Month: January 2019

 
From Tommy Christopher:

But then Giuliani added that “if, for example, a president said, leave office or I’m going to, you know, have your kids kidnapped or I’m going to break your legs — I prosecute a lot of obstruction cases.”

“I’ll give you an example,” Giuliani continued. “When the president said, ‘Please go easy on Flynn,’ I know of no obstruction case that begins with the word please. It goes something like this, ‘If you don’t go easy on Flynn, I’ll break your kneecaps.”

But the federal obstruction of justice statute does not, in fact, require an act like the ones Giuliani describes, although it does include them as examples of obstruction

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From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

The thing you learn in a city with diversity or various viewpoints is that not everything is about you, concerns you, or needs you to confront it. You can be called a blue-eyed devil whore, and that’s just some shit someone has to say about you because they are working out their demons in public, where about a hundred other people can also see them being ugly, and you not listening. There is no reason to call out or call back. The Covington Catholic kids were confronted by the Black Hebrew Israelites, and had no reference for how to not confront them. They weren’t ever told this kind of provocation existed. These kids never took a downtown subway somewhere, I guess. They were going to be unnecessarily confrontational, and it looked like there were no adults who would tell them not to do this.(Not to turn the other cheek? Even if there was a pretty solid Christian basis for not starting shit, the chaperones weren’t trying to be about it.) Nathan Phillips thought he was peacefully intervening because from his point of view, these young people needed their attention turned away from the negative energy the BHI were bringing and hoped they would be respectful of his prayerful positive energy.

But they didn’t know how to confront that, either. These were, to them, just other people of color acting weird at them, and they could not determine if this was a threat or on their side, and not knowing how to just not react, they behaved with ignorance, because that was what they had.

I’m not going to say they were necessarily behaving hatefully right there, because I don’t think they knew how they would be seen. They didn’t react as if they would be seen, even though many phone-camera angles captured them. I think they behaved ignorantly, because this is what they had. A lot of crappy white behavior (me just speaking as a white person) probably boils down to ignorance. This is sometimes called “Hanlon’s razor”: Never ascribe to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. Because I work for the government, I have had to make myself very much aware of how this variation on Occam’s Razor really works.

But there is ignorant, and there is ignorant.

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From Jonathan Bernstein:

One month into the government shutdown, there’s finally something resembling movement toward a resolution. Maybe.

After weeks of offering nothing new, President Donald Trump on Saturday proposed a bargain on immigration. To be sure: It’s not a very promising offer. Trump starts by reiterating his demand for $5.7 billion to build his border wall. Then, for Democrats, he adds temporary protections for immigrants who fall under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and an extension for those under Temporary Protected Status. But then he adds something more for the anti-immigration side: new restrictions on asylum. That isn’t a trade-off Democrats would ever likely accept, even leaving the border wall aside. It’s an offer intended to give the impression of flexibility without actually moving in the Democrats’ direction.

Nonetheless, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised a vote on the proposal. And that’s where the opportunity to end the shutdown comes in.

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From Dr. Arif Ahmad at The Moderate Voice:

Recently someone I know approached me with his experience of being at the receiving end of the Me Too Movement, an experience which devastated his life as he felt wrongly accused. I do not know the merits of the case, but it did get me thinking some.

Me Too Movement, is real and here to stay and has brought with a lot of virtue, awareness, and justice. There may however be another edge to this sword.

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From The Journal of Improbable Research:

Philosophical disagreements on possible reason(s) ‘Why Flatulence is Funny’ – Professor Sellmaier v. Professor Spiegel
If you want a reliable method of raising laugh, you can always resort to references of flatulence – a comedic ploy that goes back (at least) 2000 years. But the question as to why it’s considered funny, remains, to this day, a hotly debated subject.

In 2013, Professor James Spiegel of the Philosophy Department at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, US, took a stab at explaining the phenomenon in issue 35 of the journal ‘Think’ (a journal of The Royal Institute of Philosophy, UK)

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From Frances Langum:

Candace Owens hosts a “conference” to celebrate Black people “exiting” the Democratic Party — and the audience is overwhelmingly white people. Of course.

So Fox News personality Candace Owens held an event in Los Angeles over the weekend to encourage “Blexit,” black voters exiting the Democratic Party.

The name “Blexit” is in dispute, however, as a liberal group lays claim to the name dating back to 2016.

Notice something about the Los Angeles/Candace Owens attendees?

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From Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee, at The Daily Beast:

Many of the activists with whom I have spoken view King streets as a way to carry on King’s unfinished work to create racial equality and economic justice in the U.S.

Greater visibility, they argue, can communicate the legitimacy of King’s message. More streets named after the civil rights leader, especially in prominent parts of town, can help educate a wider white public of the relevance and resonance of civil rights and black historical contributions.

Some cities honor King with important thoroughfares that connect a variety of neighborhoods. These include Albuquerque, Austin, New Bern in North Carolina, Oakland-North Berkeley, Savannah and Tampa.

However, public opposition over the past half century has led most cities to rename smaller streets or portions of roads located entirely within poor African-American neighborhoods. Opponents tend to be white business and property owners on affected roads. In public, most cite concerns over cost and inconvenience. Some suggest the association with King’s name will stigmatize their neighborhood.

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From John Pavlovitz:

Everyone, the Vice President is offended.

In the wake of the response to the news that his wife Karen, is working for a school that excludes both LGBTQ students and staff members, Mike Pence let us all know, with characteristic detached, tongue clicking condescension—that he is disappointed and disturbed by it all.

“Major news organizations attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us.” he chided.

Is it?

As a Christian and a pastor, Mike Pence is offensive to me.

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From The Onion:

“For an extra $8.99 per month, you’ll have an all-access pass to the AOC Zone, which features wall-to-wall coverage of every word Ocasio-Cortez utters, as well as in-depth analysis of her wardrobe and any videos we’re able to dig up from her college days,” said Fox spokesperson Avery Mattison, adding that the new channel will include uninterrupted live footage of the 29-year-old representative every time she appears in public, along with nonstop commentary from a 12-person panel of experts.

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