FairAndUNbalanced.com

It’s Wednesday…

And on Wednesdays we’re ferocious! 🥰

🔊🎶
in/omeupetzinho pic.twitter.com/g6cmVz1epm

— Jess 🌻 (@jessi_asli) April 20, 2022

• Infidel753 explains new weapon technology, a cheaper, smaller, quicker, more effective version of Israel’s Iron Dome, named Iron Beam. It might protect entire populations from missiles.
   
  It will probably not be perfected in time to help Ukraine. But it might eventually provide something the world has not experienced since the early years of the Eisenhower administration: national safety from nuclear attack.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit applies her own military background and suggests one major reason Russian combat tactics have been so ineffective in Ukraine.
   
• Nojo has an affinity with Ukrainian humor.
   
• Robert Levine of The Moderate Voice does not know how Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will end, but he can take an informed look at some possibilities.
   
• Julian Sanchez sees Putin borrowing from the Governor of Florida:
  

  I see Putin is finally standing up to Critical Ukraine Theory. https://t.co/szEkG08334

  — Julian Sanchez (@normative) April 23, 2022

• Tommy Christopher brings us the laughter as President Biden pokes a bit of fun at Republicans going after Mickey Mouse.
   
• We can imagine a couple of bystanders spotting a well known figure standing next to a cardboard cutout. In Hackwhackers the couple see DeSantis with Mickey Mouse, point out the inherent silliness of the controversy, and get an unexpected response. It is the first in a series of cartoons illustrating rationality in reaction to Florida conservatives.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony notes that Governor DeSantis has gone full bore against textbooks containing subversive ideas: like American history and …well… math.

Continue reading “Iron Beam, Ukraine, War Humor, Putin, DeSantis v Mickey v Math, Debates”

I know this is specifically for law students, but I'm increasingly alarmed by advice like this that boils down to "live to work"

What is the point, then, of existing if all we are meant to do is work? Why does "being alive" depend on working constantly? What's the point? pic.twitter.com/Z0dkVdntXm

— Jenn Tristan, off-brand Baba Yaga 🇺🇦 (@JennTristanD20) August 18, 2021

2/
What you NEED to do includes things like read a book, go to a movie, play with the kids, go out with your spouse, walk in the park.

Do those 1st.

There will be enough time left to do what you WANT to do.

Like become professionally successful.

— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) August 19, 2021

Sometimes, all you need is a hug 🤗 ❤️

🔊sound up!
in/worth fees pic.twitter.com/XOwK1UbkDE

— Jess 🌻 (@jessi_asli) April 14, 2022

• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit points to largely unnoticed, subtle, evidence that Putin’s flagship in the Black Sea was sunk by Ukrainian missiles, not by some Russian accident, as Putinites would have us believe.
   
• What goes on in the bully-boy mind of Vlad?
  He sends his military to an easy takeover of Ukraine. They get bloodied in one battle after another.
  He sends threats to keep NATO countries from supplying Ukraine. Their transfer of weapons accelerates.
  He sends his flagship, the pride and joy of the Russian navy, to shell Ukraine. Ukraine sinks the ship.
   
  In Hackwhackers, Vlad uses intimidation to keep Finland and Sweden out of NATO. Guess what happens!
   
• Must seem like this:
  

  God is on Ukranian's side. pic.twitter.com/RC3lJghm8d

  — mary grace (@gycy1) April 14, 2022

  #Ukraine💙💛 #Putin pic.twitter.com/fkH1SowpN1

  — Ericka Woode (@ErickaWoode) March 3, 2022

• Nojo finds what is possible to find on what ordinary Russians are discovering about Putin’s Ukraine invasion, what they believe, and why.
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the links as yet another Russian who dares to speak up gets harassed, poisoned, and finally arrested in Moscow.
   
• Infidel753 has refrained from extrapolating Putin’s genocidal ways into any characterizations about rightists in other countries. Putin has seemed fairly close to uniquely evil. But Marine Le Pen in France and a few public figures in the US force a course correction.
   
• In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson acknowledges the anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln and reviews the similarities in threats to the Republic, then and now, the foremost of which was and is fear of democracy.
   
• There are receipts, then there is proof, and then there is this. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has more than documentation of what we pretty much already know. But this seems to seal the deal:
  Audio tapes of instructions issued to January 6 insurrectionists.
   
• The Palmer Report contains a bit of well founded speculation about a new DOJ indictment and a prominent public figure who may be in legal jeopardy.
   
• Grung_e_Gene takes a glance at an open push along a pathway to removing any democratic parts from democratic republic and tries to put a laptop into perspective.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged decides that, yes, you can sometimes take an incident involving an incidental public official and, from it, characterize the non-incidental nature of a political party. For example someone who lectures homeless people that they should model their lives after Adolf Hitler.
   
  One excerpt:
  When someone takes a look at the life story of Adolf Hitler, the takeaway should not actually be that, say what you will about the man, he was a real go‑getter.
   
• Frances Langum takes notes as Jimmy Kimmel scores against Trump and Greene but completely stomps Mr. Gaetz into the ground.
   
  My thought:
  

Continue reading “Ukraine Strikes Back, Hitler Worship, Jan 6, Slavery History, Immigration”

Let’s begin with a few moments of tearful joy:

She was born deaf. This is her hearing herself for the first time at 29 years old. pic.twitter.com/momHelvqVO

— Zen Sammich, J.D. (@ZenSammich) April 6, 2022

• Nojo takes a hard look at Putin atrocities in Ukraine, atrocities the level of which makes atrocity seem an inadequate word.
   
• Vlad Putin has an as yet unknown number of civilians lined up, hands tied, and executed for being Ukrainian. The nations of the United Nations get united to slap Putin’s wrist. PZ Myers sees it as a token response. And it is. But when an unspeakable crime is committed, and you only have available a token response, you slap the damn wrist.
   
• CalicoJack in The Psy of Life explains why the mass execution of men, women, and children by Putin troops in Bucha on some level shocks the conscience, but numbs the mind.
   
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger looks at Vlad Putin and is reminded of someone else.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit contrasts the horrors going on in Putin invaded sections of Ukraine with absurd “false flag” tales generated by Putin’s Russian and American versions of Alex Jones.
   
• tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors takes a quick look at the Putin wing of the Republican Party.
   
• Frances Langum looks into Tucker Carlson’s reaction to the Bucha massacre and finds there is no there there.
   
• Tommy Christopher listens as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is asked about the possibility that Vlad Putin will signal White supremacists in the United States to commit retaliatory terrorist attacks on Americans.
   
• Pictures being worth thousands of utterances, YellowDog Granny has something to say about Putin, the Supreme Court, Republicans and more.
   
• Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will now become Justice Jackson as she takes her place on the Supreme Court. Hackwhackers says we can call her confirmation many positive things. A victory for bipartisanship is not one of them/a>.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged watches the historic confirmation and correctly notes the churlish, contemptuous behavior of Republicans.
   
• In the Borowitz Report, Ted Cruz says that the confirmation of a qualified Supreme Court Justice sets a dangerous precedent. Yup. Parody that hits close to believable nonfiction.
   
• In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson notes the difference in focus as the committee investigating the Jan 6 attack on democracy focuses on the central roles of Trump’s inner circle and right wing bullyboy groups while Republicans focus on attacking a newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice.
   
• In Ant Farmer’s Almanac Ex-President Trump can explain burner phones and missing phone records. Okay, so it’s satire.
   
• The Palmer Report says the Jan 6 Committee has Donald Jr. nailed, but has kept that fact hidden for an important reason.
   
• John Scalzi at Whatever takes an obvious lesson from an obnoxious cold and gets another booster shot.
   
• News Corpse watches the Fox Network, so the rest of us can save precious brain cells, and sees TV personalities pushing the deadly lie that COVID vaccines don’t work.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony introduces a video of a noted White House visitor, reminding us how much we miss Barack Obama.
   
• I read Joe Walsh quite often on Twitter, where he is continuously apologetic for contributing to the illness of toxic conservatism that has been personalized by Donald Trump. driftglass gets hostile as Joe goes to podcast-land and suggests extremism happens on both sides.
   
  I don’t share the degree of irritation held by driftglass, but I do understand it.
   
  You have to find a compelling argument to convince me of a both sides equivalency. The most extreme of the extremists on the left try to push through health care for everyone. The most extreme on the right try to kidnap the Governor of Michigan.

Continue reading “Putin War Crimes, COVID, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Clarence Thomas”

I don't much care for Mr. Trump.

So I confess I would rather focus on his many failures,
rather than his one major accomplishment.

— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) April 4, 2022

No matter how old I get, I will never lose the ability to be completely immature!

What a great call! https://t.co/NEjsUj3wu7

— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) April 1, 2022

• Putin propagandists accuse Ukraine of an air strike on a fuel depot within Russian borders. Green Eagle raises an obvious point.
   
• Not all Russians buy into Putin lies:
  

  Police detained in St Petersburg Yevgenia Isaveva who came out for a performance against the war in 🇺🇦.
  She doused herself with red paint, repeating "My heart bleeds". Under her feet was a placard saying: "I feel it is useless to appeal to reason, so I appeal to your hearts". pic.twitter.com/fjZ6hry9Qf

  — Mikhail Khodorkovsky (English) (@mbk_center) March 27, 2022

• Nojo finds a cute little cartoon video created by a Ukrainian girl about a tractor capturing and pulling a tank. Everyone singing and dancing as they roll merrily along. War enters everything.
   
• Workforce managers have been boring their yawning staff members long before I became elderly, with useful aphorisms like Fail to Plan = Plan to Fail! And now, Putin ends up proving them right as rain!
   
  Bastard!
   
  Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit sees one reason Ukraine has been so successful so far in so kicking an invading bully in the tail. In several years of preparing for the conflict that Putin planned and Ukrainians anticipated, Ukrainians were astonishingly smart, and Putin’s group were comically witless.
   
• Infidel753 suggests one source for Putin miscalculation. Intelligence failures can be caused by a single characteristic pretty much baked in to power grasping authoritarianism.
   
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger points to an extreme percentage of the world living under authoritarian regimes and suggests an overarching reason Ukraine’s fight against Putin’s invasion has become especially important.
   
• tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has the numbers. It seems Tucker Carlson is unable to convince even his most ardent followers that Vlad Putin is the good guy in the Ukraine invasion.
   
• There are other lessons to be learned as well: like how to be an authentic human:
  

  Anyone notice how Poland is handling refugees? No cages! No separation of children and parents! No wall or national guard! They called the refugees their guests. We could learn a few things from them.

  — purple in a divided country🇺🇦🌻 (@Dhs64dhs) March 26, 2022

• In News Corpse President Biden is derisive about Peter Doocy’s demand that the President publicly reveal strategic contingency plans about what the US might do if Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged explains that, in hearing President Biden’s “ad-lib” about Putin, we may want to keep in mind the target audience.
   
• In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson examines economic news. With no help, no votes, just foot dragging opposition from Republicans, President Biden presides over astonishingly fast job creation and record low unemployment. Inflation is high, but appears to be a global problem, not endemic to the US.
   
• Republicans have been on this path at least since those wayback days when I was just a lad. Frances Langum reports they are still at it, as they once more unveil plans to slash Social Security and Medicare.
   
  And that is not all we may experience:

  Actually, the biggest tax hike of the century would be the Senate GOP plan, which would be around $100 billion in 2022 alone. And while we would only make multi-millionaires & billionaires pay their fair share, your agenda from Sen. Rick Scott would slam half of all Americans. https://t.co/PnPLQ592pE

  — Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 30, 2022

• Mitch McConnell demands that Republicans oppose Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court. Scottie is irritated at the lack of principle or even a coherent phony argument for his opposition.
   
• Usually indecisive Senator from Maine will be voting for Ketanji Brown Jackson after all. Andy Borowitz reports that Senate Republicans are planning to punish Susan Collins by making her sit next to Rand Paul.
   
• PZ Myers watches a police raid on the home of an anti-abortion activist, where they discover… Holy Mother of God!!.

Continue reading “Putin, Ukraine, Planning, Authoritarian, Tuck, Biden, KBJ, Slap, Covid, Madison”

• At The Moderate Voice Retired U.S. Air Force Officer Dorian de Wind notes the murder of Holocaust survivor Boris Romantschenko by Vlad Putin’s deliberate targeting of civilians. Vladimir insisted the invasion was to “denazify”, and manages to accomplish what even Hitler couldn’t.
   
• In Scotties Playtime, an aging US army veteran reacts as a little Ukrainian girl is shot in the face by one of Putin’s soldiers.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit counts the ways. If a Putin atrocity, an attack on a hospital, or patients, or newborn babies, happens once or twice, someone somewhere might see it as accidental. But thirty four such Putin accidents? Even Fox might want to revise their pro-Putin tilt.
   
• So the world knows of the remarkable history of Volodymyr Zelensky, a television comedian who became President of Ukraine then transformed into a leader inspiring the world. Nojo looks at the quality, social insight, and political knowledge involved in the original TV satire, and tells us we should not have been surprised after all.
   
• Frances Langum has the story. Sean Hannity borrows what he calls a great idea from Senator Rand Paul, a Republican representing Putin. Hannity wants us to hold up emergency war aid until and unless Ukraine comes up with a plan to pay for it.
   
• Ant Farmer’s Almanac has Tucker invited to embed with the Troops. Guess which troops.
   
• CalicoJack in The Psy of Life looks at the worldwide swing from authoritarianism to democracy and suggests conservatives might find cause to worry.
   
• Infidel753 counts the ways Putin’s war has been a disaster for Russia. After the many failures of the invasion, Putin seems to have declared war on his own intelligence service.
   
• The Palmer Report finds hope in the words of a Russian whistleblower who says Russia’s FSB is in an uproar over Putin disasters. Is there a possibility that Putin might be overthrown by his own intelligence organization?
   
• A rumored conspirator against Putin suddenly disappears and Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute seems skeptical about the official story put out by the Russian Ministry of Fair and Balanced news:
  

  Being stabbed in the chest does TECHNICALLY count as “suffering a heart attack”… https://t.co/4FELSiwxSj

  — Julian Sanchez (@normative) March 25, 2022

• PZ Myers finds a point by point charted comparison between Ketanji Brown Jackson and the previous two nominees to the Supreme Court. Then he looks at the quality of the questions posed to her by the Judiciary interrogators.

Continue reading “War Crimes, Putin, Russian FSB Revolt, Zelensky, Ketanji Brown Jackson”

Warning‼️ Ferocious puppy attack❣️

Also, when it's my time, this is how I want to go 🥰

🔊 SOUND UP
Happy National Puppy Day! pic.twitter.com/6O32NT1ik8

— Jess 🌻 (@jessi_asli) March 23, 2022

That's a hell of a defense, Lindsey.

Others might find inspiration in your strategy:

"The suspect says calling him a mass murderer 'is not going to fly with me' because he's gotten used to it."

"The person of interest says calling him an arsonist …" you know the rest.

— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) March 22, 2022

Gosh.
Whatever could it be?

Whatever this is, I really do hope every one of these guys pulls through it okay.

And that they avoid infecting family, friends, and casual contacts they encounter in checkout lines.

Maybe even consider …you know… vaccination. https://t.co/U6sA3R4uVx

— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) March 22, 2022