I know you have seen the pictures from the southwestern United States of dry fields and low water levels. Temps are in the 100's. I have too. But you don't really realize what it is like until you are experiencing something similar. In Minnesota we have been in the high 90's, even topping 100 a couple of days, for two weeks now. This with little rain. Yards are turning brown as people don't water. I know we are not nearly in the same position as places like California, but it is still a very concerning and depressing place to find ourselves in. It is June and June temps should be twenty degrees cooler here. My rhubarb is wilting in the heat even as I poor water on it. Today is the first day where we have had some rain in over two weeks. It is not a lot, maybe a quarter of an inch, but the temps are much cooler, in the 60's – 70's. It has helped a little, but it will not bring back all of those brown lawns or help our farmers. What we need is a good soaking rain over an extended period.
The consequences of drought or extended extreme temperatures can be severe.
One Minnesota farmer:
That was posted on June 12th , a week ago. Today, June 20th, we got around a quarter of an inch where I am. I hope he got more.
But I know there are places that have it worse.
I wonder, will people ever wake up?
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First day of summer here (officially began late last night in the American Midwest and extends through today), and we already have our first tropical storm made landfall in Alabama--killing thirteen so far from flooding and the tornadoes it's spawned. I don't think it'll contribute to "people waking up", but, it may disrupt the stagnant low pressure systems that've been keeping that heat dome fixed in place in the upper Midwest.
As I mentioned we got some rain yesterday. But perhaps just as important we got a break from the heat. We will be in the 60's & 70's Monday & Tuesday, returning to the 90's on Wednesday. While the rain wasn't much, it was enough with the lower temps for me to take a break from running the sprinklers. Until Wednesday that is.
Well, it looks like the GOP Senators have turned away from even debating the voting bill. It seems pretty dead in the water, unless by some miracle the Dems can actually take a real majority in 2022. Because supporting voters' right to vote does not seem to be an important issue for the Republicans!
SCOTUS has sided with the teenage girl who was denied a spot on her Varsity Cheer team and indulged in a profanity laden rant on social media after school voicing her displeasure. SCOTUS ruled it was protected free speech.
It seems that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are keeping their distance from Donald Trump. Somehow I am not surprised at their behavior. They always did seem like "fair weather" fans.
"…supporting voters' right to vote does not seem to be an
important issue for the Republicans"
I believe you are mistaken there. It is a very important issue for the Republicans. That's why there are voter suppression efforts underway in virtually every state where there is a Republican legislative majority and a Republican governor to sign the suppression legislation. That's why there was 100% unanimity among the Senate Republicans--not a single Republican vote in favor of the proposed federal voting rights bill. They consider the matter to be vitally important, and they're 100% against it, solid and immovable.
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"SCOTUS ruled it was protected free speech."
I recall the reviews of that case when it was heard by the Supreme Court just two months ago. The Justices were said to be pretty skeptical about school's claim of right to punish the schoolgirl for stuff that didn't go down at school nor even during normal school hours.
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"It seems that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are keeping
their distance from Donald Trump."
That doesn't appear to be their choice to make. It seems that was Trump's choice.
"Donald Trump ranted about 'the blacks' — declaring they
wouldn't vote for him despite the fact he'd done 'all this stuff
for' them — and blamed his son-in-law for making him look
'weak' during last year's Black Lives Matter protests…"
NZHerald
No doubt they'll eventually find a way to patch things up between them, but, for now, Shorthands is still major pissed at Kushner.
I believe you are mistaken there. It is a very important issue for the Republicans.
The suppression of voter rights is important to them, not supporting voter's rights.
I've been reading about the ongoing negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling, and the potential there for Republican mischief is almost frightening.
Not to get too deep into the weeds here, but it has occurred to me that we could conceivably see the end of the filibuster come about as the result of said Republican mischief making. If the disloyal opposition tries to engineer a default on the United States' financial obligations (and they just might), that might just be enough to move Manchin, Sinema, and a few quieter but equally frustrating holdouts, off their persistent defense of the Republicans' political offense.
This is not a prediction--it's an outside chance, but I see a possibility there for this to blossom into a true financial crisis (self-inflicted) and possibly force the more conservative Democratic Senators to finally vote to kill the filibuster.
Just a "heads up" on that possibility is all I'm offering here. Not a prediction that it will happen.
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I didn't know that Thomas Friedman was a native of Minneapolis. Just found that out when he took to writing about his home town.
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Speaking of Minneapolis, I think Derek Chauvin is scheduled for sentencing today. If he gets substantial prison time (and I hope he does), we can probably expect a rash of police resignations across the country. There'll be a whole bunch of "bad apples" who want no part of being a policeman if they can't kill black folks with impunity whenever the Hell it suits them. We'll be better off for getting those bastards out of our police forces. (There's a hell of a lot more than just "a few" so-called "bad apples" who've taken to the badge to enjoy the power thrills it gives them. We'll be generally better off if they abandon their police jobs and go do something else.)
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And Rudy Guiliani had bad day yesterday.
Just a "heads up" on that possibility is all I'm offering here. Not a prediction that it will happen.
I'll watch and hope that it doesn't get that far. Maybe they will be too busy trying to torpedo the infrastructure deal to bother.
I didn't know that Thomas Friedman was a native of Minneapolis.
Oh, I thought you knew. I thought that was part of the reason you posted stuff by him here, you knew I would be interested. But it's kind of nice to know that you were reading him because you felt he had an interesting or knowledgeable take on current events.
I have always felt that he was pretty even handed in his writing on current events. Trying to understand both sides, that is. I have never seen him quite so concerned, or maybe the word it intense, in his opinion on something as he is when he talks about Trump and the current Republican party. When someone like Friedman gets that excited you know that these times are very unusual and dangerous.
Speaking of Minneapolis, I think Derek Chauvin is scheduled for sentencing today.
Yes. And if it weren't for the collapse of the building in Florida I am thinking it would be more front and center. I too hope he gets, as one article put it sufficient time.
And Rudy Guiliani had bad day yesterday.
He did indeed. I have no sympathy.
Georgia seems to be having a bad day today. Someone is suing them. Merrick Garland just won't go away. I have no sympathy for Georgia either.
I have been watching coverage of the rescue efforts in Florida. I fear they will find few survivors. That building is flat as a pancake. Unless there are open pockets, which they are looking for, it would be hard to survive that.
The question is why did it fall? At first I was sure they would find it was a sinkhole type of event. But they are saying there was no evidence of a sinkhole. But if there had been a sinkhole it would have been filled in by debris. I don't know how big of one would take a building like that down.
So I was talking to a guy yesterday. He seemed perfectly normal before our conversation, but...
He is late 30's, lives alone, has around $5,000 worth of guns, including an AK-47, and has been stocking up on non-perishable food, such as rice, pasta and survivalist dried food. He says he is making sure that he can survive after the apocalypse or whatever breakdown in civil society may occur. He reads some of the websites that encourage people to believe that people in Hollywood drink children's blood and he thinks Hilary Clinton may very well be running a pedophile ring out of her home. She is evil in his opinion. he doesn't seem to have the same feelings about Bill Clinton, though.
Now I asked him if he was screwing with me, but he seemed to actually believe that there could be a real possibility of these types of things. He also said that Epstein did not kill himself in jail.
He is concerned about some person who believes in communism being elected to office in New York. I don't recall the name of the elected official he was referring to. He believes that the worst of the right is not as bad as the worst of the left.
I asked him if he would be willing to compromise if he were in a position of power and he said "no" because he was right. I said I felt that the Republican Party was following the path to fascism, or words to that effect, and he said he saw no evidence of fascism.
Thoughts?
"He seemed perfectly normal before our conversation…"
Yeah, they often do.
Kinda spooky, ain't it?
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Twenty-two and a half years for Chauvin. I am not dissatisfied with that sentence. I see no remarkable injustice there.
Off topic: He does not wear a suit well. (However, that likely won't be a problem for him for several years at least.)
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Trump struts the stage again, starting today in Ohio, Wellington, Ohio, which I had to look up. Turns out it's fairly close to Cleveland. He's appearing at the county fairgrounds.
Might be interesting--and then again, maybe not. We'll find out later today.
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The two local hospitals are holding press events every day now, warning that our new case rates for covid exceed anything we've experienced to date. There's no talk of reimposing a lockdown or even mask mandates. Largely on account of this is serious Trumpkin territory and they barely tolerated that the first time the county health department imposed those rules. And, maybe more importantly, the disease is hitting almost exclusively among the non-vaccinated, so the feeling seems to be--they wanna risk getting dead--it's their asses on the line. We ain't gonna cry over some dead anti-vaccers; they brought it on themselves.
But, the hospitals are feeling the pain, so they're out there every day talking to the press. And the local press is trying to help--giving them coverage every night on the nightly news and every morning on the morning shows.
And now the local news also tells us of an anti-vaccination public rally to be held today at the public square of the county's sole large town/small city. They ran that one right after the clips of the ICU doctors pleading for people to take this serious and get their vaccinations. (Fairly obvious the press is sympathetic to the ICU doctors and not to the Trumpkin anti-vaccers, but also fairly obvious the the Trumpkin anti-vaccers just don't care.)
Kinda spooky, ain't it?
Yes, it just shows how some of this stuff is getting into the mainstream. It also kind of supports the theory that fairly intelligent people can be sucked into these conspiracy theories and wild claims even without hard evidence. They think they are so smart that they will be able to discern what is real and what isn't even without it.
At least I believe he is playing defense rather than offense. That is, I don't think you would see him attacking the Capitol. He seems to be preparing for a collapse of society. Interestingly he is not a Trump supporter. Although neither is he a Biden supporter. I think he voted a third party.
Twenty-two and a half years for Chauvin. I am not dissatisfied with that sentence. I see no remarkable injustice there.
Agreed.
A small aside, I have to wonder at his message to the Floyd family when he made his remarks in court. Something to the effect that they may find comfort in something when they hear it.
And, maybe more importantly, the disease is hitting almost exclusively among the non-vaccinated, so the feeling seems to be--they wanna risk getting dead--it's their asses on the line. We ain't gonna cry over some dead anti-vaccers; they brought it on themselves.
I can understand that. I have little patience or sympathy for those who act out of stupidity or selfishness. However, there is a concern about their using up all of the medical resources that others, who have been vaccinated, may need for other medical issues.
At least you are fully vaccinated and are careful about mingling.
We are on track to reach the 70% vaccinated with at least a first shot goal by next Friday. Our cases are falling. But we do still have counties where the vaccination rate is low and they are a concern for a rise in cases.
They are saying on the news that an engineer warned the owners in 2018 that the building that collapsed had structural problems under the pool deck due to water damage. Apparently the water proofing was deteriorating allowing water to seep into the concrete foundation.
The Mayor of Surfside is recommending that the sister building of the one that collapsed should be evacuated.
"… they may find comfort in something when they hear it…"
Indications are that Chauvin is so completely self-centered and self-absorbed as to render him clueless on the subject of what might comfort his victims' families.
Morning news is rumoring that they expect the death toll in the Surfside collapse to get significantly larger--most of the missing are perhaps down in that pile and already dead.
It's just speculation, of course, but they're not turning up alive yet--and folks are starting to draw conclusions from that.
I would really be surprised if they found any more survivors. Very sad.
Recent news reports about Bill Barr's final "breakup" with Trump have been circulating this last week, centered around Barr's admission, on the 1ˢᵗ of December 2020, to a "beat" reporter for the Associated Press that the Justice Department had found "no evidence" of electoral fraud on a scale that would have effected the outcome of Trump's 2020 loss to Joe Biden. Nothing that would change the outcome in even a single small state.
However, an article TheAtlantic (short article by Atlantic standards) makes clear that Barr wasn't doing our democracy any favors there. Instead, (in response to and at the special, personal urging of then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) Barr was attempting to tip the scales in the then pending runoff elections in Georgia; he was trying to set the stage to for the Republicans to win those runoffs (a totally inappropriate role for the Attorney General).
McConnell very much wanted to be able to make the public argument that the Republicans needed to win in Georgia to "counterbalance" the incoming Democratic Biden administration, but he was afraid to go public himself with an admission that Trump had lost, afraid of both Trump and the Trumpkins. So, McConnell went to Barr, and prevailed upon Barr to do it on the Republican Party's behalf (also McConnell's behalf), hoping Barr could tip the runoffs in the Republican's favor, and thus secure the Republican Senate majority and McConnell's position as Senate Majority Leader.
So, what we really had there was McConnell doing his usual scheming, and being a craven coward in the process, afraid to piss off Trump and his Trumpkins. And we have Bill Barr using his position as AG to help McConnell try to rig those Georgia run-off elections in the Republicans' favor. Didn't work, but they gave it their best shot.
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Record high temperatures appearing west of you--Washington State, Oregon. If it moves on east (likely it will move east) ya'll might have 'nother round of oppressive heat in the upcoming week or week-end.
Maybe I'm giving him too much significance but McConnell is starting to remind me of Thomas Cromwell. Both very Machiavellian.
And Barr is just the patsy he has always been.
Record high temperatures appearing west of you...
Yes, we have been warned. We are now experiencing a little pause, the temps are cooler and we actually got some good rain Saturday night, over an inch, and a little more Sunday morning. They are saying we have a chance for more rain over the next two days. I hope we do get some more. It really does help. And at least I didn't have to get up at 5:30 to water!
But it sounds like long term is looking hotter and drier, probably through the summer. So we have to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts.
"Barr is just the patsy he has always been."
I don't see Barr as a patsy. He has his own anti-democratic (small d) agenda, which he's nursed at least since his first go-'round as Attorney General for President Ronald Reagan.
As Wiki say it:
"Barr is a longtime proponent of the unitary executive
theory of nearly unfettered presidential authority over the
executive branch of the U.S. government."
Bluntly put in simple English--Barr has long believed the President should have been granted dictatorial powers--he believes the Constitution was a mistake, but that the mistake can still be rectified if he and his kind can simply nibble away at it from inside. Eventually they can set up their own American Caesar somewhere down the line and kill off the Republic just as the original Julius did in Rome way back when.
Barr's an original autocrat, a first order fascist--he didn't pick it up from Trump. And he didn't see Trump as his candidate for the new American Caesar; Trump was a "useful idiot" to borrow a phrase, a demagogue who could lead the idiocy congregation drummed up by FoxNews. (It has occurred to me that one might question the popular reputation Hitler enjoys as a supposed political genius, in light of Trump's proven ability to seize the pulpit on the FoxNews' congregation of angry fools, but that's another subject entirely--perhaps for later.)
Anyway, Barr is also 71 years old and unlikely to ever be given high public office again (no friggin' way he'd be confirmed by the Senate for high office again--not without riots on the streets, and they know that). So, he's not a real threat anymore either. (So, whether you're right about Barr being a patsy, or I'm right that he was much, much more than that, it's probably not important.)
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Changing subjects: I've noticed that the rightwinger publications are getting increasingly hysterical about "Critical Race Theory" (including the pretenders to real journalism like FoxNews, and the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post (coincidentally, all three owned by Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch boys)). They've been thinking that this is gonna be their "Bengahzi" of the new era; this is the thing that will give them new life after Defund the Police" didn't stick to Joe Biden.
'Critical Race Theory' was gonna be the evil thing that finally sticks to Joe Biden's Democrats, maybe even to Biden himself.
But, they're getting increasingly hysterical about it.
Makes me think their own polling is maybe showing that it don't do squat to Biden's approval numbers.
Time will tell, I suppose. It'll either work for 'em or it won't.
But they seem to be gettin' fairly tense, rampin' up the attacks like maybe what they been doin' ain't been stickin' to their satisfaction, outside of their increasingly insular "base". On the other hand, maybe they think they've moved the needle a little bit, and that a coördinated, persistent omnipresent hysteria might move the needle a lot more. Whichever it is that currently moves them, they're certainly rampin' it up.
But they seem to be gettin' fairly tense, rampin' up the attacks like maybe what they been doin' ain't been stickin' to their satisfaction, outside of their increasingly insular "base". On the other hand, maybe they think they've moved the needle a little bit, and that a coördinated, persistent omnipresent hysteria might move the needle a lot more. Whichever it is that currently moves them, they're certainly rampin' it up.
It's probably as good a reason as any to use to get peopled fired up.
I was just listening to interviews done by a CNN journalist at that Trump rally in Ohio. Those are the hard core Trump supporters. One of whom was at the Capitol, but said he didn't go in. They all seem to expect Trump to come back and some are sure there will be violence in the future. Some very scary folks out there.
"They all seem to expect Trump to come back and some are
sure there will be violence in the future. Some very scary
folks out there."
Not just that one journalist who thinks that way.
Title: A New Darkness Falls on the Trump Movement
"Trump’s reemergence on the political scene is promising to
spark a seismic disruption to America’s political system
bigger than the one he caused when he descended down
his gilded escalator six years ago. Where once his sup-
porters were hopeful, they now seemed aggrieved. The
crowds are more frenzied, the conspiracies more fantastical,
the cast of characters more outlandish."
Politico
In a 6/3 split decision along partisan lines, the Supreme Court has cut another chunk out of the landmark civil rights legistion of of the 1960s, known as the "Voting Rights Act".
They have managed to conclude that the section which prohibits voting restrictions which have a "disparate impact" on voters of different "races" does not mean what it says, thus opening the door to what seem to be, on their face, race-neutral changes to voting access, but which clearly constitute impediments to voting in Democratic leaning, majority black districts. Long as the new rules don't explicitly mention the voters' race, they'll probably pass muster with this Supreme Court. NewYorkTimes
(As, for instance, limiting the number of voting sites in densely populated black cities to no more than the number also given to rural, low-population (white) counties nearby. This would insure that black Americans have to wait in long lines while the white Americans voting in rural districts see empty parking lots when they drive up. Then make it illegal for anybody to offer the black voters food or water or even shade from the sun while they wait, perhaps all day. And now our newly Trumped up Supreme Court says this is all good.)
And, in what might be considered a related case (if not a "companion" case under the customary definition), the Supreme Court has also thrown out a California law saying that self-proclaimed "charitable" organizations which spend millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars in "dark money" to influence our elections must disclose their contributors to the State of California--i.e. no hiding behind opaque and impenetrable "charities" for the purpose of flooding money to candidates for public office. Nope, can't do that says the newly Trumped up Supreme Court. MSNBC Dark money in politics is all good, so they tell us.
(I do not agree.)
I just saw both those rulings. Yes, it does show the bent of this court. This is how democracies die.
Congratulations, Mitch.
"This is how democracies die."
I'll say it again; I believe membership in the Federalist Society should disqualify any lawyer from holding a federal office as judge or Justice or in any position within the Department of Justice (up to and including Attorney General). They're in on the plan. Hell, they wrote half of it, at least half. And now's the time; now they're goin' for the end-game; playin' for keeps this time, all the marbles, or go bust goin' for it. (For all the marbles, but not necessarily all right away; the Federalist Society courts are naturally inclined to make their plays incrementally.)
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On the other hand, we may have gotten lucky.
I've also said before (too many times perhaps), that Trump is a wuss-bully. Some bullies are simply sadists, enjoying their ability to hurt the helpless; some are wusses trying to compensate. And then again, some are both. (Likely Trump is both; at the very least he's a wuss.) When it came down to nut-cuttin' time on the 6ᵗʰ of January, Trump was afraid to make the call and lead the radicals he had called to Washington for the fight. He went back to the White House and watched it play out on TV instead. His minions soon noticed they'd been left holding the bag, and so it fairly quickly petered out for lack leadership on the ground come nut-cuttin' time.
But that's how Trump's always played the game. Always he's gotten somebody else to step up and save him, from his father Fred bailing him out of his various financial blunders to the banks bailing him out of that last big one, after Fred had died. He's always relied on someone else to step up and save him when he blunders.
Other would-be Caesars have taken notice. (Josh Hawley is a real good example; he's even more obvious than Ted Cruz. And there are a legion of other would-be Caesars now on the hunt for a trail to the dictator perpetuo seat in Washington.) They have learned from both Trump's political successes and from his mistake, his failure to follow through when the time came. They won't make that mistake if their time comes.
But, we may have time to prepare for them now. That may turn out to have been a piece of good luck, Trump wussin' out at the last minute I mean.
Still, this is a perilous time. We may not get lucky after all. Too many people bein' way too complacent.
I've known for several years now that the Republican Party was on the edge of collapse and pushing forward, towards that edge. I did not expect that it would collapse into the embrace of its fascist, far-right-wing elements, but that is what's happening right in front of us.
Still, this is a perilous time. We may not get lucky after all. Too many people bein' way too complacent.
I've known for several years now that the Republican Party was on the edge of collapse and pushing forward, towards that edge. I did not expect that it would collapse into the embrace of its fascist, far-right-wing elements, but that is what's happening right in front of us.
Indeed.
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