U.S. Politics / bounced checks and negative balances

[Fragile Bird]

I see a 25-year old woman, a demonstrator of some type, was arrested yesterday for using a baseball bat on a Capitol police officer. She also bit an officer when they arrested her. Charges will be laid. I gather she was walking around with her baseball bat and decided to use it when approached by the police.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

45 minutes ago, HoodedCrow said:

In a constitutional monarchy, King Trump would have to shut up or abdicate. He would have very little political power. 

You assume the Republicans in question mean a constitutional monarchy, not an absolute one?

[HoodedCrow]

I do think there are some Republicans who want Trump to be fascist and skip the constitution. When from is installed with his corrupt minions, I suppose he can call himself whatever he wants. God Emperor, Benefactor of Stooges, Creepy Daddy.

[DMC]

Not for nothing, but both Hobbes and Locke were monarchists, and reading their books are pretty essential to teaching democracy.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

14 minutes ago, DMC said:

Not for nothing, but both Hobbes and Locke were monarchists, and reading their books are pretty essential to teaching democracy.

This makes me think of the Alexander Hamilton episode of Drunk History. "He's secretly a monarchist."

Aubrey Plaza as Burr slays. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

3 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I see a 25-year old woman, a demonstrator of some type, was arrested yesterday for using a baseball bat on a Capitol police officer. She also bit an officer when they arrested her. Charges will be laid. I gather she was walking around with her baseball bat and decided to use it when approached by the police.

I'm assuming you're talking about Olivia Romano-- do you have a source for this?  I can't find anything showing that she used the bat on officers, also she was protesting the Line 3 pipeline, these protestors have been the subject of police brutality with almost no public pushback. 

I'm skeptical about taking the cops' word on this.

[sologdin]

skeptical about taking the cops' word on this

if their jackboot cameras turned out to have malfunctioned, we'll know the answer.

[DireWolfSpirit]

23 minutes ago, 1066 Larry said:

I'm assuming you're talking about Olivia Romano-- do you have a source for this?  I can't find anything showing that she used the bat on officers, also she was protesting the Line 3 pipeline, these protestors have been the subject of police brutality with almost no public pushback. 

I'm skeptical about taking the cops' word on this.

From CNN-

CNN)A US Capitol Police officer was attacked on Friday morning by a woman carrying a baseball bat along First Street SW in Washington, Capitol Police said in a statement.

The incident happened around 9:30 a.m. ET. When police approached the woman, she became agitated and raised her bat. Officers tried to take the bat from her, and during the scuffle she bit one of the officers, according to Capitol Police.

Police identified the woman as 25-year-old Olivia Romero. Charges are pending.

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 minute ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

From CNN-

CNN)A US Capitol Police officer was attacked on Friday morning by a woman carrying a baseball bat along First Street SW in Washington, Capitol Police said in a statement.

The incident happened around 9:30 a.m. ET. When police approached the woman, she became agitated and raised her bat. Officers tried to take the bat from her, and during the scuffle she bit one of the officers, according to Capitol Police.

Police identified the woman as 25-year-old Olivia Romero. Charges are pending.

 Ah, cool, so according to that she did not use a baseball bat to attack anyone.  

[Martell Spy]

Surprised to see US Republicans cozying up to the European far right? Don’t be

Before Trump, only relatively fringe American conservatives had open connections to the international far right. Today, the ties have mainstreamed

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/15/us-republicans-european-far-right

Quote

 

Obviously, these international networks overlap on many issues, most notably in their common opposition to the “global left” but also, in different gradations, to immigration, Islam and “gender ideology”. But they also disagree on central issues, from the importance of religious doctrine to the role of Russia, and consequently have very different and shifting memberships. And they differ in the role of the US conservative movement within the network.

With the exception of the Christian right, which has long dominated the global movement, the US does not play a leading role in these networks. Even the “national conservatism” network is run by an Israeli and increasingly funded by Hungarians. Moreover, the various US Republicans who have recently participated in these meetings seem to use their international connections more for domestic gains – most notably in the fight for the Republican nomination (should Donald Trump not run) – than for the sake of building a Populist International.

This is not to say there is nothing new to recent developments. In the pre-Trump era, only relatively marginal rightwing conservatives and Republicans had open connections to the international far right. Today, the ties between the broader US conservative movement and the global far right have become mainstreamed, from the Republican party to National Review, with fewer and fewer dissenting voices. Still, steeped in US exceptionalism, the US conservative movement remains mostly inward-looking, using international connections and events primarily for national political struggles. And the Populist International is still more media hype than political reality.

 

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

13 hours ago, ants said:

So, that surely means when teaching WW2 they’ll include Mein Kempf, in economics Das Capital, Satanism in bible class, Sharia law in lessons on the law, books arguing for a monarchy when discussing democracy, and critical race theory when discussing Texas history…..

The problem is the Texas Statute, HB 3979(h-2)(1-2), is vague as to what constitutes a “widely debated or currently controversial issue”.  

The author of the bill claims this isn’t what he ment.  But, if you leave words or phrases undefined or if the phrasing you use is vague whether you mean it to be vague or not it opens these teachers to potential liability.  Which is what I really believe this statute was intended to do.  It’s insidious:

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/HB03979I.pdf

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

1 hour ago, 1066 Larry said:

 Ah, cool, so according to that she did not use a baseball bat to attack anyone.  

Right, it sounds more a case of raising it without using it. Plenty of room for sensationalizing what may have been involved between opposing sides.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Damn, Smerconnish is really sending the wake up call. The Biden Administration desperately needs a string of wins or our worse fears will materialize.

He's arguing Joe doesn't look strong on any front.

Smerconish: This is why Trump can win in 2024

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/10/16/smerconish-can-trump-steal-2024---or-win-it-outright.cnn

He (Smerconnish) sounds like he is frustrated as hell and not too confident things will improve.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

23 hours ago, DMC said:

 

It's Kyrsten but I'll be damned if I don't feel weird every time I try to type it.

Thanks--I've been misspelling it then--it does feel weird, but it's weird how difficult her name has been in general for people! 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

Thanks--I've been misspelling it then--it does feel weird, but it's weird how difficult her name has been in general for people! 

Agreed.  And she absolutely is an odd duck.

[felice]

7 hours ago, 1066 Larry said:

 Ah, cool, so according to that she did not use a baseball bat to attack anyone.  

Did one of the officers get tooth marks on their fist?

[Centrist Simon Steele]

I knew Manchin would block any meaningful climate provisions. Now Dems are grasping at straws like a carbon tax (NY Times article) (which if done correctly could make a difference), but Manchin would oppose this too. He and Sinema both have been shown to be taking money from donors with vested interests in stopping Biden's agenda. 

The planet's done. That we waited so long--it was done a long time ago, but damn, we can't even get these greedy assholes to let up for a moment to try and stop what is now inevitable.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I liked this article on the inner chambers and private deliberations of the Roberts Court.

The secret Supreme Court: Late nights, courtesy votes and the unwritten 6-vote rule

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/17/politics/supreme-court-conference-rules-breyer/index.html

They describe seating around a large rectangular table, in order of seniority, and have a very civilized unwritten rule, No-one is to speak twice before they have went completely around that table and each Justice has had their turn.

Also this article on having to change the rules on oral arguments because men kept interrupting the female justices according to Sotomayer.

SCOTUS changed oral arguments in part because female justices were interrupted, Sotomayor says

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/13/politics/sotomayor-oral-arguments/index.html

[Zorral]

Don't ever fool ourselves: Pence and Cruz are part and parcel an active actor in this -- among many others.  We see them matter-of-factly attending those kinds of extreme right coalition meeting in Europe all the time, from Turkey and Hungary to Spain and France.

"The GOP alliance with Europe’s far-right deepens"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/12/republican-alliance-europe-far-right/

Quote

 

... One of the striking transatlantic developments of the past half-decade — marked by the rise and fall and potential re-emergence of President Donald Trump — has been the overt collaboration between right-wing politicians and activists in the United States and counterparts in Europe, particularly those on the far right. ....

The Republican Party of the United States is, in global terms, a far-right party. The V-Dem Institute, a think tank based at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, maintains an index charting hundreds of political parties from 169 countries on a shared political spectrum that has mapped the party’s trajectory. In this view, the Republicans’ ultranationalist turn over the past two decades, crystallized by the rise of Trumpism, has shifted them closer to authoritarian-leaning factions in power in countries like Hungary and Turkey and made them even more illiberal than far-right parties in Western Europe, like France’s National Rally or Spain’s Vox.

Over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) beamed in virtually to a rally in Madrid held by Vox and spoke glowingly of the “shared values” between him and Vox leader Santiago Abascal, whose party espouses a virulent anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-feminist agenda, has attacked Pope Francis over the pontiff’s rhetoric about the sins of Spanish colonialism in the Americas, and engages in borderline nostalgia for the era of the country’s fascist dictatorship.

Cruz told his audience that the collective goal should be to “promote and defend the principles that underpin our vision of a world where people who share our principles can thrive.” Left unspoken is what should happen to those who don’t share these “principles.” ....

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

On 10/16/2021 at 12:26 PM, 1066 Larry said:

 Ah, cool, so according to that she did not use a baseball bat to attack anyone.  

 

On 10/16/2021 at 1:34 PM, DireWolfSpirit said:

Right, it sounds more a case of raising it without using it. Plenty of room for sensationalizing what may have been involved between opposing sides.

If you raise a baseball bat to hit someone and get stopped before the blow lands, you weren’t in fact “using a baseball bat”?

I kinda think once you raise or swing that bat you’re using it.