P.E. Will Be Away For A Few Days

 Go read Dave Dubya's Freedom Rants' newest post HERE.

Off to Maine's beautiful mid-coast for a few days.

Be excellent to each other!

The Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse is located at the end of a 3/4 mile breakwater and is accessible only by foot. Once you walk out to the lighthouse and back, it’s 1.5 miles round trip. The lighthouse was completed in 1902. 

Camden, Maine

BOOM!

 

Ted Cruz: Proving every day that he's a wanker*:

*wanker

 noun

English Language Learners Definition of wanker

: a stupid, foolish, or unpleasant person

The response from Michael Gunn, Chief Minister for the Northern Territories:

This is one of SNL's best cold opens:

 

So much truth in comedy:

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

Trae Crowder

 The Saturday night dance video is not accessible, so I’ll just let Trae Crowder entertain you.

I often watch Trae Crowder's Liberal Redneck, but realized I've never posted his witty, incisive videos here. So here ya go:

Everything's bigger in Texas -- even the idiots!

 

Texas school official tells teachers that Holocaust books should be countered with ‘opposing’ views 

"A North Texas school district apologized late Thursday after an administrator advised teachers that if they have books about the Holocaust in their classrooms, they should also include reading materials that have “opposing” perspectives of the genocide that killed millions of Jews."

Is there an opposing view on genocide -- one that justifies it? Is that what the nincompoop who said this means? What exactly did she mean? Are there more Texans who believe in garbage like this?

Is there a "bothsiderism" to genocide?

"The incident in North Texas is the latest example of how schools, educators and parents nationwide are clashing over what can and can’t be taught in the classroom. Much of the focus has been on the teaching of history, LGBTQ issues and race, specifically critical race theory — an academic framework for examining the way laws and policies perpetuate systemic racism. Conservative lawmakers and right-leaning news outlets have seized on critical race theory in recent months."

YOUR FRIDAY ROUNDUP OF GQP NINCOMPOOPS:

The Current Trumpublican Party -- Really.

 

This was sent to David Corn, DC Bureau Chief of Mother Jones:

Trump, Inc., really believes his followers are a bunch of gullible, hayseed, infantile idiots. Who else would fall for this nonsense? 

BREAKING NEWS: "The January 6 Committee confirms that it will 'enforce its subpoenas' of Trump’s aides by 'pursuing criminal contempt charges' against them and even throwing them 'in jail' because 'nobody is above the law.' "

Also, this is priceless:

Adam Schiff @RepAdamSchiff ·  

Thanks for the shout-out, Mr. Former President. 

 As for your statement that the attack on the Capitol would never have happened if “the people in charge had done their job” 

 You do realize that you were in charge on January 6th? 

Right? 

Just checking.

One of the stories anti-CRT people don't want our children to learn.

 

Bill Parent:

"A little history. 

Back when America was 'great,' this man couldn't buy a house in my home town of Wakefield, Massachusetts. He bought one in Reading, next door, where one night a band of Americans broke in, stole his valuables, smashed his trophies, and shit inside the covers of his and his wife's bed. 

Yes, shit on his bed. 

And every game, he stood stoically for the anthem, looking around at thousands of white faces as they boasted of the 'land of the free and the home of the brave.' 

I could live in Wakefield. But Bill Russell, the greatest player in the history of basketball, the man in this picture wearing his Presidential Medal of Freedom, couldn't. 

Don't let anyone tell you there's no such thing as white privilege. 

Don't let any government official, especially a president, tell you or anyone else when it is appropriate to stand, sit, or kneel in protest. 

And most of all, don't fall for this MAGA bullshit."

The "bullshit" Bill Parent refers to is those who want to "Make America Great Again" and take America back to those "good ole days" (see the story above) and who believe teaching critical race theory (which is NOT being taught in public schools) is bad for America. 

It isn't.

And stories like this one -- which happened in the North, not the South, need to be told, not to shame anyone, but to give our children the factual stories of how America treated/treats its minorities. Stories that are the truth.

I know this story quite well, since my sister and her family lived in both Wakefield and Reading. It's true.

But certain groups on the Trumpian far right are afraid of learning about how Americans of color were treated/are treated by their fellow citizens, so afraid that some of them have passed laws that prohibit teaching these truths in American classrooms. Here's one from Tennessee:

"(a) An LEA (local educational agency) or public charter school shall not include or promote the following concepts as part of a course of instruction or in a curriculum or instructional program, or allow teachers or other employees of the LEA or public charter school to use supplemental instructional materials that include or promote the following concepts: 

 (6) An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual's race or sex;"

***************************

The sad, uncomfortable fact for non-p.o.c. and non-gay individuals is that when they find out how p.o.c. and gays and/or non-binary Americans were actually tormented, tortured, and in many cases murdered, those stories DO make anyone hearing them feel "discomfort, guilt, anguish, or some form of distress."  

But that has nothing to do with the race or sex of those learning this history, or feeling "guilty" about hearing the various histories of this country's racism and sexism. It is normal to feel shame about this part of our history. 

The goal should be to get beyond that shame and regret and DO something, LIKE LEARN WHAT WE AMERICANS DID and to make sure succeeding generations do not repeat the dishonorable and contemptible treatment of our fellow Americans by our fellow Americans.

There's nothing wrong with learning the truth about one's country's history. What IS wrong is sheltering our succeeding generations from that truth.

AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TRUMPUBLICANS THINK:

Your Sunday Moment of Zen

 

From George Will's new book, "American Happiness and Discontents."

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

Martha and the Vandelles, Dancing in the Street:

 

 Mick Jagger and David Bowie, Dancing in the Street:

 

Trump has instructed four associates to defy the January 6 Committee's subpoenas.

 

BREAKING NEWS:    President Biden refuses to assert privilege over Trump documents sought by January 6 committee 

 (CNN)The White House has informed the National Archives they are not asserting executive privilege on behalf of former President Donald Trump, paving the way for the Archives to share documents with the House committee investigating the January 6 violence at the US Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.

ALSO:

Just in: Jan. 6 committee announces panel will consider criminal contempt of Congress referral over Trump aides subpoena defiance: “We will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena.”

GOOD!

"Can you say no to a subpoena? 

Don't ever think you can simply ignore a subpoena. Even if you have a legitimate reason to avoid the subpoena, you need to respond and explain your position. If you ignore the subpoena, you can be held in contempt of court." 

POLITICO:

Former President Donald Trump is directing a group of his former aides to ignore a subpoena from the House committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and signaling he will go to court to block their testimony to the investigators. 

The committee has subpoenaed documents and testimony from four Trump administration alumni: former social media czar Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kash Patel, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former White House adviser Steve Bannon. 

The four men were ordered to turn over documents related to Jan. 6 by Thursday and to sit for interviews with investigators next week.  But Trump is saying otherwise. In a letter that POLITICO viewed, a Trump lawyer tells them not to cooperate with the probe. 

The letter stated the committee is seeking materials that are covered by executive privilege, as well as other privileges."

What "executive privilege?" Trump is a private citizen. Because Trump no longer is in office, he cannot directly assert privilege to keep witnesses quiet or documents out of the hands of Congress, because President Biden will have some say in the matter. 

Here is is Neil Eggleston, former White House Counselor and Harvard Law Lecturer on the subject: 

Eggleston: "The law is actually fairly clear on this, although there’s always the issue of whether this new Supreme Court would follow the pretty settled law or not. So, let me give you two answers, the first administrative and the second legal. First, neither the current president nor the prior president has physical custody of the materials from the prior presidents. All of these materials are stored at the National Archives. 

I dealt with this as the last White House counsel for Obama, when we had the enormous processes of transferring our data out of the White House and to the Archives. 

If there is a request for what would otherwise be privileged material regarding a prior presidency, representatives of the prior president are supposed to consult with representatives of the current president, and then the current president decides."

*************************

The Former Guy told his lackyes to defy a lawful subpoena. 

As usual, Trump is a lawbreaker and a disrupter who feels rules and laws don't apply to him. His whole life has been an unending series of lying, cheating, and committing fraud. And here he is again, on the wrong side of the law, encouraging his flunkies to break it.

I hope that the Congressional committee issuing the subpoenas teaches The LAWLESS Former Guy, (who lost the last election by 7 million popular votes and an electoral landslide), the meaning of this old saying:

"Eff around and find out."

Trump Believers: The Psychology of Delusion,

 

Thomas Edsall:

"About 35 percent of Americans believed in April that Biden’s victory was illegitimate, with another 6 percent saying they are not sure. What can we say about the Americans who do not think Biden’s victory was legitimate? Compared to the overall voting-age population, they are disproportionately white, Republican, older, less educated, more conservative, and more religious (particularly more Protestant and more likely to describe themselves as born again)."

They also believe this:

“Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background” — ...60 percent of Republicans agreed, as do 55 percent of conservatives."

This is astonishing:

"...among white Republicans, those without college degrees were far more likely to agree “that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump,” at 69 percent, than white Republicans with college degrees, at a still astonishing 51 percent."

And this:

"The populist Right hates the intellectual Left because they hate being condescended to, they hate what they perceive as their hypersensitivity, and they hate what they view as an anti-American level of femininity (which is for whatever reason associated with intellectualism). 

 At the same time...the intellectual Left really does see the G.O.P. as a bunch of deplorable rubes. They absolutely feel superior to them, and they reveal it constantly on Twitter and elsewhere — further riling up the “deplorables.” 

[SKIP]

"The populist/anti-intellectual Right absolutely believe that the intellectuals are not only out of touch but are also ungodly and sneaky, and therefore think they must be stopped before they ruin America. 

Meanwhile, the intellectual Left really do believe the Trumpers are racist, sexist, homophobic (and so on) authoritarians who can’t spell and are going to destroy the country if they are not stopped."

***************************** 

My take from the Edsall article:

"Meanwhile, the intellectual Left really do believe the Trumpers are racist, sexist, homophobic (and so on) authoritarians who can’t spell and are going to destroy the country if they are not stopped." 

We believe it for a reason. Because it is true. Leaving aside the spelling part for a minute what part of this is not factually correct? None of it. 

Overwhelming social science research, some of it quoted or referred to in this column, shows a strong correlation between racism, sexism, homophobia and trumpism. It is true in the same sense that the blueness of the sky is true. 

Ditto on violence. 

90% of all politically motivated violence is now coming from the right, according to the Edsall column. When Trumpers engage in violence--as they did on January 6th at Trump's direction -- it is insurrection. It is sedition. When anti-trumpers think of political violence they are thinking of self defense. IMO, these two are in no sense equivalents, moral or otherwise."

It’s true that all factions at all times are guilty, to greater or lesser extent, of bias, sometimes deep bias. But it's also true that there is only one faction at present that has accepted, in fact cheered for, history’s only presidential introduction of violence into politics. That same faction is methodically working to change election laws in about a third of the states so that its own partisans can assume the powers of ballot-counting. Its leaders work tirelessly to subvert faith in elections. 

Faction members seek to intimidate election staff, and are credibly linked to what the FBI declares is the biggest terror threat. The contrast to that Trump faction is not just Democrats. The contrast is with decent Americans who want the basic framework of decency norms and practices to be restored and sustained.

Some are actual Republicans, like my governor.

Non-political post of the week!

 

Boston Red Sox win AL wild card slot against the Yankees!

New York Post yesterday (LOLZ!):

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

"This game is for keeps. All prizes are final.”

*** “They put dad next to mom, and they put mom’s hand on top of dad’s, and my sister and I and her three children and my daughter were in there. We may have not seen each other every day, but we talked every day, and now… there’s nothing. I mean, nothing whatsoever.” --Nikki Jensen, daughter, on burying both parents on the same day. Joe and Evelyn Chaisson died together on August 27 in Sulphur, Louisiana, leaving behind Nikki and her sister to cherish their memory. Joe and Evelyn were not vaccinated. 

 *** Martin Daniel, 53, and his wife Trina, 49, died together on July 6 in Savannah, Georgia, orphaning two teenage children. Martin and Trina were not vaccinated. 

*** Barbara Finch died on September 10 in Bangor, Maine. Her husband Robert died two days later on September 12. Barbara and Robert orphaned three children. Barbara and Robert were not vaccinated. 

*** Davy Macias, 37, died on August 26 in Yucaipa, California. Her husband Daniel, 38, died two weeks later on September 9. Davy and Daniel orphaned five children, ages 7, 5, 3, 2, and a baby born while Davy was intubated. Davy and Daniel were not vaccinated. 

*** Charletta Green, 44, died on Labor Day while in Florida on vacation. Her husband Troy, also 44, still in Detroit planning to join her later, on the beach, instead, joined her in Heaven eight hours later. Charletta and Troy orphaned seven young children. Charletta and Troy were not vaccinated. 

 *** Lydia Rodriguez, 42, died on August 2 in Galveston, Texas. Her husband Lawrence, 49, died two weeks later on August 16. Lydia and Lawrence orphaned four children. Lydia and Lawrence were not vaccinated because they “didn’t believe in vaccines.” 

*** Tris Graham, 45, died on August 25 in Huntsville, Alabama. Her husband Dusty, 45, died three weeks later on September 16. Tris and Dusty orphaned their two children, Windsor and Gabe. Tris and Dusty were not vaccinated because “the U.S. Constitution is my passport.” 

*** Brenda Smalls, 38, died on September 6 in Aiken, South Carolina. Her husband Marcus, 44, died a week later on September 13. Brenda and Marcus orphaned seven small children. Brenda and Marcus were not vaccinated because Brenda felt it sufficient to rebuke Covid in prayer: “I curse the coronavirus at its roots and command it to shrivel up and die, in the name of Jesus.” 

*** Shannon Berardis, 50, died on August 22 in Statesboro, Georgia. Her husband Billy, 50, died sometime before September 16. Shannon and Billy orphaned their five-year-old son, Elijah. Shannon and Billy were not vaccinated because Shannon "would not let the government tell me I need to be vaccinated against their bullshit.” 

*** Carla Smith, 62, died in Piedmont Newnan hospital on August 21. Her husband Clint, 62, died two days later on August 23 in Wellstar Lagrange hospital. The different hospitals kept the nurses from “putting dad next to mom, and putting mom’s hand on top of dad’s.” Carla and Clint were not vaccinated because the Pentecostal couple believed the vaccines contained the Mark of the Beast. Their orphaned daughter, who had begged her parents to get vaccinated, expressed her exasperation in their joint obituary she wrote for McKoon Funeral Home in Newnan, Georgia: “Clint and Carla loved Jesus. Clint and Carla were gone far too soon. The family believes their deaths were preventable, if they had gotten the COVID-19 vaccine. Their daughter Elana would particularly like to encourage friends, family, and anyone reading this to get vaccinated so that your sons and daughters never have to feel this kind of pain.” 

*** Jeffery Hager, 46, died on September 10 in Huntersville, North Carolina. His wife Amee died eight days later on September 18. Jeffery and Amee orphaned four children, Garrett 14, Addison 13, Jackson 7, Emmery 6. Jeffery and Amee were not vaccinated. On their final CaringBridge entry, Amee's parents pleaded with parents to get vaccinated: "If you are not vaccinated…..please go and get it. You cannot be replaced! Don't leave your families behind to deal with this kind of pain and grief!" 

*** Derrick Wallace, 46, died on August 9 in Liberty, Texas. His wife Jessica, 40, died ten days later on August 19. Derrick and Jessica orphaned their teen daughter, Madison. The Pentecostal couple were not vaccinated. With extreme poise and commendable composure, Madison stood behind her parents’ open caskets at The Anchor Pentecostal Church in Beaumont and thanked them for their love, expressed by her father in “traditional ways” and [awkward giggle] “making fun of me” and “buying five boxes of the Pop-Tarts he knew I liked.” 

Twelve couples dead. Thirty-nine children orphaned. Lives cut short in their prime. Lives left behind shattered. For what? For nothing. I mean nothing whatsoever. There is no worthy sacrifice; there is no honorable cause. None of these people rushed into a burning building to save children; none drowned trying to pull a stranger from the ocean; none were on the front lines in hospitals before a vaccine was available. 

There will be no hospital wings named after them; no bridges carrying their names over troubled waters; no ships christened in their honor. They died for nothing. I mean nothing whatsoever. They threw away their own lives and forever wrecked the lives of those left behind in the wake of their prideful, selfish obstinance. 

The virtually-risk-free highly-effective vaccine was free of charge and freely-available to all twelve couples as of April. All have died since July. Their deaths were entirely and easily preventable. 

My anger at ignorance is checked by the heartbreak of those needlessly orphaned. Pop-Tarts. The innocence. The shocked inability to grasp the permanency. Madison chose Calum Scott’s “You Are The Reason” to play on loop as church members filed by the two open coffins, pausing to hug her. It’s a song of a person left behind; a person desperately struggling under the guilt and weight of knowing he drove away the love of his life; a shattered person begging for a return of life as it was. 

“There goes my heart beating/ 'Cause you are the reason I'm losing my sleep/ Please come back now /“And there goes my mind racing /And you are the reason/ That I'm still breathing/ I'm hopeless now/ “I'd climb every mountain/ And swim every ocean/ Just to be with you/ And fix what I've broken/ Oh, 'cause I need you to see/ That you are the reason.” 

Evangelicals, preoccupied with the afterlife, don’t seem to grasp the finality of earthly death. These people are not coming back from the grave when they finish 'owning the libs' by proving they have the 'medical freedom' to refuse life-saving treatment. There will be no third-day resurrection for those whose 'own research' contained a fatal error. 

This game is for keeps. 

 All prizes are final.” --Cree Hardegree

That call Gen. Milley had with his counterpart in China...

 

All the top advisors in the Trump administration knew about the call; Gen. Milley had coordinated the call with them:

Milley Says China Calls Were Coordinated With Trump Aides 

 General Mark Milley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said two calls he made to his Chinese counterparts in the final weeks of the Trump administration were a normal part of his job and were coordinated with the acting secretary of defense and other top officials. 

 “I know, I am certain, President Trump did not intend on attacking the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility to convey presidential orders and intent,” Milley told the Senate Armed Service Committee on Tuesday, referring to a call he made on Oct. 30. Eight people sat in on the October call and 11 people sat in on the January call. 

The calls were coordinated by Trump Secretaries of Defense at the time, Esper and Miller.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the U.S. Central Command chief, testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that he made the first call on Oct. 30 at the direction of then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and that eight people were on the call with him. 

 Milley also informed the senators on the Armed Services Committee that the Chinese requested the second call, doing so on Dec. 31. That call took place on Jan. 8, and 11 people were in on that call. He also explained that he "personally" told then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while later briefing then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

"...Meadows, whose knowledge of the call was previously unknown, said on social media: "General Milley needs to answer questions immediately — under oath — about whether he subverted a sitting President of the United States and colluded with an adversary. Not tomorrow. Not eventually. Immediately. If it’s true, firings and resignations should be just the start."

***************************

Do you see what happened there? Meadows knew exactly and under what circumstances the call was made. He knew the truth, and yet that didn't stop him from implying in his statement that Gen. Milley did something wrong. The revelations about the phone call sparked outrage among some Republicans, including Trump, who suggested that Gen. Milley had committed a crime by going behind the then-president’s back to communicate U.S. policy to foreign adversaries.

None of that was true, since Trump's closest advisors knew about it.

Like Trump, Meadows is a grandstanding liar, interested only in scoring points and dividing this country further than it already is.

More grandstanding Trumpublican idiots shooting off their mouths without knowing the details and truth.

Idiots! All of them.

Marjorie Taylor Green: "Court-martial Mark Milley." 

Republicans call Gen. Mark Milley 'traitor,' and say he should be fired or court-martialed for a report that he secretly intervened to avoid war with China

COULDN'T RESIST THIS MEME

 

This is how millions of Americans imagine The Former Guy:

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

The Thatcher Effect

The Thatcher Effect. This illusion highlights a flaw in how our brains work - we can't process an upside-down face because we are programmed to recognise faces the right way up. We create a mental map by recognising the face in pieces - eyes, mouth, and nose. So when we're presented with an upside-down, Thatcherised image, it's not processed properly. 

We know it's upside down, but because we so rarely encounter upside-down faces, we haven't evolved to interpret the expressions on them. The facial features look fine, so our brains assume the rest of the face is as well. That's why we don't see anything out of the ordinary until we turn the face the ‘right way’ up.