Memorial Day, Default, Fall & Get Up, Paxton Impeach, DeSantis, Pudding

When we look for it, we can see signs of good will:

  • Hackwhackers reminds us that Monday was more than a break from work.
     
  • At The Moderate Voice retired U.S. Air Force Major Dorian de Wind and family were able to devote this year’s Memorial Day at a monument honoring seven specific crew members very near where they died in France during World War II.
     
    Key homage:
    It was singularly emotive to be able to honor our heroes so close to where they fell, yet so far away from home
     
  • Army veteran Michael John Scott waves to an elderly stranger in the distance, and notices something familiar.
     
  • Botocchio, at Vagabond Scholar, likes the newest film version of All Quiet on the Western Front, and it’s anti‑war message, but feels it could have been stronger had it been more faithful to the book. The 1930 film was better.
     
    Review of the review: Detailed, engaging, well reasoned.
     
    Key principle:
    One of the cardinal rules of good adaptation is that, if you change something, make it better.
     
    Key decision:
    There’s no reason you can’t watch both (and read the novel as well), but unless you can’t stand old movies, if you could see only one version, I’d go with the 1930 one.
     
  • A reminder that Social Security and Medicare were not all that Republicans wanted to cut this week. Veteran’s benefits were also at issue:
     
  • The battle is not over for what Republicans still regard as entitlements:

  • In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson reviews the Biden victory in defeating the Republican default. The President casts it as a bi-partisan effort, reducing Republican bruised feelings, and preserving his ability to negotiate future agreements.
     
    It turns out demands issued by Republicans contradicted their supposed focus on deficit reduction.
     
    Key illustration:
    The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the $21 billion cut in funding to the Internal Revenue Service, for example, will result in $40 billion in lost revenue, increasing the deficit by $19 billion.
     
  • You might get the feeling, as do I, that Dave Columbo and Laura High are not really talking about their family budget. Okay, it’s a good, non-technical illustration of the semi‑near default:
     

  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life has logic, and evidence on the default drama to back his thesis. For some in the Republican congressional fortress, destroying the economy was never a threat. It was a goal.
     
  • Vixen Strangely, at Strangely Blogged, tracks the averted default crisis and to whom credit and blame should go.
     
    Key debit:
    I don’t understand rooting for failure. I think patriotism is when you want your countrymen and women to do well, right? And I think the side that doesn’t do that is…problematic.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has advice on the negotiated debt ceiling ransom and future hostage taking.
     
  • President Biden produced a good outcome in preventing default, then tripped, fell, got up, and made a speech. Disaffected and it Feels So Good shows the Republican reaction to both as part of a more global pattern.
     
    Key characteristic:
    One of the components of Ur-Fascism as famously written about by Umberto Eco, is that the enemies of Fascists (i.e. Republicans) is that their enemies are simultaneously both too powerful and yet too weak.
     
    Key inadvertent admissions, with Republican politicians directly quoted:
    We are not interested in whether the allegations against Vice President Biden are accurate or not
    and
    I don’t want Reality! I’m asking the questions
     
  • Green Eagle has gotten to like Joe Biden, but says he did not save the country from default. And, no, neither did Republicans. No, not the voters. In fact, not anyone in the news. Want to find out who?
     
  • Harris County is the largest county in Texas. And it’s a sticking point for Texas Republicans. It pretty much always goes for Democrats. And there is some conservative anxiety in that. What if it’s a harbinger of things to come in enough areas to take Texas to a blue future?
     
    Not much can be done about those pesky Democrats. The Texas constitution says you can’t pass a law targeting specific counties.
     
    Scotties Playtime has the playbook. Republicans have passed a bill allowing the Republican Texas Secretary of State to overturn future election results in ALL counties of more than 4 million residents.
     
    Guess which is the only county that fits that description?
     
  • tengrain, at Mock Paper Scissors, relays details about the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, including an element of irony.
     
  • The New York Times runs an opinion piece by columnist Thomas Edsall explaining that right‑and‑left delusions are driving up partisan hostility on both sides.
     
    So driftglass takes poor Tom apart and shreds the pieces before burning it all and scattering the ashes.
     
  • Tommy Christopher watches as Fox Network personalities slam Biden for not planning to debate during the primaries, but forget to mention something: mr Trump will not commit to debate other candidates before or President Biden after his own presumed Republican nomination.
     
    Key historical fact:
    In fact, no incumbent president in modern times has ever held debates with rivals in their own party, including Trump in 2020.
     
  • Dave Dubya reviews Godwin’s Law regarding references to Hitler, and applies it to his thoughts on mr Trump.
     
  • News Corpse has the Constitution handy as mr Trump promises that he will revoke the part of the 14th Amendment that says those born in the US are citizens. Their parents must prove their entire family are here legally.
     
    So much for my mama, whose parents were from Ukraine.
     
    I wonder if that will apply to the children of new non-citizens. I suppose I could get used to Ukraine. Should my grandkids go into hiding?
     
    We might also be concerned whenever a potential future president promises to overrule the Constitution with an executive order.
     
  • The Palmer Report has mr Trump promising a wild year long party in 2026 to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. The report proposes an alternate celebration.
     
    Key question:
    Who wrote this for our traitor? Because of there’s one thing we know, it’s that Trump would not know a big bad word like “semi-quincentennial.”
     
  • Republicans seem still to be trapped demonizing the primary expert who tried so hard to protect them from horrible death. North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has a harsh, but well deserved, judgment:
     

  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil is an expert in What the Hell!!, this time bringing us news of a partially collapsed apartment building in Davenport, IA with 3 people still missing beneath the rubble,
    and
    a fine after the disaster of $300 against the owner who had failed to fix the deterioration he was warned about (yup, $300)
    then
    news that officials had been working with the landlord, and threatening an evacuation if repairs did not get started.
     
    What the HELL!
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson waits for the inevitable MAGA backlash:

  • Frances Langum has a comeback or two as conservative Ben Shapiro sees so many retail outlets selling pride merchandise and thinks an anti-trust lawsuit should apply.
     
    Key forewarning:
    Wait until he finds out about the ubiquity of Christmas!
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has the story, presumably true, of kids putting on a school play, one intolerant parent objecting, and the school cancelling. Then the kids outsmart all the bigots and cowards.
     
    Key Headline:
    Hate Doesn’t Always Carry the Day
     
  • Infidel753 watches science education in India go off the rails as religious fundamentalism takes over, and warns about parallel trends in Republican efforts here.
     
    Key national damage:
    Science is not only the basis of all real human understanding of reality, it’s the basis of technology, which in turn is the basis of any nation’s prosperity, progress, quality of life, military power, ability to handle environmental issues, and pretty much everything else that matters. Any nation that neglects or rejects science will be a failure, no matter what else it gets right.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara wants to amend the US Constitution to make public education illegal.
     
    Yeah, he really wants that in the Constitution.
     
  • PZ Myers presents a new Georgia district chair who says the earth is flat and globes are an evil plot to trick us.
     
    She seems like a fair representation of current Republican thought.
     
  • After the DeSantis candidacy launch with Musk, the satiric Borowitz Report has the Twitter investigation into a keyboard clogged with chocolate pudding.
     
    Key state of the investigation:
    “We’re not sure how, but chocolate pudding seems to have seeped into one of the keyboards,” an insider on the matter said. “It’s really gross.”
     
  • Elon Musk bought Twitter, proclaiming himself a free speech absolutist. You won’t catch HIM restricting tweets with previous excuses like terrorist invitations to violence or dangerous medical misinformation.
     
    Well …
    there are exceptions. Like when such authoritarians as Erdoğan in Turkey, Modi in India, and others demand that opposition be censored.
     
    He really does get irritated when he is called on it. After all, he has no choice. Right?
     


    Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez isn’t having it.

  • The Strategic Studies Book Club goes back to 1988, reviewing writing by military strategist, the late Colin Gray. Professor Gray suggested that a geopolitical strategy must take into account national cultures.
     
    Dictatorships are unable to acknowledge any failure (I’m thinking today’s Putin). US strategic culture is based on a frontier tradition, liberal idealism, and independence from Europe.
     
    Successful US strategy in the cold war had to recognize and exploit cultural weaknesses of our foes, without violating American values.
     
  • At The Onion, there is rejoicing in pro-Putin conservative circles as Ukraine admits the country has been in a shambles since Hunter Biden left.
     
    Key quote from Volodymyr Zelensky:
    We don’t want your Abrams tanks or your Javelin missiles or your billions of dollars in aid—we just want Hunter back
     
  • Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin has a short summary of Putin’s power dive

  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce has advice for failing churches, advice we as Christians should always follow, but often don’t.
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL hosts author Robbie Cheadle, who uses her extensive knowledge of Africa, particularly southern Africa, to make the case for zoos and wildlife preserves.
     
    Key proposition:
    Any facility that offers good care to wild animals and helps to preserve them against habitat loss, climate change, and disease is a good thing as we attempt to fight the current Sixth Mass Extinction and climate change.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook says reports about auto accidents are increasingly using the phrase for unknown reasons. She has an idea of what those reasons might be.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 listens and watches as @tabithaspeakspolitics listens and watches the rainbow alarm and gives the best of all responses:
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress brings a study by the University of Colorado proving that hair grows slowest after a bob cut.
     
    Note from personal sad experience: Please don’t look for this research online. The article is satire.
     
  • John Scalzi‘s adventure story Starter Villain gets an enthusiastic review at a major publication. John excerpts the review, leaving out the spoilers.
     
    Might make you want to read on.
     
  • Mark Waulberg illustrates the importance of listening to advice > No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark.
     
  • YellowDog Granny has dozens of ways to express a bad mood.
    And they can be copied.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen has a cat at her door.
     
  • The Savanna Bananas demonstrate the value of outfielders in Georgia baseball:
     

– Podcasts –
 

4 thoughts on “Memorial Day, Default, Fall & Get Up, Paxton Impeach, DeSantis, Pudding”

    1. M. Bouffant

      Well played, sir.
      That did make me chuckle.

      You are indeed a class act.

    1. Thank you, da-AL

      I agree.
      More bodies have been found. They think they have them all.
      Hard to understand how this was allowed to happen, since the danger was documented in advance.

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