In case you missed it, Rahm Emanuel penned a commentary for Thursday’s New York Times hailing his police reform efforts. With no disrespect for our Times colleagues: Had the mayor submitted his piece to the Tribune for publication, we would have performed heavier editing.
Friday, May 10, 2019
Much Disrespect For Their Times Colleagues
Chicago Tribune:
Getting A Bit Older Every Day
Us olds got on facebook because it was, for a moment, a kind of wacky weird new way to get in touch with people you hadn't seen in a million years and stay in touch with current ones. It's not necessary for the first bit and is now very bad at the second bit. I have no idea why any person under the age of 25 would look at facebook, which still has a worse UI than this sucky blog, and think "I gotta do that."
Obviously facebook the company owns other things and has other ways of getting its tentacles into your life, but facebook dot com is so bad.
Obviously facebook the company owns other things and has other ways of getting its tentacles into your life, but facebook dot com is so bad.
We Don't Need No
I don't know what to do with a country of these people.
Back in December, Washington state Trump supporter Joshua Greene donated a small amount of money to the crowdfunding effort to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. He wasn’t alone. The GoFundMe page to build the wall, to which he’d donated, was a sensation on the right in late 2018 and raised more than $20 million.
Organized by triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage, the campaign eventually morphed into a nonprofit called We Build the Wall, which promised to build portions of the wall on private land using the money it raised.
The Scary Noisy City
I went to the fancy opera the other night, which I walk to or take the bus to because I am a true elitist, and after the end of the show an older-than-me man (I can't say just "older" anymore because, well...) joked to his wife, "my car was parked in a parking lot just half a block away before the show, though I'm not sure if it'll still be there." He was kidding in that he wasn't really worried about his car, but it was that suburban Philadelphian "I am visiting a war zone, wish me luck!" kidding-on-the-square haha the city is so frightening kind of kidding.
Philly home prices haven't exactly gone up to Seattle levels, but, you know, they aren't cheap anymore. Do they think people really are scared to leave their homes?
Philly home prices haven't exactly gone up to Seattle levels, but, you know, they aren't cheap anymore. Do they think people really are scared to leave their homes?
People Without Shame
I was about to write that people who don't care what sternly written editorials in our major newspapers say about them are a problem in our system which has depended on that extra check a bit. But, really, there haven't even been that many sternly worded editorials? While I'm not thinking of Trump specifically - I mean everyone around him - how many editorial boards *didn't* call on Clinton to resign?
Thursday, May 09, 2019
The War On Christmas
Gotta start early this year, troops. Gonna win this time.
Joke aside, I always marvel at how unreligious most self-professed US Christians are. I don't mean in a "who is a good Christian" sense. And I also get that you can be a cultural Christian in the same way as you can be a cultural Jew or cultural Muslim etc. You don't have to be a believer for the various rituals and traditions to be a part of your life and family life.
I mean that if I professed to be a believer in this how-to-avoid-eternal-damnation self help book, I'd probably crack it open now and again.
Joke aside, I always marvel at how unreligious most self-professed US Christians are. I don't mean in a "who is a good Christian" sense. And I also get that you can be a cultural Christian in the same way as you can be a cultural Jew or cultural Muslim etc. You don't have to be a believer for the various rituals and traditions to be a part of your life and family life.
I mean that if I professed to be a believer in this how-to-avoid-eternal-damnation self help book, I'd probably crack it open now and again.
Rigged
Dem primaries aren't "rigged" precisely, but there is a payoff in not just appealing to "voters" in some broad sense, but in getting the support of various influential people who, through their influence, try to help you get support! That's sort of a normal part of politics which is not new and which we all understand. Get the local leaders, the union leaders, the various community leaders, the issue leaders, etc. Gather those endorsements. I think a trickier bit is that "influential people" now also includes various people who are paid to opine on TV, not precisely in an objective sense, but in a not being totally explicit about their sympathies sense. Especially with the revolving door aspect...from teevee to the White House and back again.
I'm not saying this is corrupt, just that it is a thing which is fair to observe and point out. People are making career bets.
I'm not saying this is corrupt, just that it is a thing which is fair to observe and point out. People are making career bets.
My Perogatives
The White House is playing games with the White House press passes - basically making them all at the whim of Smokey Eye (DAMN YOU MICHELLE WOLF!!!!!!!!!!!!) instead of them being "permanent" - and I've seen comments like "this is how fascism starts" and while it's dumb and bad... no. Even if it's perfectly understandable that the press defends its own turf, the White House has been shitting on the press for years and there has been much less solidarity on this front than even cynical me expected. This isn't a "first they came for Dana Milbank..." kind of thing because they came for a lot of other people before Dana and not enough of you did anything about it.
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
And It's On
Echidne's yearly fundraiser, that is. Read the post on how to decipher gender studies, then chip in a few shekels to help keep the the Snake's blog afloat!
Please Impeach Yourself, Mr. President
Submit yourself to the Marshall of the Supreme Court, confess all your crimes, and report to the Phantom Zone.
“The point is that every single day, whether it’s obstruction, obstruction, obstruction — obstruction of having people come to the table with facts, ignoring subpoenas . . . every single day, the president is making a case — he’s becoming self-impeachable, in terms of some of the things that he is doing,” Pelosi said at a Washington Post Live event.
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
With Some Power Comes Some Responsibility
I know the House Democrats don't have infinite power, but they have some, and they idea that they shouldn't do aggressive oversight because, well, voters might not like it and after all there's an election in (checks calendar) 16 months, is absurd.
Above my pay grade to know if the best strategy is to start impeachment hearings yesterday, or to haul Jared in and put him in the stocks, or (I'll even allow) do aggressive oversight and hearings and investigation that avoid direct legal confrontations with Trump until the time is right.
But even during the Bush years they took the time to come up with arcane legal arguments every time they didn't want pesky Democrats getting in their bizness - gotta admit "Fourthbranch" was pretty clever! - and the Trummpkins are just responding to requests and subpoenas with the Ancient Common Law argument of "LOL no" with both "LOL" and "no" spelled incorrectly.
Gotta make some effort to not further enshrine that congressional oversight of Republican presidents by a Democratic Congress is merely a courtesy, because we're creeping pretty close to the idea that letting Democrats in office at all is merely a courtesy. Everybody knows the Supreme Court is about to enshrine the notakebacks precedent that "Democrat laws are unconstitutional" as it is.
Above my pay grade to know if the best strategy is to start impeachment hearings yesterday, or to haul Jared in and put him in the stocks, or (I'll even allow) do aggressive oversight and hearings and investigation that avoid direct legal confrontations with Trump until the time is right.
But even during the Bush years they took the time to come up with arcane legal arguments every time they didn't want pesky Democrats getting in their bizness - gotta admit "Fourthbranch" was pretty clever! - and the Trummpkins are just responding to requests and subpoenas with the Ancient Common Law argument of "LOL no" with both "LOL" and "no" spelled incorrectly.
Gotta make some effort to not further enshrine that congressional oversight of Republican presidents by a Democratic Congress is merely a courtesy, because we're creeping pretty close to the idea that letting Democrats in office at all is merely a courtesy. Everybody knows the Supreme Court is about to enshrine the notakebacks precedent that "Democrat laws are unconstitutional" as it is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)