Protests, SCOTUS, Inquirer, Jury Protection, Gags, Bleach, Dog Killer

Nope.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/GjsVyBBL9k

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) April 9, 2024

• Kevin Drum has the moral distinction in Gaza about right.
   
  Key difference:
  Hamas invaded Israel for the express purpose of slaughtering civilians. Israel may be guilty of not caring enough about civilian deaths in Gaza, but they are fundamentally fighting against a terrorist group which has the announced aim of destroying Israel.
   
  This is not some mushy, hair-splitting distinction that’s blind to Israeli behavior. It’s fundamental to the most minimal conception of human decency.
   
• Master of Informed Rant Max’s Dad is back (Yay!), taking on a couple of US Senators, one from here in Missouri.
   
  Key call:
  Hawley has equated the deployment of the Guard in 1957 to protect black children from mobs of white racists and thugs to Columbia’s really loud screeching-into-a-bullhorn lamebrains with an agenda of antisemitic nonsense.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit is wrong in implying that pro-Palestine protestors must be antisemitic, right in saying they should clearly and forcefully condemn Hamas and October 7 savagery, totally right that this protestor deserves to be ostracized, and most probably correct that police presence seems highly selective.
   
  My clarification: Individual police officers do not decide where they are assigned.
   
• mr Trump desperately wants to postpone his criminal trials until after the election.
   
  Sure enough, SCOTUS deliberations this week have seemed less deliberative than deliberately dawdling.
   
  Those Justices following the law and the Constitution are concerned that absolute immunity will allow a President to jail or assassinate political opponents or members of Congress or pretty much anyone they don’t like.
  Everyone on the court agrees that’s what immunity would mean.
  Everyone agrees that would be real wrong and shouldn’t be allowed.
   
  End of story, right?
  Well, no.
   
  Conservatives on the court are concerned that being necessarily political and obviously visible would make every President a prosecutorial target.
  Wouldn’t current safeguards and established procedures protect against that, as they always have?
  Conservatives are not just concerned, but concerned as all hell. Future Presidents will definitely be prosecuted for littering or parting their hair wrong or something.
   
  Everyone agrees that the littering and hair concern does not apply to the case before them.
  So end of story, right?
  Well, no.
   
  Conservatives on the court want to take time, a lot of time, loads and loads of time, to considering weighty questions that don’t apply.
   
  mr Trump will be pleased, no matter what the eventual decision.
  Delay will have been achieved.
   
  tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors presents this week’s questions and answers along with a bit of entertaining venting at the high court mess.
   
• Dave Columbo gets a good explanation of the difference between fake news and The National Inquirer:
   
  
• From The Borowitz Report comes the startling news as millions cancel subscriptions to The National Enquirer after learning its stories may not be true.
   
• We exist in an increasingly high-tech world. Julian Sanchez does a bit of experimenting and demonstrates how very hard it is, in a Trump-level high profile case, to protect members of the jury.
   
• At The Moderate Voice Associate Editor Kathy Gill goes to gag orders: What they mean in Trump’s case, gag orders in the past (OJ, Michael Jackson, and more), what famous people have gone to jail for violating, and what makes Trump’s violations unusual.
   
• Vixen Strangely looks at Trump posts that range from weird (massive invisible crowds) to violations of gag orders (witness intimidation) and speculates about a combination. What if he gets jailed for contempt and nobody shows up to protest?
   
• In News Corpse, mr Trump instructs his devoted followers to hold massive demonstrations over his criminal trial. He is disappointed at the result.
   
  I have a thought:
   
  
• Jimmy Kimmel has a few words on all the Trump crowds that mysteriously vanished this week in New York:
   
  
• driftglass traces the passing of the baton from Palin to Trump, notes the excuses then and now by conservative notables, and explains the core problem experienced by the Republican Party, that problem being Republicans.
   
• On Tuesday, Frances Langum joined in the national celebration of ‘Inject Bleach To Fight Covid’ Day, the anniversary of the most radical medical suggestion from a president.
   
  I remember well my later fond wish:

  I hope this COVID hoax is over soon.
  I'm itchy from injecting all those household cleaning products.

  — Burr Deming – @BurrLand01@mastodon.world (@BurrLand01) January 9, 2021

• Dave Dubya finds that racists, religious extremists, bigots, and white supremacists all have something in common.

• Hooray for official spying? Really?
  In this case, maybe.
   
  PZ Myers brings us a few details on a group of students and parents in Utah protesting about the obnoxious behavior of “furries” – kids dressed as, and acting like, furry animals. The anger is directed at bullying and unreasonable demands being directed at normal, non-participating kids.
   
  Sadly, the protesting kids and their manipulative parents forgot the existence of video cameras in every part of the school, documenting what really happened.
   
  Oops.
   
• Yikes!
   
  Iron Knee at Political Irony brings us the operatic video: The Phantom of the MAGA.
   
• Hackwhackers directs our attention to …well… here in St. Louis, as a well known right-wing blog defames enough citizens willing to fight back, and Gateway Pundit collapses.
   
  My note: Free speech screeches to a halt at the edge of defamation against ordinary unsuspecting citizens, some of whom become willing to fight back in court.
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the links, and devotes some sad songs, to the victim as Republican Kristi Noem slaughters her dog.
   
  In her defense, she seems to have been annoyed and irritated at the time. So there’s that.
   
  OH! And M. Bouffant is guest hosting Mike’s Blog Round-Up this week for Crooks & Liars with links to liberal blogs.
   
  As we say in Missouri, Dew Drop Inn and leave a greet.
  (Okay, we don’t actually say that here, except in Bloomsdale a bit to the south of St. Louis, but what the hey!)
   
• At The Onion, teenagers explain what it’s like partying with Matt Gaetz.
   
• Tommy Christopher covers the event as President Biden has a comment or two about the Trump Bible and abortion rights.
   
• Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group provide a podcast analysis (yeah, it’s audio at this point) as the Supreme Court seems to signal they will slam the door on Emergency Room patients if they are pregnant.
   
• In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson directs our attention to under reported Biden protections for elderly patients and those who care for them.
   
  The same analysis is available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.
   
• Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has a word on the dangers of immigration:
  

  "…Border Patrol has found that more than 99 percent of its encounters had no criminal convictions of any kind…"
  "Of the criminals, most were convicted of illegal entry, while fewer than 12 percent had convictions for violent or property crimes." https://t.co/2tPPW6eNpy https://t.co/pSTi4VIqSu

  — James Wigderson (@jwigderson) April 21, 2024

• CalicoJack in The Psy of Life has been doing some traveling and comes up with an observation and a question. China seems to drown in nonsensical bureaucracy and absurd over-regulation. So why is the US so far behind them in affordable, reliable, electric vehicles and recharging infrastructure?
   
• The electoral system of choosing a President has, quite horribly, resulted in the installation of Presidents who have been rejected by actual voters.
   
  There are two problems with correcting that original constructed error by the founders.
  1. It is as hard to change the Constitution on a democratic electoral question as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
     (See what I did there?)
      
  2. Most of us of a certain age were taught, even in grade school, the lie that the original reasoning had to do with balancing large vs small states.
     Spoiler: The only reason was to protect slavery.
      

  There is a scheme to overcome the Constitutional point, called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
   
  Infidel753 explains how the NPVIC would work, and why it won’t work and why it would be dangerous if it did work.
   
  His alternative reminds me of discussions with my daughter before she grew up into magnificent adulthood. We had talked about racial and sex discrimination in the adult world.
   
  We decided that one alternative when confronted by an unfairly tilted playing field is to figure out how to win on an unfairly tilted playing field.
   
  That does not excuse injustice, about which we have a moral obligation to anger. It simply narrows the objective to winning against it.

• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has more numbers. How do voters view the two major parties?
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara defends a free press from charges of domination by corporate media, pointing to competition.
   
  Good point where competition reigns. How about where there are few enough local entities with enough media control to reduce competition to the vanishing point?
   
  And can we apply that reasoning elsewhere?
   
  How about where science competition truly reigns, Mr. LaFerrara, as in climate research? Would that put a kink in your denialist hose?
   
• In Scotties Playtime, Scottie doesn’t detest all Christians (whew!). But he backs a popular religious personality in criticizing some of us for worshiping the Bible in place of God.
   
• North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz suggests that the real tragedy is not that most Trump supporters are stupid but that they are not.
   
  Key note to Christians:
  If The Religious Right defines for you what it means to be a Christian, your Christianity is going to look nothing like the actual teachings of Christ. It’s going to be an angry, violent thing devoid of compassion and gentleness. That isn’t your preacher’s fault and it isn’t Franklin Graham’s fault and it isn’t the Devil’s fault.
   
• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce goes back half a century, remembering a moment of kindness that changed a life.
   
• In Nan’s Notebook, Nan has experienced a painful muscle injury. Recovery is slow.
   
  I know from personal experience that messages of concern and best wishes can be encouraging.
   
• Mark Abrahams at New Scientist brings us a joint study by researchers in the UK and the US on how future murders outside of Earth’s atmosphere might be solved by new developing forensics. The focus is on blood splatters in microgravity.
   
• In Happiness Between Tails da-AL celebrates her birthday at a Los Angeles museum by taking great pictures of modern art.
   
• Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes performs a bit of autopsy on an ee cummings poem.
   
  Verdict: it may be a love ode.
   
• SilverAppleQueen has gratitude filled photos devoted to a beautiful desk, beautiful cats, and beauty.
   
• Clickbait satirist Reductress has helpful advice on how to participate in conversation without bringing up your cats.
   
• Tamra Brown seems unimpressed with new phone technology:
   
  
• Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark) is a hard to please customer:
   
  
• @whiskeywhistle98 reenacts talking while a child is in the room:
   
  
• Sarah Cooper goes from sleeplessness to executive decision-making:
   
  
• YellowDog Granny begins her wonderful collection of memes with thoughts on deliberate offense. She votes in favor.
   
• Personal note: Don’t try a medical experiment just because you see it on the internet.
  

  I've heard that, but I've never had the courage to try a real life comparison.

  — Burr Deming – @BurrLand01@mastodon.world (@BurrLand01) April 21, 2024

• Wonderful reader MDavis provides a new note on passwords: