     
    Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit briefly summarizes the Dominion/Fox settlement. Shorter Fox News: “Yes, We Lied. Here’s $787,500,000.”.
     
  • Vixen Strangely is disappointed that the Dominion defamation case against Fox News has been settled merely for money. But, with other FOX plaintiffs and more Dominion defendants in the works, it may not be over.
     
    Key hope and caution:
    I still say Fox is in trouble–because I can’t convince myself the bubble has yet been created that can’t eventually be pierced, and I think the docs that Fox was hiding with respect to Rupert Murdoch must be very not great for them to have been hidden.
     
    But perhaps I should by now know to keep my hopes lower in the stratosphere.
     
  • To those a bit disappointed by the conclusion of the Fox lawsuit, Dominion lawyers have been hinting that there will be more.
     
    The Palmer Report decodes those somewhat oblique comments and speculates that the settlement of the civil case could graduate to an unsettling (to Fox) criminal investigation.
     
    Key legal point:
    Dominion v. Fox News has always just been a civil case, and was never going to be a criminal case. But when you get caught trying to obstruct the courts in a civil case, now you’ve committed a potential criminal act.
     
  • Frances Langum has the judgment against pillow guy Mike Lindell who issued a challenge and must now pay five million dollars to some enterprising soul who proved Mike’s stolen-election claims were lies.
     
    Key free retroactive advice:
    Gee Mike Lindell, maybe you shouldn’t have issued a ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ election-fraud challenge.
     
  • As the settlement settles in, News Corpse speculates on whether the separation of Fox from a Trump commentator represents the first firing.
     
    Key point:
    Times are changing fast at Fox News now that a court has affirmed that they are staffed by shameless liars.
     
  • In The Borowitz Report, the Dominion lawsuit has been settled at an extreme cost to the Fox Network. In fact, the cash strapped network is now forced to sell Kevin McCarthy.
     
    Key separation desire:
    “I wish Kevin well,” Rupert Murdoch said. “I hope whoever buys him finds as much use for him as I did.”
     
  • In the wake of the massive settlement, Dave Columbo has a suggestion or two for Fox:
     
  • The Propaganda Professor says:
    Even Fox host speaking patterns designed to inundate and deceive
    will continue to combine with
    the desire of viewers to be deceived.
     
    He does not believe the Fox settlement and the disclosures preceding it will have any effect on Fox believers.
     
    Key factors:
    All of this despite the fact that Fox “News” has repeatedly admitted that it lies to its viewers, and that its “entertainment” is not to be construed as news — indeed, that “no reasonable person” would believe what its personalities say.
     
    And it hasn’t made a damn bit of difference. The faithful flock are still as gullible as ever.

  • driftglass hears those anti-Trump conservatives who insist that the Republican party was on a healthy trajectory until Donald Trump disturbed the force.
     
    driftglass begs to differ.
     
  • Tommy Christopher has the transcript as Bill Maher uses nude photos of Stormy Daniels to dismiss the arraignment of Donald Trump.
     
    Bill’s logic seems to be:

    • Democrats say it’s about the law. Republicans say the law is unexplored, or seldom enforced, or targeted or misapplied, or something.
    • Ordinary people are bored with legal stuff
    • So ordinary people think it’s about sex (Hence the photo)
    • QED: It’s about sex (It’s always about sex)
    • Bill Clinton had a sex scandal
    • QED: Both sides are hypocritical
       

    Key point:
    Joe Sixpack is not going to take the time to wrap his head around how the statute of limitations applies to a misdemeanor of falsifying business records if it involves a violation of state election law and a second crime involving a federal campaign conditional on the residential status of the defendant.
     
    Key point missed:
    Bill’s argument is with Joe Sixpack, not with litigants, media coverage, or political parties.
    The case really is about falsifying corporate records to cheat on taxes and cover up campaign finances.
     
    Personal point:
    I am medically unable to be Burr Sixpack. Beer has carbs and I am type 2 diabetic.
    Still, I devote huge blocks of time to not thinking about mr Trump in any sexual position.
    If Joe Sixpack is anything like me, the thought of sex in this case is an invitation to reverse peristalsis.
     
    Personal boast about elderly memory:
    You’ve gotta be impressed by what I remember from high school: Retroperistalsis starts the gagging reflex.

    Note to Bill: Distorting a position out of recognizable shape, then refuting your new invention, is not an honest debate tactic.
    Just saying.

  • Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez seems skeptical of Ron DeSantis’ campaign against Mickey and Minnie:

  • At The Moderate Voice, Disney did more than cast Ron DeSantis as battling Mickey. They forced the governor to become Bugs Bunny playing a villain.
     
    Key character:
    Will this ongoing, petty, ideologically and personal war against Disney mean DeSantis’ hopes on a national level could be relegated to Neverland?
     
    Perhaps. But it will play well in FoxNewsLand.
     
    Which is clearly what the Captain Hook of American governors wants.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger crunches the numbers. Turns out the shrinking subset of voters identifying as Republicans are out of step with the rest of America on the environment.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz sees symptoms of a mental health crisis generated through the MAGA movement.
     
    Key cost:
    We are seeing daily mass shootings in school, churches, subways, city streets, and grocery stores, by people whose own illnesses and frailties have been triggered by the incendiary language and calculated lies continually perpetuated from the top.
     
    America is sickly—and half of its leaders are fine with that.
     
  • Disaffected and it Feels So Good watches one shooting after another and sees a pattern in conservative news coverage.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook finds the absolute best place where you will be safe from gun violence.
     
  • The news story from here in Missouri has gone viral:
    A Black teenager was shot by a White homeowner after going to the wrong house to pick up siblings
     
    Dave Dubya points out the physical danger associated with public messages from MAGA, Republicans, and Fox.
     
    Key point:
    We are infected with essentially the equivalent of angry book burning primates running amok with dynamite.
     
  • With grim and biting bit of humor, The Onion comes to my state as Governor Mike Parson reacts to a public safety issue. Missouri will require all residents to have a license or permit to operate a doorbell.
     
    Key safeguard:
    We’ll also be performing background checks on anyone who has improperly used a doorbell in the past.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life connects the dubious financial life of Justice Thomas with other forms of anti-social behavior.
     
    How could we have known all this would occur? Jack counts the ways.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil links to a dozen episodes in the strange case of the jetset Justice.
     
  • Justice Clarence Thomas intends to amend his financial disclosure forms, bringing the universe back into balance. Everything is right now.
     
    tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors makes what should be an obvious point. The purpose of financial disclosure is to make the public aware of the facts. Justice Thomas has now reversed the process: adjusting documentation to conform to what the public has already found out.
     
  • The Clarence Thomas excuses remind Green Eagle of a rough parallel: a story that involves police, an inebriated soul, and a prospective museum of women’s undergarments.
     
  • Legal expert Imani Gandy is joined by Elie Mystal of the Nation, in agreement that the Constitution has effectively been trashed. You can also bypass video and go to podcast.
     
    Key promo:
    It’s a supersized episode about expanding the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas, abortion, judges, and just about everything else about the law that you need to know—with a healthy dose of laughter.
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress explores how a new anti-abortion law will jail women who don’t seem like the mothering type.
     
    Key implementation:
    In addition to the new law, government officials have stated there will be a fine for the following actions: not owning a bassinet, day drinking on Saturdays, having a baby cry after looking at them in the supermarket, and simply existing in a public space without a child.
     
  • PZ Myers remembers Parler, the conservative clone of Twitter. Parler did not so much die as fade away. Professor Myers makes the case that social media and capitalism are not a good match.
     
    Key contradiction:
    That’s the fatal flaw: the free flow of information is a strong social good, but when people exploit it for profit it’s no longer free.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara really likes the Parents’ Rights Movement, because he thinks it’s all about abolishing public schools. If parents want their kids educated, they’ll come up with a way to pay for it privately.
     
    Key libertarian ideology:
    If your schools are so good, why do you need to collect your revenue and students by force of taxation and compulsory attendance laws? Don’t you think people would voluntarily choose your schools?
     
  • Former evangelical pastor, current atheist, Bruce Gerencser has an idea of why so many still in the faith support book banning.
     
  • Sometimes two-sides can be fair. Scotties Playtime has two examples of those of us who share the faith.
     
    A true believer with kids sees a rainbow pin and reacts by screaming obscenities at employees about oral sex. He is eventually forced out by security officers.
    Did I mention the screams were all in front of the kids?
     
    And
     
    Two elderly Christians, painting a welcoming rainbow on steps for their church, are harassed by homophobes and their work vandalized. The church takes a stand, repairing the damage, continuing to welcome.
     
    Key quote from Uniting Church President Rev. Sharon Hollis:
    A place of worship is a sacred space where all people should feel welcome and safe. I stand against these acts of vandalism and verbal attacks on Church members. We send our prayers and solidarity to Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney and to all LGBTIQA+ people of faith and their allies.
     
  • In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson takes us back 25 years to the end of widespread religion-based violence in Northern Ireland and the central role in peace played by Clinton envoy George Mitchell.
     
    Key negotiating tactic:
    …two years of listening had paid off: all the different sides trusted him. “He listened us to agreement,” one of the political leaders said.
     
  • The Strategic Studies Book Club reviews an analysis by the late Harry Summers, an infantry Colonel who, after retirement, became known as an expert on the Vietnam war. His central thesis is that the US lost in Vietnam by confusing enemy tactics with overall strategy.
     
    Personal Opinion:
    Ignored in this analysis of the analysis is the possibility that the Domino Theory as applied in Southeast Asia was wrong. And that the adjoining theory, that all communist oriented sides in all conflicts were controlled from a central room in the Kremlin.
     
    In Vietnam, there was more immediate, very local, fuel. A radical form of Christianity had taken over the South Vietnamese government and was stomping all over the Buddhist majority.
     
  • Infidel753 posts a wonderful piece, stressing the importance of getting even small details right. Careless inaccuracy should cast doubt on an intended message.
     
    Key example:
    … if the producers of a video about energy didn’t bother to ensure that their presenter was pronouncing “nuclear” correctly, we’re entitled to wonder if they were similarly careless about other things, such as facts and figures cited in the video. It creates a certain level of doubt.
     
    He exempts wording that, for the sake of clarity, deliberately diverges from grammar norms. Clarity trumps grammar.
     
    For example the Star Trek mission is to boldly go where no split infinitive has gone before. (Okay, he didn’t put it quite that way.)
     
    That did remind me of the retort, sometimes credited to Winston Churchill, on ending a sentence with a preposition:
     
    This is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.
     
    Okay, so Infidel is correct. He pretty much always makes the effort to get the details right, and it does give us a high degree of confidence in his posts.
     
    For myself:
    I cling to the usual excuse for errors that escape my own proofing:
    I am considered by some to be elderly, possibly because of age.
    It’s lame, I know. But that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 succinctly (which is to say one sentence) explains an important distinction:
     
  • YellowDog Granny has suggestions on how to get folks to refrain from using profanity. What her suggestions seem to have in common: Stop trying.
     
  • John Scalzi at Whatever has been experimenting with electronic music, and releases a few samples. Not bad!
     
  • SilverAppleQueen gets poetic about her mariner bringing his boat in from the sea.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has standards:
     

  • In local baseball, The Savanna Bananas support their pitcher:
     

– Podcasts –
 

One thought on “Pill Ban Banned, Fox Stomped, Pillow Smothered, Thomas Trips, Shootings”

  1. finally some good news – people need to remember that it works against us to think that one win is all we need, & then get totally demoralized by the least challenge – justice requires (& deserves) ongoing work to uphold

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