A jury in Kenosha Wisconsin has found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges for his actions in Kenosha on the night of August 25, 2020.
Here is a very good investigative report on the events leading up to and including that night.
I listened to the testimony of Dominick Black, the friend of Kyle Rittenhouse who purchased the weapon Rittenhouse carried that night. It's long but it gives some background and insight into Rittenhouse's actions.
There are no easy answers to what happened, no easy blame to place. The whole situation was a long time in the making. I look at the people who found themselves in the streets on that night and see not just their anger, but the inability to see each other; their story, their emotion, their need to be heard. Kyle Rittenhouse was a boy inserted into a volatile situation he did not have the maturity to handle. With a deadly weapon. A deadly weapon purchased by a friend with the approval of that friend's step-father.
Kyle Rittenhouse may have been acquitted but his life will never be the same. And two people are dead. Here is a small remembrance of one of those people.
109 comments:
I'm a bit troubled by the developing trend to allow armed right-wingers a claim of self-defense on the basis of a claimed 'fear' that their unarmed (now dead) victims might have taken away those self-same weapons away from said armed right-wingers (had the victims not been preëmptively made dead).
This almost tautological proposition runs perilously close to being an argument that bringing a deadly weapon into a politically tense situation automatically gives the person who brought the weapon a 'self-defense' justification for preëmptively using said weapon against whichever unarmed person or persons he might decide to later identify as having posed a potential or perceived 'threat'.
(Travis McMichael, defendant in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case in South Carolina, provides us a timely, and I think fairly egregious early example of this dynamic in play. McMichael clearly thinks he's gonna get away with it; he'll be surprised if he does not. And it's South Carolina; so, he just might get away with it, especially considering that his victim was black.)
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NewYorkTimes Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have been drawing in big bucks in donations from traditionally 'Republican' political donors.
On the other hand, we might have had Mitch McConnell still sitting in the position of Senate Majority Leader, and in control of setting the legislative agenda and scheduling votes (or not scheduling votes, as in refusing to put Biden's nominations up for a vote). That would be worse.
"…his life will never be the same."
This is true. For the foreseeable future he will be lionized by the right-wingers amongst whom he circulates and among whom circulated before he shot three protesters (and shot at more) on that single night in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He will strut amongst them as a hero.
You need not worry that he will be overly troubled by more liberal points of view; he will seldom be exposed to those and even more seldom will he lack the support structure and incentives to overcome and even ignore them. (Nor does he seem to me to be the sort who will be overly troubled by self-doubts, self-examinations or other introspections.)
He’ll play the price Lee I can assure you of that. Not only are hordes of Antifa screaming for his blood so he’ll have to watch out where he’s going in public, for the foreseeable future. Then you have the fact of further education. What college can he safely go to now? Curiously his only option might be to get into the hardline right that there was never any evidence of him belonging to bf these events.
What of the Waukesha vehicle attack? I read that the culprit had some serious anti white content on social media. But I guess that’s just a coincidence and he was “deranged” or “suffering a mental breakdown”.
There is considerable evidence that Kyle Rittenhouse was already in amongst the activist political right-wing, and in deep, before he acquired a gun and went to "defend" an already burned out used-auto dealers' parking lot in a city and state he didn't even live in. He didn't come up with rifle on the spur of the moment, nor did the idea of "protecting" a town he'd never been to before suddenly come to him in a dream.
The "attack" in Waukesha appears--right now--to be a case of a mixed race (mostly white) career criminal losing control of his vehicle whilst fleeing police from an incident somewhat removed from the parade route he accidentally ran through whilst running from the police.
You appear to need better information sources today. But, that's been fairly usual for you.
Post Script: I've seen very little evidence (as in none) that Kyle Rittenhouse was college material or had ever seriously considered returning to high school to finish up his basic school program. (Although his lawyers did think it important that he pretend along those lines so he claimed during the trial that he'd 'graduated' from an 'on-line high school' while he was out on bail awaiting his trial date).
I'm a bit troubled by the developing trend to allow armed right-wingers a claim of self-defense...
Rittenhouse, right-winger or not, should never have had a gun in Kenosha. I blame his mother and his friend's father for that. He did not have the maturity or training to handle a fire arm like that. Even the, supposedly former, Boogaloo Boy that was with him that night had better self control.
As to why Rittenhouse was there, that was apparently due to his friend Dominick Black who lives in Kenosha. The gun Rittenhouse had was stored at that friend's house and only crossed the state line when he took it back to Antioch after fleeing. That is in Black's testimony. Black was well coached, I think, and stayed pretty cool on the stand. I will be interested to see what the outcome of his trail is.
While I don't really think Rittenhouse deserved life, he did deserve some kind of punishment for reckless discharge of a weapon in which two people died and another was injured. I would not be surprised if the civil lawsuits go differently for him.
There is considerable evidence that Kyle Rittenhouse was already in amongst the activist political right-wing,...
Well he certainly was fine with flashing white power signs. And I suspect he knows exactly what they mean. He's also not shown much remorse, just happiness at being acquitted.
I've seen very little evidence (as in none) that Kyle Rittenhouse was college material...
There certainly was no evidence of it by his actions.
If he had really been there as a medic perhaps I would have been more sympathetic to him if after shooting Rosenbaum he had used his phone to call 911 rather then his "friends" and tried to render medical assistance to his victim. Maybe the crowd wouldn't have taken him for an active shooter and chased him, leading to further death and injury.
He’ll play the price Lee I can assure you of that.
There are still civil lawsuits pending.
"…losing control of his vehicle…"
"Losing control" may be an incorrect assessment. I've seen incident video in the meantime, and it looks like the driver was swerving, back and forth across the parade route, trying to get around the parade participants, but not letting his failure to avoid them slow him down any as he fled before the police vehicles hot on his trail.
We'll have to wait and see if whatever charge he was fleeing from justified a police 'hot pursuit' through populated areas and into a parade route, or if this is another in the string of overzealous police pursuits after minor infractions that have resulted in bystander deaths. Been way too much of that going on.
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"There are still civil lawsuits pending."
And there is a bankruptcy court which will allow Rittenhouse to go 'Chapter Seven' and avoid ever paying any judgments imposed by those civil lawsuits. Those civil suits offer only the pretense of the ancient 'weregild' for the aggrieved survivors (or maybe an emotional release of some sort).
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We should take notice of the fact that the "they'll take away my gun" excuse only works when the right-winger is the only one armed. When the 'libs' arm themselves as well (and eventually they will), then that particular automatic justification for right-wing violence fades away.
Then they'll have to find some alternate excuse for being the first to open fire. I have no doubt they'll do it. They'll find something to justify having been the first to fire, maybe something equally as absurd as their now apparently pervasive 'fear' of their unarmed victims. But, they'll surely find something.
But, when 'the libs' arm themselves as well, we may be well past worrying about how it's gonna play out in courts of law. The game will be on in different courts instead.
I think it was a domestic dispute he was running from.
The police had the parade route blocked off but he drove right through that. Crazy.
Bankruptcy can bring it's own problems. That kind of puts you on the lowest rung of the ladder.
Lynnette: "The police had the parade route blocked off but he drove right through that. Crazy."
One officer tried to stop him by shooting at the car. Makes one wonder if Kyle had been there with his AR15 if he could have neutralized the threat and saved some lives?
"I think it was a domestic dispute…"
"Domestic dispute" is a fairly vague term; it covers a wide variety of incidents and circumstances.
"The police had the parade route blocked off…"
Doesn't seem to have inhibited the pursuing police vehicles any more than it stopped the fleeing suspect. Not in the video I saw. However, by that time the parade was already disrupted and the parade people were 'heads up' and clearing out of the path of the pursuing police vehicles.
"Bankruptcy…kind of puts you on the lowest rung of the
ladder."
How many bankruptcies has Trump signed onto? Six? Seven?
And still they flock to him.
Not gonna be a problem for Rittenhouse either.
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"Makes one wonder if Kyle had been there…"
Doesn't seem to be the sort of 'threat' that would motivate Rittenhouse to crack the case on his AR-15.
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New public polling suggests that public approval of the Supreme Court has fallen below 33% for the first time since…well, since perhaps ever…. Slate Justice Amy Coney Barret and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's very public whining about the public perceptions that they are "partisan hacks" seem to have not convinced the public that they are, in fact, not partisan hacks. Turns out that even a majority of self identified Trumpkin/Republicans (56%) now believe the new Federalist Society Justices are clearly "partisan hacks". Their protests to the contrary (delivered--fully tone deaf--in forums and at gatherings gathered to praise the hyper-partisan Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) notwithstanding.
Taking on extremism and disinformation
Courts are currently clogged with cases that chart much of the right-wing extremism and misinformation campaigns of the last decade. The cases also reveal the makeshift nature of legal responses to those campaigns, an array of tools that might be able to act as deterrents -- though not able to deliver real justice.
It worked on Al Capone, maybe it will work again. At least it's an option.
Domestic dispute" is a fairly vague term; it covers a wide variety of incidents and circumstances.
Apparently this one involved a knife. The driver had also previously ran over the mother of his child.
How many bankruptcies has Trump signed onto? Six? Seven?
And still they flock to him.
Not gonna be a problem for Rittenhouse either.
Rittenhouse doesn't have the hair or domineering personality. He's more the patsy type. But you may be right about people supporting him...as long as he is useful.
Doesn't seem to be the sort of 'threat' that would motivate Rittenhouse to crack the case on his AR-15.
I believe the suspect is Black.
One officer tried to stop him by shooting at the car.
That only works in the movies. If the officer had actually hit the car it probably would have spun out of control, still possibly killing or injuring people.
"Apparently this one involved a knife."
Not the sort of weapon one can wield effectively (as the sole occupant) from behind the wheel of a moving SUV. Brooks was well past the point of being an "armed threat" to anybody, at least for awhile.
In fact, the authorities took him into custody just a few minutes later, out of his vehicle, and without incident. Coulda done that without the high speed chase.
Looks to me like this was probably just the latest in the long-running string of totally unnecessary high speed vehicle chases through unprepared and hapless citizens, done mostly for the sake of providing thrills and entertainment to some bored cops.
So, now they've got six kills as the price for their thrills.
I just watched the video of Ahmaud Arbery being shot. It looks to me that the person acting in self-defense was Ahmaud Arbery.
The details are rather spotty on the car thing. I don't know if he had the knife with him.
All 3 dependents are found guilty of murder in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial.
The nation is probably lucky that the Arbery defendants didn't walk free right on the heels of the Rittenhouse verdict.
Good chance that'd have gotten 'Black Lives Matter' demonstrations out in the streets again.
If there are any white supremacist demonstrations arising from the Arbery case (and probably there won't be; they'll wanna bank the 'win' from Rittenhouse first), those demonstrations will likely be confined to locations across the 'Old South'.
I wouldn't have blamed anyone for demonstrating if that verdict had been different.
The country will hopefully breathe a little easier that justice was finally done.
It really was a nice Thanksgiving gift.
I got my booster shot today.
"The country will hopefully breathe a little easier that justice
was finally done."
Don't wanna breath too easy, not just yet; we need to remember that the Arbery case was an anomaly, created by the belated appearance of defendant Roddie Bryan's phone video of the shooting. Bryan was an idiot for showing that video around. It got out, out past those whom he intended to see it; it eventually got on the internet. Up until then, Arbery's loudly protesting family was finding that Georgia law was working as it had been designed to work, and nobody was gonna pay any attention to Ahmaud's murder, nor to his surviving family nor to the several local black 'activists' also complaining loudly about his murder.
They were gonna get away with it, would have gotten away with it if Bryan hadn't been an idiot and showed the video around (and let somebody make a copy of it). The authorities in South Carolina were quite successfully sweeping the murder under the rug. And then the video escaped and got on the internet. Then things changed--only then. Up until then the system was working just as it was designed to work. So we don't wanna breath too easy just yet.
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"I got my booster shot today."
Congratulations. It'll take a few days to kick in, so you cut it too close to serve for Thanksgiving. You'll have to rely on your basic, two-shot immunities.
(Kept your appointment, didn't ya? I'm curious though--were they even taking walk-ins?)
"South Carolina" did I say? Meant Georgia. Got it right the first time; can't explain the brain freeze in the second reference. Beyond, obviously I needed more coffee.
Bryan was an idiot for showing that video around.
I was wondering about that. Obviously he thought it wouldn't matter. But this time it did.
On a related note, it doesn't help that bigotry is alive and well in our nation's Capitol. With people like Lauren Boebert, who just recently implied that Ilhan Omar could be a suicide bomber, and Marjorie Taylor Green it's hard to see how the country can get past the racial divisions we still see.
Congratulations. It'll take a few days to kick in, so you cut it too close to serve for Thanksgiving. You'll have to rely on your basic, two-shot immunities.
(Kept your appointment, didn't ya? I'm curious though--were they even taking walk-ins?)
Yeah, I will keep my fingers crossed that my Thanksgiving wasn't a "spreader event". I did wear a mask during a portion of it, but kind of hard to do when eating and it was hard for even the young people to hear me when I spoke because of the kid noise. So I ended up leaving it off after dinner.
When I checked last Friday at a couple of other places they were either taking apts or hadn't yet gotten the ok to open up the eligibility so, yes, I ended up going with the apt I had made at the place where I had gotten my earlier shots. As far as I know they were only taking appointments.
This morning I hear that there is another mutated variant spreading around South Africa. It looks like the UK is restricting travel from 7 countries in Africa. But as someone was saying it is probably too late for that. In the past that hasn't really worked because once a variant is recognized it has already spread.
It would appear that we are going to join the U.K. in attempting a travel ban against the viral variant. Biden has already talked against additional reach for federal vaccine mandates (got his Justice Department already busy 'nuff with the anti-vaxxers' fight against what he's done so far).
I'm not sure if a travel ban is really useful. As someone pointed out it can encourage countries not to report new variants.
And it is possible it is already here. They have found two cases in England.
Perhaps Biden's requirement that travelers from other countries be fully vaccinated and have a negative Covid test will help.
"…a travel ban…can encourage countries not to report new
variants."
Word will get out quick enough anyway, especially if people continue to travel. Which, of course, they will do in the absence of a travel ban. So, not reporting new variants isn't really a viable option on account of that won't keep people from finding out anyway, and right quick too.
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QAnon style crazy is spreading all across the internet.
The right-wing culture warriors simply will not let up. Now they're alleging that Darrell Brooks, the mixed race perpetrator in the recent Waukesha, Wisconsin parade crashing incident, was swerving back and forth through the parade route not trying to seek a route through the pedestrian traffic, but rather swerving to intentionally target those persons whom he did hit. JustTheNews (It may come as no particular surprise to learn that "JustTheNews" serves up an unhealthy portion of speculation, invective and right-winger buzzwords along with its accounts of the news; they even mange to drag George Soros into this story; I kid you not.)
The apparent point is that the Evil Main Stream Media is lying about Brooks trying to pick a route through the parade--and that he was trying instead to increase the body count. There's no good explanation for why the Evil Media would go to that trouble (or why Brooks would go to that trouble either), but it apparently has something to do with them just being Evil in their hearts (and also something to do with George Soros, although the basis for that allegation is even less clear, and it's also tied up with 'woke'--not clear if either Brooks or Soros is also 'woke', although supposedly the Evil Media is 'woke', but apparently it does not implicate Critical Race Theory, even though the accused is mixed-race, part black--Soros, on the other hand, is not accused of being black, just Evil.)
it looks like omicron is already in Canada. It is probably already here to. I wonder if this new variant is more transmissible, will it displace Delta? And if it is more transmissible and less severe will it be possible for Covid 19 to die back and we can get back to real normal? I think I would like to think that rather than that it might be more severe. At least until we know more. So far word out of South Africa is that hospitalizations don't seem to be rising. I guess we'll know more in a couple of weeks.
The apparent point is that the Evil Main Stream Media is lying about Brooks trying to pick a route through the parade-
From the video I saw it didn't appear that he was trying to hit anyone. It just looked like he got in the wrong place at the wrong time. He could have stopped, though, or tried to find a side street to turn off on.
I was so hoping to force crazy back under their rocks after Trump was ousted. Unfortunately it seems we are left with all sorts of little Trump's in elected office and scattered elsewhere around the country. If that's all Republicans are going to be about I doubt I will be voting for any of them in the future.
"I was so hoping to force crazy back under their rocks after
Trump was ousted."
That was not a farfetched hope. The Republicans were historically committed to forgetting their losing presidential candidates in serious hurry. (On the other hand, the Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson twice and he lost both times; nominated William Jennings Bryan three times and he lost all three times; and Grover Cleveland three times--he won two out of the three--nonsequentially. Henry Clay ran for President three times, but only once as a Democrat--later as a "National Republican" (no relationship to the modern Republican Party) and finally as a Whig. But, Republicans aren't known for doing repeats with a losing candidate.)
However, Trump won't go away. He's kinda unique for the Republicans in that regard. He was gonna run third party if they managed to deny him the nomination next time. (Still will do that if they figure out a way to overcome the Trumpkin 'base' which dominates their primaries.) And…! Trump brought in an additional new voting block--American fascists and reinvigorated Klansmen, folks who traditionally just didn't bother to vote. That was gonna be enough to almost, not quite but almost, guarantee him the nomination. The handwriting was on the wall. They back Trump for another run, or they lose in 2024.
So, what we gotta hope is that they back Trump and then lose anyway.
I will not be voting for a Republican, any Republican for any office anywhere, until the Party repudiates its alliance with Trump and his fascist supporters. I'm solid on that. I vote against all fascists all the time, and against all who ally with and consort with fascists. (I may not vote for the Democrat in certain cases, but I'll still not be voting Republican until the Party repents its embrace of Trump; I'm solid on that.)
I will not be voting for a Republican, any Republican for any office anywhere, until the Party repudiates its alliance with Trump and his fascist supporters.
That is my take on it too. I would hope that other Republican candidates would stand up and be counted as opposing what Trump and his cohorts are doing, but that is not something I can take a chance on.
"With people like Lauren Boebert, who just recently…"
It appears that Boebert called Omar yesterday and was lookin' to 'up the ante'. That one might drag on for a little while yet.
And there are reports of a couple of those flashmob thievery packs hittin' a couple of Best Buy stores in the Minneapolis area.
It sounds like Omar hung up on her.
Yeah, there were attacks on Best Buy in Maplewood and Burnsville. I don't know how much they got, but it shook everyone up.
I think they need security cameras outside to get the cars they leave in. Of course, they could be stolen as well. There was actually a robbery at a Home Depot where they stole all the tools needed for a 'smash & grab".
What I really think is they need to throw the book at the people they catch. This isn't a normal shoplifting type of crime. They are using violence during the attack. One police officer in another state was saying that a lot of these people haven't been arrested before for anything. It sounds like, at least for some, it is a rather strange fad.
"It sounds like Omar hung up on her."
That seems to be the rumor.
Word's gone around that Omar may have some social prejudices of her own. I don't know that it's true, but ya hear what ya hear. I'm kinda inclined to let the two of 'em sort it out between themselves (for now).
"This isn't a normal shoplifting type of crime."
Lot of 'not normal' social activity seems to be making the rounds these days. Some of politically slanted, some not. I'm pondering how much they may have to do with one another, or maybe rising from the same social pressures and 'inovations'.
I am not sure if I am an Ilhan Omar fan. She tends to be a little farther to the left than I am. However, I do not consider Boebert's behavior to be appropriate for a sitting elected representative. I would prefer them to act like mature intelligent adults and to take the people's business seriously instead of trying to score political points with their more radical base.
If Omar is too far left, Boebert is too far crazy.
Lot of 'not normal' social activity seems to be making the rounds these days.
I have to wonder how much is related to the pandemic as well as politics.
There was another school shooting, which I am sure you are aware of, in Michigan. So far 4 people have died. The shooter was a 15 year old boy who brought the semi-automatic handgun his father had just purchased a few days prior to school.
Chris Cuomo has been suspended indefinitely by CNN because of his back door helping of his brother regarding the sexual allegations against him.
Too bad, I rather liked him and thought him smarter than that. But blood is thicker than water.
I have to wonder...if the Supreme Court let's the Mississippi law banning abortions at 15 weeks stand and overturns Roe will that energize the Democratic base enough to get them out to vote in 2022?
Assuming the Republicans haven't stacked the deck to such an extent that we can still get (dare I say it?) a fair election?
"I am not sure if I am an Ilhan Omar fan."
I'm sure. Not a fan here. But, that doesn't increase the credibility of those sources whom I've heard accusing her of harboring her own prejudices.
Meanwhile: It appears that the Republicans in the House are having a problem coalescing around a defense of Boebert. Some (Keven McCarthy in particular) want to sweep it under the rug, but an increasingly dogmatic Trumpkin section are resisting his efforts to paper his way over (and past) Boebert's open displays of prejudice. They want to turn up the knob and blast their anti-Islamic attitudes out into the world at shake-the-ground volumn.
Not clear that McCarthy can keep a lid on 'em.
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I've never been a follower of Chris Cuomo, no cable here; so I won't miss him. But I do wonder if CNN allowed him to opine on his brother's case? (Or even read reporting about it on air.) Seems to me it'd be an obvious mistake on the network's part to show him anywhere near that story when there's other stuff he could report on. (Cable news, maybe 'on-line' would be a more appropriate term than 'on air', but I think 'on-line' is already in extensive use for other things than cable TV.)
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"…if the Supreme Court…overturns Roe will that energize
the Democratic base enough…?"
I've seen speculations to that effect. I can't really tell if that's just 'motivated reasoning' on the part of the Democrats, or maybe not. I haven't seen any polls on the subject and I'm not sure anybody's got the skill to poll such a question in advance in this political atmosphere. Which all comes down to me saying, "Guess we'll have to wait and see." Looks to me like the Court is likely to go for broke, likely to overrule Roe v Wade explicitly. Lots of pundits say they'll not be explicit about it, but I think this Court is probably more ideological, more adamant, and more exhilarated than those pundits realize.
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"…can [we] still get…a fair election?"
Not the right way to phrase the question I don't think. The Republicans have been holding on for several election cycles because they have an systemic advantage; it's already 'unfair', slanted in their favor, or they'd have been put out of power long time ago. They're working hard on making sure the next election is even more 'unfair' (even more slanted to their benefit) than was the last election.
The relevant question is whether or not they'll lose anyway, in spite of their best efforts to capture the nations' election machinery. ??? We'll have to see what we see when we see--almost a year to go yet--a long time in American electoral politics.
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And now there's the 'omicron' viral variant still yet to discuss….
"Meanwhile": Returning to the subject of an increasingly dogmatic 'Trumpkin' contingent in the Trumpkin/Republican Party ↑↑:
We see indications that the hard-line crazies are trying to (and may succeed at) organizing a shutdown of the federal government by this weekend (a government financial shutdown, not a debt default--not yet anyway). They appear to be demanding that the Biden administration forswear any and all vaccine "mandates" (defined according to their own constantly shifting definitions of what incentives might constitute a 'mandate'). Of course, since there is no hard and fast definition they're obliged to adhere to for whatever it might be they might consider a 'mandate', what they're really demanding is the power to shutdown the government at their own whim at a time of their own choosing and to then blame that shutdown on a supposed 'failure' of the Biden administration to keep an agreement they didn't make. This is so preposterous that even Mitch McConnell is now working to frustrate their plan. (Behind the scenes, of course, McConnell doesn't want to be seen publicly challenging the Trumpkin constituency.) It is not clear that McConnell will be successful. We may have a government shutdown declared by this weekend.
Here is information on America's sentiment regarding abortion. At least according to those polls listed.
Here's the best-kept secret about the so-called abortion "debate" in the United States: It's actually not that much of a debate at all. A majority of Americans believe that the decision to end or continue a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, not the state. Most Americans oppose laws that make it more difficult for reproductive health clinics to operate. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month challenging Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, but fewer than a third of Americans want Roe to be overturned.
One was a poll by ABCNews and another by the Washington Post. I don't know how the polls were taken. Did they actually reach into Trumpkin homes? Or did they reach mostly the liberal section of America?
Justice Roberts thinks he has come up with a compromise. That being allowing the ban at 15 weeks but preserving some form of choice before. He thinks there is really no hard line at determining viability apparently.
I've never been a follower of Chris Cuomo, no cable here; so I won't miss him. But I do wonder if CNN allowed him to opine on his brother's case?
No he didn't comment on his show about his brother's case. It had more to do with his using his contacts behind the scenes to see what people were going to say regarding the case and also giving his brother's handler's advice of some sort.
We'll have to see what we see when we see--almost a year to go yet--a long time in American electoral politics.
Yes.
And now there's the 'omicron' viral variant still yet to discuss….
It looks like Germany is mandating a lockdown of the unvaccinated. They are also going to see if a vaccine mandate will get through Parliament.
So if Ted Cruz and his ilk are trying to strongarm Biden to prevent something similar they may find their world shrinking if the world decides to do exactly what he thinks Biden may.
"He thinks there is really no hard line at determining viability apparently."
What he thinks is, he thinks he can fool people into believing that's a relevant consideration.
Biology is inherently resistant to the imposition of 'hard lines' by judges, especially including calendar time markers, but they've nevertheless been declaring and enforcing just exactly those kinds hard time lines for tens of thousands of years. You get to vote if you're on or past your eighteenth birthday, but not before. Reference to potential voter's intelligence and maturity and knowledge of the issues and the candidates etc. is not made--you get to vote if you've passed the age of eighteen on election day, otherwise no vote. You register for the draft by eighteen as well. Nobody gets to meander into discussions of physical or emotional development to avoid registering for the draft. Hard line--eighteen. Purchase liquor at twenty-one--nobody asks if you can handle your liquor. You hit the age, that's the hard line for buying your own. You're presumed drunk if your BAC is .0800, but you're presumed sober at .07999.
The law does it that way because there's no better way for the law to do such things and still be the law. Roberts knows all that without even thinking about it; he wakes up in the morning knowing all that. That's been the legal truth for centuries if not for millennia. It's his business to know this. Suddenly it's a problem he's just discovered and now needs to bring to our attention?
Like Hell it is.
Instead, he's working on the assumption that laymen won't know we've doin' just that sort of thing for centuries if not millennia, and they won't notice he's sellin' bullshit for the masses there. He's gaslighting you with that crap. That's all that is.
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"It had more to do with his using his contacts behind the scenes…"
Ah…I see….
Well then, I can see where CNN could have a complaint about him abusing his position as an employee of CNN. But, if he wasn't misleading the masses in the audience then it's just a brother acting like a good brother so far as we're concerned. Perhaps his employer has a legit complaint about him using their contacts inappropriately (trade secrets sort of consideration; they paid him a premium for developing those contacts--then he used them on personal matters), but that's an issue in their relationship (employer/employee) the rest of us got no particular beef with him that I can tell. Not if he was staying away from the subject when he was 'on air' as a journalist.
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McConnell did get his rebellion shut down. He got an extension on government spending passed out of the Senate last night, somehow deflating his radical Trumpkin contingent in spite of all their bluster and bluff early this week.
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Early indications are that prior infections with earlier strains of covid don't provide much in the way of 'natural immunity', as the Trumpkins like to call it, against the omicron variant. NewYorkTimes. We're still waiting on data about whether the vaccines offer any better protection.
Kevin McCarthy issued a statement yesterday (on FoxNews) claiming that Lauren Boebert had 'publicly apologized' for her anti-Muslim public remarks directed at Ilhan Omar, which remarks came to light in the past week or so. FoxNews Apparently McCarthy has decided to pretend this is true so he can 'move on' from the controversy. (Boebert has quite conspicuously not publicly apologized, but this discrepancy is not important enough to rate a mention at FoxNews.)
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Linda Greenhouse (long-time well-respected legal analyst concentrating on Supreme Court decisions) agrees with me about CJ John Roberts intentionally spreading bullshit far and wide to confuse the issue prior to (presumably) signing on to an opinion he probably won't write himself, overruling Roe v Wade. NewYorkTimes Greenhouse then goes on to accuse other Justices of chiming in with even more blatantly "gaslighting" the audience (they released the audio, in real time I think). But she's nearly as hard on Roberts as I was.
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James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of captured Oxford High School shooter, Ethan Crumbley, were themselves captured overnight in a nearby suburb of Detroit. It turns out the parents are dedicated Trumpkins. I have no idea whether or not that would increase the likelyhood that their kid would turn out to be a school shooter (I don't know if there are any statistics on that question), but at least we won't be treated to accusations from FoxNews that it was instigated by Antifa, or by the Black Lives Matter 'movement', or by exposure to Critical Race Theory.
I have no idea whether or not that would increase the likelyhood that their kid would turn out to be a school shooter...
I am not surprised. Their behavior in buying a semi-automatic hand gun for a 15 year old boy and then texting him that he should learn how not to get caught when searching for ammo struck me as something a dedicated Trumpkin would do. I also don't know if it would mean they were more inclined to ignore their son's rather odd behavior before the shooting.
I do not want to make the assumption that it would be a given that their son would turn out to be a school shooter either. Mental illness, which is what I presume is the issue with their son, is an equal opportunity disease.
It seems that Minnesota had the (dis)honor of having the second omicron Covid case. And it is probable that he was infected before South Africa made the announcement of the omicron variant discovery. It also seems that there are now a number of states finding the variant amongst their active Covid cases.
I have only heard about those who are vaccinated, like the man from Minnesota, becoming infected with mild symptoms. So that would imply that the variant may be able to circumvent the vaccine to a certain extent. I have not heard its effect on the unvaccinated. That is, are their cases mild as well or do they become more severe? If they remain mild then perhaps we should hope that omicron beats out delta for the search for hosts to infect.
I am going to hunt around for those N95 masks, I think. Even though I have gotten my booster and feel fully vaccinated. Never hurts to upgrade.
I watched the Crumbley's being arraigned this morning. They pleaded not guilty. While Mrs. Crumbley broke down in tears Mr. Crumbley seemed a little angry at the charges. At least his tone of voice in pleading not guilty was pretty emphatic.
I have little sympathy for them. Like the parents in the Rittenhouse case they should not have bought their son a gun at all. Period.
Yes, I know, Rittenhouse's friend step-father did not purchase the gun. But he did hold on to it and give it to him on the night of the shooting.
How could the defense lawyer not know when the arraignment is? That was their excuse for not turning up at the original time.
Doesn't explain why the Crumbley's didn't just turn themselves in to the nearest station. Especially if they really were in fear for their lives.
"I am going to hunt around for those N95 masks, I think."
Available at Lowe's home improvement store in Shakopee, Minnesota link
You shouldn't have any problem finding other sources--and models you might like better. The shortage is over. Some retailers have even found themselves overstocked.
(I got some light gray ones which don't show dirt so well 'cause I keep the 'current' mask in a little cardboard box in the pickup, and I put it on when I'm going into a busy environment. I usually can get six/eight hours of use out of them before they begin to plug up and 'draw' harder--meaning they'll last a month or more in the box in the center console. The gray color keeps them from showing fingerprints from repeated handling--the bright white ones show fingerprints too easily. I've noticed other folks just use a colored cotton cover mask over a a bright white N95--hides the fingerprints)
I never thought of Lowes. I was thinking oh a pharmacy. I will try the Lowes by me.
Thanks.
Plug their zip code into that page I showed you and it'll tell you whether they've got them in stock or not, and if they got them on hand, the aisle and bin numbers and how many currently in stock.
CNN did end up firing Chris Cuomo. Sad, he was an intelligent commentator.
Speaking of rather sad endings to someone's journalism career...what on earth happened to Lara Logan? I used to think she was a great war correspondent and intelligent journalist. Now she's sunk to comparing Dr. Fauci with Josef Mengele!
"...what on earth happened to Lara Logan?"
She used to work for CBS. Now she works for FoxNews.
I was surprised by a few pieces of what appeared to be a 'Skype' interview on NBCNews last night, two of the lawyers representing James and Jennifer Crumbley (maybe the only two as of right now). The positions asserted by the lawyers did not surprise me (although I found their assertions preposterous). But I was intrigued by the background (presumably selected by the defense lawyers themselve). The walls were covered with what tooked to me like newspaper clippings, especially concentrating on front-page, full page newpaper clippings. It looked like the lawyers were trying to emphasize their involvement in and commitment to high profile, headline generating legal cases. Seemingly we got a couple of young chick lawyers here wanna grow up to be Sydney Powell (or Rudy Guiliani) or some sort of equivalent for the new generation of partisan lawyers.
I'm guessing the Crumbley's got different lawyers by the time they get to trial.
I noticed that Trump favorite, David Perdue, ex-Senator from Georgia who lost reëlection in a squeaker last round while riding the Trump endorsement, yesterday announced his intention to challenge sitting Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp for the nomination for the 2022 election cycle.
Kemp incurred Trump's ire when he wouldn't support Trump's efforts to block certification of the Georgia's vote totals that favored Joe Biden.
If Trump can get Kemp tossed out in favor of the loyal minion Perdue it'll be a big win for Trump and a big step along the road to seizing control of Georgia's election certification process in particular and America's Presidential election machinery in general. (Of course, the winner of the primary fight will still have win the general election. And to do that they'll have to face Democratic challenger, Stacey Abrams, who made a real fight out of it last time. A bitter primary fight amongst the Republicans might be enough to push Abrams over the hump to a win this time.)
I don't know if it'd be better to see Trump's favorite lose to an 'establishment' Republican (Kemp), or to the Democrat ('better' being defined as worse for Trump's ongoing dream of overthrowing the American government), but I'm hoping that, one way or the other, Perdue loses.
She used to work for CBS. Now she works for FoxNews.
And went crazy in the process.
I am seeing rumblings of possible charges being filed against school officials in that Michigan shooting. They had the authority to search the kid's backpack but did not do so when they met with him and his parents. I realize the parents did not step up and tell them he had a gun, but it should have been a question that was asked.
Yeah, those lawyers did not seem very professional. You are right, probably aspiring to the level of Sydney Powell.
I finally finished that Mary Trump book. Her take on the political machinations of the GOP sounds a lot like yours. So does her concern.
"And went crazy in the process."
I think it was the other way 'round. She went over the edge first and then they let her go. As I recall she was 'suspended' indefinitely after she went on-air with some completely unsubstantiated, QAnon worthy conspiracy weavings regarding the attack on our embassy in Benghazi. She then took a short gig at Sinclair Broadcasting (an even further right challenger for FoxNews' position as TV broadcast propagandist for the Republican Party; pre-dating OneAmericaNetworkNews and still fighting them for supremacy among those seeking broadcast propaganda to the right of the FoxNews' offerings). Then she moved 'up' to FoxNews itself.
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"I am seeing rumblings of possible charges being filed
against school officials in that Michigan shooting."
Seems like a stretch to me, but, then again, I'm already thinkin' they may have trouble getting a conviction against the parents.
"… but it should have been a question that was asked."
He was too young to have a gun, not to mention being at school. If they suspected he had a gun the right move would probably have been to skip asking and go straight to the search.
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I don't know Mary Trump; never spoke with her. But sounds like she might be a wise woman--that psychology degree notwithstanding.
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R.I.P. ― Bob Dole
Bob Dole, when our country's politicians still seemed normal. Yes, RIP.
A most curious thing happened in the Senate early this week. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell implemented a preëmptive surrender on the next fight over the debt ceiling which was to come up in just about a week from now. The deal is for ten Trumpkin/Republicans to vote with all the non-Republican Senators (all 50 of them) to allow the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling by a simple majority vote (avoiding the filibuster efforts of the Trumpkin/Republican Senators who'd otherwise try to filibuster the extension of the debt ceiling). This next extension is expect to take them into the late fall of 2022, the very late fall, after the mid-term elections.
I find it most curious that Manchin nor Sinema will agree to a 'carve-out' from the filibuster neither for avoiding a federal debt default nor for protecting the public minorities' rights to vote, but McConnell will support a carve-out for avoiding that federal debt default. Ya gotta know things are getting a little bit weird when McConnell is making exceptions to the filibuster whilst his party is still in the minority. McConnell don't do nothin' for free, don't do nothin' that ain't about power for McConnell.
House Republicans, being much less worried about McConnell's grip on Senatorial power, are reportedly extremely resistant to the agreement--in accord with their Great Leader in absentia (a/k/a Trump in Mar-a-Lago) who's pretty much against any deal McConnell makes in his absence, but incapable of derailing it.
(One quite incidental side effect is that Manchin and Sinema will have been stripped of another point of leverage and publicity. They won't be able to sandbag the Democrats at the last minute (not on the debt ceiling anyway) unless they do that when the vote on McConnell's surrender package comes up during this coming week. Perhaps we have come close, right here, to figuring out why neither Manchin nor Sinema will agree to any reforms or exceptions to the filibuster rules. But, I don' think they'll sandbag McConnell in such a fashion.)
N.B. Might wanna think on this one just one more time. The Democrats can't get Manchin nor Sinema to agree to a carve-out from the filibuster to keep the federal government from defaulting on its debts--so Mitch McConnell finally stepped up and arranged for it to happen anyway. Maybe think on that one twice more, or even more times than that. Somethin' ain't right here.
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Title: Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun
subtitle: January 6 was practice. Donald Trump’s GOP is much
better positioned to subvert the next election.
In ― The Atlantic
_________________________
I will give a warning about the length of that Atlantic article; it's long.
McConnell don't do nothin' for free...
So we just don't know what angle he is playing or what leverage someone has over him.
"Trump's Next Coup Has Already Begun"
Perhaps McConnell is not so sure that's what he wants? Perhaps he is looking at finding a way to keep Trump from usurping the power that he feels should be his? Even if it means working with the Democrats?
"So we just don't know what angle he is playing or what
leverage someone has over him."
It's not that hard to figure out. He was embarrassed back in October when he had to back down from his original demands and agree to vote for a Continuing Resolution (a 'CR') to keep the bills paid. It was a compromise forced on him by some in his caucus who had decided they'd buck him on the debt default and vote with the Democrats to keep paying on the debts. (He covered it up at the time with a claim that he'd negotiated what he really wanted, which was a 'short' CR--the media let him get away with that story at first. But, it later came out that his guys had been getting restive and were going to embarrass him with some significant defections--maybe not enough to get the CR passed, but enough to make it a big news story.)
McConnell had originally insisted that the Democrats use (and hopefully use up) the 'reconciliation' processes to raise the debt limit. However, this time the relevant Democratic decision makers (Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden) stared him down.
It began to look like a losing proposition for McConnell no matter how it turned out.
If the Democrats found ten Republican Senate votes to extend the credit limit (and that was beginning to look like a significant possibility) then McConnell would have been seen as 'losing control' of his Republican caucus--unable to keep them in line. Much of his power is embedded in the perceptions of his power--can't lose a big one in public without it being a damaging strike against his power as leader.
If, on the other hand, McConnell could keep his caucus in line he'd suffer significant defections anyway, and if the country then defaulted on our debt, McConnell would get the blame--not Trump, probably not Biden either (not as much as McConnell anyway). That would be a hit to his power as well--McConnell would be taking the lion's share of the blame for that disaster and suffering significant public defections. Not a good power look.
And then there was the lingering possibility that Biden would declare a national emergency and order the Fed and the Treasury to just go ahead and keep on paying the debt payments anyway. (If Trump could get away with declaring a fake emergency to order payments for building his imaginary wall, then Biden might very well pull off continuing to make the debt payments to hold off a real emergency.) This would have the same down side of McConnell getting the blame for creating the emergency--not Trump--not Biden, but McConnell.
And it would set Biden up as the hero of the capitalists. Not at all what McConnell wanted to see happen.
McConnell wasn't gonna let himself get whipsawed between Trump and Biden and backed into that corner again. (And, of course, Trump is still hammering him from the other side, so he decided to just get that problem off his plate and go back to ignoring Trump and to fighting Biden's wholly partisan mega-infrastructure/social infrastructure bill that Biden's still trying to get passed. So, to Hell with the symbolic debt ceiling fights where he's probably going to lose some ground. Instead back to the real substantive legislation where he's got better prospects.) So, he manipulated an extension into late next year--and got it passed late yesterday.
McConnell got cornered and burned a little in October--he blew an escape hole in the corner this time, preëmptive strike, so he doesn't get singed again. (But a lot of Trumpkin/Republicans, House members especially, as well as a significant chunk of his Senate caucus, aren't real happy with this turn of events. And Trump doesn't like it, of course.) So, he had no winning moves and decided this was his least bad option--get away from it whilst everybody was thinking about Christmas, and it would get forgotten quick. Get on to fights he can win.
Also, there was the outside chance that if he forced a debt default that might force Manchin or Sinema, or both to reëvaluate how much the filibuster is worth to them. They might decide that sharing in McConnell's shame over a debt default was too big a price for the power the filibuster gives them over Biden's agenda.
So, with that out of the way for the moment, on to today's item of interest. Call it a 'heads up':
It's just leaked out the last couple of days that the Washington D.C. National Guard has accused a brace of Pentagon generals of lying like big dogs in their testimony to the Congressional Review Committees looking into the failure to deploy adequate protection for the Capitol Building during the Jan 6ᵗʰ putsch.
And, they've put those accusations in writing! They make if fairly clear that they're willing to testify (in public) against the two Pentagon generals who were in charge of those decisions to not deploy backup defenses to the Capitol Building that day.
Looks to me like they're getting ready to make a stink.
And, one of those two Pentagon generals whom they accuse of lying to Congress and whitewashing a failure to defend the Capitol just happens to be General Charles Flynn, the younger brother of disgraced (and Trump pardoned after a felony conviction) ex-General Michael Flynn. Politico
Add this to the news that Trump lost his legal bid to assert his claim to 'executive privilege' over government records that the Biden administration has decided should not be withheld. (Trump claiming that his power as the once and future executive should overwhelm Biden's power as the current executive.)
And I'll remind folks that the Watergate hearings took about a year to blow open Nixon's malfeasance occurring during the 1972 elections--and the final report didn't come out until two years after the relevant, investigated conduct.
This thing could, possibly, still blow up on Trump and his administrative Trumpkins.
The U.S. government has won its appeal in the case for the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. NBCNews The ruling came down about two hours ago. Assange's lawyers said they would appeal that decision to the U.K's Supreme Court.
I will give a warning about the length of that Atlantic article; it's long.
I just finished it. I think it must reading for anyone who really believes in our democracy. He paints a grim picture of what our fate may be.
This thing could, possibly, still blow up on Trump and his administrative Trumpkins.
After reading that article I am thinking that it needs to. Perhaps it is the only way to get people to see what is happening. I mean those who still may be able to see and who are not intent on destroying what has really made our country great.
Since I've been doing 'heads up' postings this week, I'll get one last one in here on the last day of the week….
Carson v Makin has lately been argued before the new Federalist Society dominated Supreme Court and it looks like they're probably going to reverse 250+ years of precedent and hold that, from now on, the government (both state and federal) must pay for ultra-conservative Christian religious private schooling to teach America's children that gay students are sinners, gay marriages are invalid, Islam is inherently evil, and whatever else may take prominence on the right-wing Christer agenda as time goes by.
Ain't got much press yet, but it'll be remembered if they decide it as I 'spect they will.
Well, it seems that the Supreme Court's allowing the Texas abortion law to stand has encouraged a copycat. A little of "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" perhaps?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed his "outrage" Saturday at a Supreme Court decision to allow the Texas six-week abortion ban to remain in effect and said he would use similar legal tactics to tackle gun control in his state.
Yup, interesting times.
...the right-wing Christer agenda as time goes by.
This reminds me, my local Target still has the dresses that harken back to the days of Little House on the Prairie prominently for sale. They have dressed up the one on display with a nice warm scarf. Trying to appeal to the colder weather folks I suppose. I don't know if any have been sold or not. They seem to be amply supplied though. Have to wonder if the buyer has read "The Handmaids Tale". Kind of fits in with the eroding of women's rights with the Texas abortion law and the danger Roe is in.
"…he would use similar legal tactics to tackle gun control in his state."
He will probably find at least five Federalist Society Justices (or maybe all six of them) willing to hold that there is a distinguishing feature between the two subjects. That being: They declare that citizens old enough to stand up on their back legs have a Constitutional right to carry a concealed semi-automatic weapon (or an open and obvious semi-automatic weapon), but that a woman does not have a Constitutional right to privacy and to doctor/patient confidentiality when the subject is abortion (to which the woman likewise has no Constitutional right)
I see that Chris Wallace has jumped ship. He has left Fox for CNN+.
I happened to be watching FoxNewsSunday when Chris Wallace announced that he'd just finished his last appearance on the show and that he had "decided to leave Fox". He alluded to his "new adventure" and to his hope that his loyal audience from Fox would "check it out", but he gave absolutely no hint that he was movin' to CNN. (Left me thinkin' he intended to retire to a slow lane, semi-retirement hobby program--maybe a "podcast" type of thing.)
I was unaware that there was a CNN+, and I'm not sure what the + distinction entails, but I'm fairly sure the dedicated Trumpkins ain't gonna cut him any slack on account of whatever that distinction might be.
But, the important thing to remember is that this is not a big deal for FoxNews nor for the right-wing crazie universe nor for the FoxNews quadrant thereof. They'd moved on from from Chris Wallace and his Sunday morning show years ago--enamored of the weirdness that permeates the Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson shows. There'll be a little bit of bitchiness and snark for a couple of days and then they'll quickly forget why they ever cared.
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Massive winter tornado outbreaks in the MidWest. We're not gonna escape the effects of global warming just 'case we're at distance from the oceans. Woulda been nice to think so, but I'm guessin' this will wake some more MidWesterners up to what's happenin'.
Kentucky looked like a war zone. Scary to think that this is the new normal. And It's not even the extremes that could be. I kind of feel like I'm living in a climate version of A Christmas Carol.
We are set for some weird weather on Wednesday. Tornadoes a possibility here too.
I've always liked Chris Wallace. That alone would mean that the right wing crazies would not.
The + refers to some kind of streaming service CNN is starting up. I Don't know much about it. I just saw the reference shen I read about Chris Wallace.
Now they are saying it is possible to have both the flu and Covid at the same time. It is also possible to have both the Delta and omicron variants at the same time. If that last is really true that kind of shoots my speculation that omicron might beat out Delta and this thing could die back to a mild flu like illness.
"…it is possible to have both the flu and Covid at the same time."
Of course. They said early on that the omicron variant had picked up RNA from the common cold, which meant that somebody had both diseases at the same time and they interacted, swapped RNA. (Viri are promiscuous.) It doesn't mean that the disease won't "die back to a mild flu like illness" Although I would caution against assuming it will become 'mild' just because it becomes commonplace; might--might not. We got billions of people in this world. Herd could withstand a little thinning out and still be a target-rich environment for the virus.
Curious phenomenon developing: The outraged headlines about "woke" Democratic constituencies are fading back. There's fewer and fewer of them (although they don't seem to be any less apoplectic). I theorize that they're having a problem with their campaign against persons being 'woke' in that it suffers from not having a large and looming black man as its imagery (invoking instead a somewhat more effete iconography).
I rather think Mitch McConnell is the expert at the double deal. I have to wonder if he has noticed Trump's shots across his bow and has decided to keep his options open if he has to actually go against Trump to retain power.
McConnell on the Jan 6th committee
"We are all watching, as you are, what is unfolding on the House side and it will be interesting to reveal all of the participants who were involved," McConnell told Manu on Tuesday.
I too thought that a rather odd comment for McConnell to make considering that he torpedoed the committee from the start.
Jennifer Rubin used to be known as one of the Washington Post's 'conservative' columnists. (Maybe not so much now that's she's fallen in with the #NeverTrumpers.) She's got a take on Senator Joe Manchin from Wednesday evening's WaPo that ends up warning:
"Paying too much attention to Manchin’s specific declarations
is always a mistake."
Little more polite than my analysis and my own description of Manchin, but essentially she's sayin' the same thing. (Short read.)
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"I too thought that a rather odd comment for McConnell to
make considering…"
Yeah, interesting comment. And you plucked about four threads in rapid succession in that first paragraph. One you seem to have skipped though is that McConnell was thereby declaring that one of the things we won't be finding is involvement by McConnell. He's confident he's clean on that one. And his comment there comes up just short of sayin' so out loud.
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They say Biden spent the larger part of the day yesterday 'negotiating' with Manchin and came away knowing that Manchin was going to vote against his 'social infrastructure' bill and there was nothin' they were going to offer him to change that fact. (Ain't clear if Manchin was hoping to keep stringing him along and he finally figured that out, or if Manchin broke form and actually admitted he was hoping to get a chance to vote against it in public. Either way, they've given up on getting that passed the Senate's Manchin blockade any time this year.) So, they're gonna be moving on trying to pass a voting rights act.
One you seem to have skipped though is that McConnell was thereby declaring that one of the things we won't be finding is involvement by McConnell.
Yes, I kind of let his comment stand for itself. He does seem to think he has clean hands.
Yet, I would consider that all of those who enabled Trump did in fact have a hand, however small, in what happened on Jan. 6th.
I noticed more people wearing masks today. A lot of them appeared to be the regular disposable masks. I still have been wearing the double cloth masks. I will have to hunt up the n95's tomorrow at my local Home Depot.
They say they have them in stock.
I've been wearing N95s from the very beginning. (Exhaust vented model--designed to protect me from them. The local, proudly unvaccinated dedicated Trumpkins can damn well take the chances they've been so eager to take. I'm just hoping enough of them acquire their sought after 'natural immunity' sooner rather than later.) Locally, we're being treated to renewed warnings about the hospitals filling up again. Seems we have an upsurge in delta-variant infections they're attributing to Thanksgiving gatherings. One of the local hospitals has reactivated its "overflow" covid-19 parking lot ward under a tent and the other is making noise about instituting similar extraordinary procedures, if they get any more business piled up. (We're still delta-variant dominant; omicron variety hasn't yet made much in the way of inroads here. Not yet anyway.)
Reminded me to change out the light gray N95 masks I keep in the little traveling boxes. (The one I used yesterday morning was getting noticeably harder to draw air through. I get about 6-8 hours actual, intermittent, in-public use out of one of them before they start showing signs of the filter material clogging up.)
Haven't noticed any up-tick in percentages of people masking up though.
I bought some N95's at Home Depot. I don't like the straps though. They are the kind that go all the way around your head. I know that saves your ears, but they are harder to get on and off. They say 3M with other writing across the front, which isn't attractive. But they are easy to breathe through. They also fit nice and snug, unlike the cloth and paper disposable masks.
I have noticed a higher percentage of people wearing masks. But still a disturbing number without.
'N95' equivalent masks with ear loops, deliverable to your local Target store so you don't have to pay shipping.
link Minimal printing, if any (so they don't qualify for and can't actually claim the NIOSH N95 rating, 'cause that has to be stamped prominently on each individual mask--rules--to protect workers who may be tired or hurried--they can just glance at the mask and know it conforms to the N95 standard). From 3M, bearing the 3M company's word for the 95% filtration efficiency instead of coming with a government certification.
(Or, you could look for KN95 rated masks. The Chinese 'KN' standard is accepting of considerably less obtrusive marking on the individual masks. Supposed to achieve the same air filtration efficiency, but allows for less obvious labeling.)
Manchin went on FoxNewsSunday this morning and announced that he has come to a hard and final "No" on Biden's "social infrastructure" legislation. (No surprise to Biden who knew that a couple days ago.) So, Manchin got what wanted (the 'hard' infrastructure legislation) and he got to string the rest of the Democrats along for several months before he announced that he has indeed double back on them just as they feared he would. This is the way he's always had it; this is the way he thought it was supposed to go. For awhile there he was seemingly incredulous that the "progressives" hadn't knuckled under and let him do to them again, but finally they did, so now all is well again in Manchin's West Virginia.
(Post Script: Manchin did bitch a bit about not getting the opportunity to do a dramatic 'thumbs down' move on the Senate floor for the 'social infrastructure' bill à la John McCain breaking the Republican efforts to kill off Obamacare.)
I paid $23 (including tax) for 10 N95 masks. I will wear them. I just have to get into the hang of the easiest way to put them on and to keep the straps from getting tangled in my hair and earrings.
Home Depot had others, I might have just picked the wrong style. We'll see.
Speaking of deliveries to Target. My local Target has taken up a huge amount of parking lot space with spaces dedicated to orders being picked up. Annoying. They are never all full and that was my favorite place to park. Now I have to walk farther, which is probably a good thing, exercise wise, but still irritating. And if we ever get beyond the pandemic, will those spots even be in use in the future? It seems like a solution to a temporary problem. At least I hope it is temporary.
(Post Script: Manchin did bitch a bit about not getting the opportunity to do a dramatic 'thumbs down' move on the Senate floor for the 'social infrastructure' bill à la John McCain breaking the Republican efforts to kill off Obamacare.)
Actually Bernie Sanders and other progressives want the bill brought to a vote and put Manchin on record as being a "hard no" as he put. They want to make clear that he did not want to vote for the things contained in the bill that are popular with the American voter, like control on drug prices. They want to make clear that the special interest groups are intent on tanking this.
"…Bernie Sanders and other progressives want the bill brought to a
vote and put Manchin on record…"
But the drama will be gone. The 24/7 news industry, desperate for drama won't be able to hype Manchin's refusal to tell as a great drama worthy of holding our breath about. Manchin's already told--on FoxNews no less.
Yes, well, he just made clear where his true loyalties are.
I noticed they just sentenced another rioter to a multiple year prison term. I don't know how early he could get out with good behavior, but at least they are sentencing them. These are the rioters who attacked police.
"[Manchin] just made clear where his true loyalties are."
Trump won West Virginia 70% to 30%. Manchin knows that. And Manchin's true loyalties are to Manchin's own reëlection. I don't believe he's ever hidden that.
Manchin is the price the Democrats pay for having Manchin as their 50ᵗʰ vote. The other side of that coin is that they don't have to suffer Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader. (I don't think Manchin needs to so blatantly take pleasure in stringing the Democrats along only to double cross them in the end, but that's a minor matter, a sense of smug entitlement coupled with a self-centered display of the same, a simple matter of tantrum and bad taste. Maybe he has to string them along, but he doesn't have to enjoy it so much, not quite so obviously anyway, but that's still a minor matter.) ________________________________
Federal first offenders with time off for good behavior do 85% of their declared sentence absent extraordinary circumstances (like covid running rampant through the federal penal system). The lenient paroles you sometimes hear about are generally the result of state criminal charges and how some states deal with sentencing. But the feds routinely hit 'em up for 85% of their sentence for first time offenders even with good behavior (for felonies anyway). Covid got a lot of recent federal prison sentences served out in 'home detention' wearing a transmitter 'round the ankle, but even then they served the 85% of time sentenced.
It looks like they are having a hard time coming up with a verdict in the Potter case. That was the Minnesota police officer who mistook her gun for her taser in a traffic stop resulting in a man's death.
I can see why. By her reaction it looks like an accident. Horrible.
"It looks like they are having a hard time coming up with a
verdict in the Potter case."
And yet Rittenhouse walked on a fairly straightforward 'not guilty' finding. I'm not sure if that means the right wingers hire better lawyers than the Police Unions, or if maybe it means the odds of getting a couple of right-wingers on the jury are better than the odds of convincing jurors of an excusable police error.
(Rittenhouse, by the way, is making the rounds of paid appearances in the right-winger media and at right-winger gatherings as the new fascist hero-of-the-day. And he's making public noises about bringing lawsuits against the 'liberal' media, which seem to be playing well with those audiences and bringing him in money to supposedly fund the lawsuits.)
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Sarah Palin has finally gotten into the vaccination debate, just where we'd expect her to be, in Arizona instead of Alaska and proclaiming they'll have to vaccinate her 'dead body'. (As if they'd bother.) link
Joe Manchin joined this week's Democratic telephone caucus meeting (trying to blunt the rage he's stoked it would seem, but without backing down). He appears to be trying to carry on just as before, even went along with the notion of holding a floor vote on the Biden administration's 'social infrastructure' bill that he knifed the other day on FoxNewsSunday. (Went along with that notion for now anyway. He is still Manchin after all.)
A lot of Democrats suspect Manchin's semi-conciliatory noises Monday and Tuesday, coming after his Sunday knifing exhibition, are designed to draw them back into negotiations over a bill he's never going to vote for. (They suspect he wants negotiations to continue forever, not to produce a bill--not his goal to ever agree to a bill, but rather to keep the media spotlight on Joe Manchin and how he's continually frustrating the 'libs'. That imagery plays well in West Virginia.)
The jury found Potter guilty.
I did see that McConnell invited Manchin to join the Republican Party.
Rather hope the chortling backfires.
"The jury found Potter guilty."
Guilty of manslaughter, not murder. I suspect they were not convinced that it was an 'excusable' mistake.
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An invitation to join the Republican/Party of Trump coming from McConnell carries no weight. Manchin voted twice to impeach Trump. That'll lose him the Trumpkin/Republican primary in West Virginia. Nothing McConnell can do 'bout that. (Unless Trump himself blesses Manchin's changeover, Manchin's dead meat in their primary, and maybe even then.)
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