Re-Arrest, Trump’s Head, Shiny Slavery, 1488, Hot Seas, Abortion, Tony Bennett

Sometimes age and experience add up:

  • The most serious Trump indictment has been released and
    Boy Howdy
    it’s major! We’re finally talking about the plot to overthrow our democratic republic: from the fake electors to Trump pressure on state officials to Trump attacks on Pence.
     
    tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors links to the charging document (not a hard read), and notes a remaining mystery. Six co‑conspirators are not yet named. tengrain speculates on the identities of the accursed.
     
  • Dave Dubya has produced a brief, excellent, summary of each of the 4 counts.
     
  • Hackwhackers uses Twitter posts to provide expert insights on the principles and personalities involved.
     
  • Most televised experts point to the fourth charge in the new indictment as critical. It ties the others into a conspiracy to deprive very real voters of the right to have their votes count.
     
    In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson points to another supporting section that is truly startling.
     
    Trump and his plotters anticipated Americans would object to the planned overthrow. So they were prepared to meet the expected widespread pro-democracy demonstrations around the nation with military violence: using US troops to forceably suppress any dissent.
     
    Key quote from political pollster Tom Bonier:
    I understand Trump fatigue, but it feels like the president and his advisors preparing to use the military to quash protests against his planned coup should be bigger news.
     
  • Anyone know the main differences between the Watergate hearings and the Mueller Report? Come on, let’s not keep seeing the same hands!
     
    How about this?
    Watergate reduced Nixon Support from an overwhelming 49 state election win to a low 24% approval.
    Why would that be?
     
    Well-l-l-l-l-l:
    The Watergate hearings were televised. People heard witnesses firsthand.
    The Mueller report was     …well… a report.
     
    I remember one of the few honest Republicans in Congress who voted to impeach Trump. Justin Amash defended his vote, urging constituents to read the Mueller Report:
     
    Key principle:
    I’m confident that if you read Volume 2 you’ll be appalled by much of the conduct. I was appalled.
     
    Seriously? We wanted voters to read a report that had to be divided into VOLUMES?
     
    MadMikesAmerica makes a critical point about the Trump trials: We need to insist on cameras in the courtroom.
     
  • The Borowitz Report has a new Trump fundraising email asking supporters to serve prison time for him.
     
    Key Success:
    “This offer is doing even better than the Trump N.F.T.s,” a campaign spokesman said.
     
  • While the third indictment is the most serious, the other two aren’t just hanging around.
     
    Tommy Christopher watches the news shows so the rest of us don’t have to scream at the screen. But this wasn’t all that bad:
     
    A CNN host reacts as a Republican tries to downplay a previous charge: the attempted tape destruction by mr. Trump
     
    Key incredulous question:
    So, you think destroying evidence is a process crime?
     
  • Frances Langum has to explain to Fox host Greg Gutfeld why Trump can’t delete his own security tapes.
     
    Has to do with destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice, Greg.
     
    Key salient reminder:
    Greg leaves out the part where Trump was made aware that there is a subpoena for the security tapes one day before he (allegedly!) instructed his underlings to destroy them.
     
  • Stealing and hiding sensitive documents is a high-level criminal charge, particularly when that is the sort of thing that gets American spies killed. Deliberately destroying video evidence pretty much seals the deal. Why cover up something completely innocent?
     
    Could the biggest legal problem mr Trump has be his own incompetence? The Palmer Report finds the evidence in plain sight: his choice of co‑conspirators.
     
    Key weakness:
    It’s even more surreal that his two co-defendants thus far are his personal assistant and the pool guy. The former President was trying to get away with violating the Espionage Act, and this was the best cast of supporting characters he could come up with?
     
  • The primary (get that?) rightist argument is that Joe Biden is weaponizing the Justice Department to take out opponent Donald Trump with trivial accusations:
     

    Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez has a legal observation:
     

  • The Onion has the slides as Trump supporters react to the third indictment.

  • Consistent sage Kevin Drum, having read the indictment, quickly disposes of three important myths.
     

    1. Free speech is at issue.
        Kevin explains why it isn’t. Not even a little.
       
    2. It’s about Trump causing the violent insurrection.
        Kevin says no.
       
    3. They have to prove Trump deliberately lied, and it’s hard to know what was in his brain.
        Nope

     

  • The head of a conservative Wisconsin law firm says Jack Smith will have a hard time proving the content of mr Trump’s head.
     
    Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson disposes of that argument in 5 words and a brief repost from political consultant Tim Miller:
     

  • Legal expert Imani Gandy reacts to excuses from Trump supporters:

  • John Scalzi at Whatever reacts to the reaction of rightists to the new Trump indictment as they focus on free speech.
     
    Key distinction:
    Jack Smith, knowing what was coming, clearly delineated between Donald Trump lying out of his ass about having won the last election, which was his right as an American under the First Amendment, and actively trying to change the result of the election after he lost…
     
    Key obfuscation:
    This, however, has not stopped (most) of the right in the US from desperately trying to pretend there is no difference…
     
  • Dave Columbo argues with his inner Republican about investigations and charges:
     
  • mr Trump is not only on the receiving end of legal slings and arrows. His lawyers have been filing on his behalf as well.
     
    News Corpse provides a few details of mr Trump’s latest legal loss.
     
    CNN, in numerous on-air discussions, had referred to The Big Lie: the Trump claim that he had actually won the 2020 election.
     
    The Trump argument is that they are calling him a liar, which is just plain mean.
     
    And the phrase The Big Lie also implies a connection to the propaganda technique used by Hitler’s Nazi henchman Joseph Goebbels. Since Trump never met Goebbels, that makes for two counts of defamation.
     
    Key description by Trump appointed Judge Raag Singhal of the CNN segments:
    …a stacking of inferences that cannot support a finding of falsehood.
     
    Key finding:
    And as always, truth is the best defense against defamation. CNN’s reporting, according to the court, was lawful opinion, and Trump failed to make a plausible argument that it was in any way false.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony groups Republican sleight of hand as (my words) lies, damn lies, and Republican accounting tricks: A continuing tale of grift.
     
  • 15 years ago, I had no idea that the evil of slavery could be considered controversial. I wrote what I thought was a safe measure of modern anti‑slavery opinion:
    That slavery is America’s Original Sin is so commonly accepted, that it has become a cliché.
     
    That was pre-DeSantis. Now some conservatives see slavery as a job training program.
     
    At The Moderate Voice retired U.S. Air Force Major Dorian de Wind takes a look at the now infamous Florida educational search for the bright side of slavery, and the Fox Network defense of that.
     
    Somehow, a Fox personality manages to make it even worse, adding the shiny surface of the Holocaust: Jews could survive Nazi extermination camps by simply demonstrating their own usefulness.
     
  • PZ Myers considers the cheerful benefits of slavery and has a modest proposal.
     
    Key spoiler alert:
    OK, what if I suggest that people voting Republican should be automatically seized and sold into slavery? They could learn some beneficial attitudes, like empathy and tolerance.
     
  • Remember the good old days when politics was respectful and civil? Before bigotry and hatred became the in-your-face fashion?
     
    driftglass interrupts our dreamlike reverie with memories of Senator Jesse Helms(R‑Hell).
     
    Key befuddlement:
    See, now I’m all confused? Because wasn’t this during the Before Time when the GOP definitely wasn’t racist and everybody was all cozy and bipartisan and shit?
     
  • The Propaganda Professor uses Mike Pence, who is certain that racism no longer affects minorities, to explain the dangers of certainty and blind spots.
     
  • Anyone who loves logic, evidence, and wisdom, has to have a special place in the beating heart for Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged.
     
    I was once inspired by her research to add a bit of my own about secret numerical codes in religion.
     
    She, at the time, noticed a pattern in Trump postings that coincidentally mirrored those of modern Nazis.
     
    When a White nationalist group achieved notoriety by assassinating Jewish radio host Alan Berg in 1984, racists found inspiration in one of their slogans:
    We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.
     
    The slogan had 14 words, so white nationalists began attaching the number 14 to 88. 88 came from a repetition of H, the 8th letter of the alphabet, HH for Heil Hitler.
     
    So 1488 began popping up as a racist signal: We’re with you on the white side of the skin!
    We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children — Heil Hitler!
     
    Vixen Strangely, the source of uncommon insight, began noticing 1488 popping up in all sorts of Trump administration announcements.
     
    It’s three years later, and Vixen notices the same coincidence: in a posted complaint by RFK, Jr. about the Secret Service.
     
    Really?
    The same RFK, Jr. whose father was civil rights hero Robert F. Kennedy?
    The guy who became an anti‑vax nut?
    The politician who wants to run as a Democrat now but may become an independent candidate later?
    The guy backed by right wing supporters whose aim is to siphon off a few votes to ensure a Trump election next year?
     
    Yup. That’s the one.
     
    Key possibilities:
    Was it funny to some dumbass with their fingers on RFK Jr’s socials to think flirting with 1488 was cool? Because that wins you exactly zero votes in a Democratic primary. And if RFK Jr himself is responsible for it, wow.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has snide, sarcastic, completely accurate short takes on RFK, Jr. and his newest puppy whistle, Elon Musk and his new court adventure, and mr Trump and his newest legal loss.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has the poll numbers that strike me as closely correlating with IQ level. (Okay, okay. That can be written off as childish snark, although it carries the virtue of being true)
     
    A solid majority of Americans know Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. They do not believe mr Trump’s election lies. This is true of regardless of sex, age, race or ethnicity, income, education, and political party. Okay, with one predictable exception.
     
    And a solid majority of Americans now agree that extreme climate change is caused by human activity. This is true of regardless of sex, age, race or ethnicity, income, education, and political party. And, yes, with that one predictable exception.
     
  • Green Eagle makes a brief point about the hottest day in recorded human history.
     
  • YellowDog Granny is hot, hot, really, really hot.
     
  • Incandescent light bulbs are now banned in the US. Bruce Gerencser follows the rules, as should we all, and replaces the old bulbs with LEDs. But he suspects it’s a dumb, expensive, regulation that will benefit no-one and will have no effect on the environment.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 is apprehensive about the new school year, and the comedy quickly turns serious:
     
  • When it comes to rants, Max’s Dad is the Greatest Of All Time. This time, the GOAT goes after Iowa politicians as they outlaw abortions after 6 weeks.
     
    Key non-exemption:
    …any amendments, such as the one that would have exempted 12 year olds and younger from being forced to have babies, were quickly shot down by the fetus fetishists.
     
    Key consequence:
    You get raped or Daddy decides you look really purty and you get pregnant better go to the cops pronto or its illegal then too.
     
  • Let’s not dismiss every rightist cancel-culture complaint out of hand over incidents like this. But it seems fair to ask which conservatives are objecting.
     
    In Scotties Playtime, a professor in Texas is suspended after a student reports her for criticizing Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
     
    The professor is an expert on the opioid crisis, and she is alleged to have mentioned, accurately, during a lecture that the Lt. Governor had opposed policies to reduce opioid deaths.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen is discouraged about political arguments that go to personal attacks.
     
  • Ant Farmer’s Almanac has DeSantis ready to ship a new passenger by bus to NYC.
     
  • It’s like watching a return of an old Bambi Meets Godzilla video:

     
    A group of school aged Senate pages celebrate their last day at the Capitol, after everything has been closed to the public, by lying on the floor of the rotunda and photographing the majestic dome. It is a final opportunity for a lifetime photo memento of a season of service.
     
    They suddenly are confronted by a Congressman staggering out of a binge drinking session in his office: a mean drunk who sees a sudden chance to bully a group of idealistic kids.
     
    Disaffected and it Feels So Good provides some detail of the profanity-laced in‑your‑face screaming fit as Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R‑WI) gets nose-to-nose with frightened children.
     
  • Our favorite ever-cynic, M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has, in his words, For once, something good to say of the dead. He makes a good choice, providing links to the story of Tony Bennett, who took personal and professional risks to fight racism.
     
    Key Headlines:
    NBC News:
    Tony Bennett, enraged by racism, championed civil rights alongside MLK
    Washington Post:
    Tony Bennett saw racism and horror in World War II. It changed him.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook points out an obvious fact that is often skipped over by those of us among the faithful: Jesus was not a Christian. She suggests that we are worshiping, not the actual figure, but Paul’s reinvention of the Jewish Jesus.
     
  • Infidel753 often has insights that we who worship should take to heart. This week he looks at the roots of religious bullying.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life considers the balance between society’s interest in protecting citizens from discrimination and individual interest in religious beliefs. What if the two collide?
     
    Traditional legal theory holds that, if your religion forbids treating some classes of folks as equals (For example, if a restaurant owner’s beliefs tell him not to serve my wife and me because we are an interracial couple) then your religion keeps you from operating in the public sphere or the market place.
     
    The Supreme Court has torpedoed that bedrock principle and called into question all sorts of legal protections.
     
    Jack suggests a better answer can be found in mainstream religious traditions themselves.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has an observation about humanity: everyone you meet is hurting.
     
    Key message:
    Remember that no one is immune from suffering, so take time to look deeply into people and see their damage and go easy on them.
     
    Key corollary:
    But allow yourself this courtesy, too. Realize that you also deserve this same gentleness, this same space to fail. Treat your own heart as a delicate thing.
     
  • Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes is in the hospital with camera to give us photos and keyboard, I’m guessing, to provide updates and contemplations. Encouragement is easy to provide to this longtime friend.
     
  • We know her spot-on impersonations of Donald Trump.
    Now, Sarah Cooper does Mariah Carey, and wow:
     
  • The Strategic Studies Book Club goes back to the mid-1700s and the writings of Frederick the Great. Frederick thought he knew why those conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th Century BC never rebelled after Alexander died.
     
    Rather than stamp out local institutions, Alexander and his empire respected and co-opted them. So there you have it.
     
    Before Frederick the Great became King of Prussia, when he was still plain old Frederick, he objected to Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince. So he wrote a rebuttal. The section on Alexander was a small part of that work.
     
    Almost 300 years later, his reasoning seems plausible, don’t you think?
     
  • Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark) illustrates how a friend can help with an important decision:
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL shares space with blogger Kalia to explain how pets can benefit mental health.
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress brings useful advice on how to use the bathroom at someone else’s house without asking if they have one.
     
  • Minor league team, the Savanna Bananas, draw inspiration from major league performers:
     

– Podcasts –
Some of these might be worth a listen!!
 

7 thoughts on “Re-Arrest, Trump’s Head, Shiny Slavery, 1488, Hot Seas, Abortion, Tony Bennett”

    1. Thank you, Infidel.
      Kind of you to ask.

      I may not be 100%, but I’m closing in.
      Not too bad for an oldster.

    1. I appreciate your kind words, Ali.

      Doctor wants me to be lazy a few more days.
      Not a problem.

  3. thank goodness you’re in the mend! love how Imani doesn’t even break a sweat, she’s so happy

  4. Dang, Burr. I didn’t realize you had been laid low yet again. (Been slammed with work for months and not had the time for checking my favorite leftist conspiracy site!) Anyway, I am certainly glad you are almost back to fighting trim, my friend! Do us all a favor and stay healthy now, okay?!

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