US Politics: the McCarthy Trials

[IheartIheartTesla]

Just a reminder that the US does not have an ambassador to Israel on account of Republicans. Not sure why they arent shouting this from the rooftops, but thats the Dems for you. We do have a chargé d’affaires ad interim, which I suppose is sufficient.

[Fragile Bird]

For those of you who are older, you may remember US Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, a real superstar when she won all her gold medals at the age of 16. She’s 55 now, and fighting for her life in a Texas hospital because she has a very bad case of pneumonia and can’t breath on her own.

She has no medical insurance.

Apparently there’s a go-fund-me page for her. You might want to donate a few bucks to help an American hero in her time of need.

Oh, the horrors of living in a socialist commie country like Canada, where I would never need a go-fund-me page if I caught pneumonia.

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

For those of you who are older, you may remember US Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, a real superstar when she won all her gold medals at the age of 16. She’s 55 now, and fighting for her life in a Texas hospital because she has a very bad case of pneumonia and can’t breath on her own.

She has no medical insurance.

 

 

A very common situation here. I currently have no health insurance. I remember her, pretty shocking considering how famous she is. Kind of like hearing about those writers for acclaimed TV series like "Orange is the New Black" were getting paid almost nothing.

Makes me wonder if she's in a state without Medicaid expansion, too.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Martell Spy

[LongRider]

16 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Makes me wonder if she's in a state without Medicaid expansion, too.

She's in Texas and the answer in 'Yes'.   Factiod quote from Bing  "Expanding Medicaid would provide coverage to an estimated 1.4 to 1.5 million Texans, most of whom are workers in jobs below the poverty line."  Red states, what abominations they are. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Scalise is the nominee to be the next Speaker and the voting may happen soon. However, reporting is that he's way off the needed number to get the gavel with Republicans and I suspect Dems won't throw him a frickin bone here. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[Gaston de Foix]

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Scalise is the nominee to be the next Speaker and the voting may happen soon. However, reporting is that he's way off the needed number to get the gavel with Republicans and I suspect Dems won't throw him a frickin bone here. 

Jordan is apparently meeting him and may throw him his vote/supporters for a promotion to Majority Leader.  LOL.  

[TrackerNeil]

5 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Just a reminder that the US does not have an ambassador to Israel on account of Republicans. Not sure why they arent shouting this from the rooftops, but thats the Dems for you. We do have a chargé d’affaires ad interim, which I suppose is sufficient.

I'm always dubious of the electoral effectiveness "shouting to the rooftops." Lots of things that happen in politics should interest voters, but the fact is...many of them just don't. I remember, not long before Antonin Scalia's death, someone opined that the Senate could simply refuse to fill any SCOTUS vacancy and wait until Obama's term expired. I brushed away that concern, arguing that voters wouldn't stand for it. Well, we all know what happened, and Democratic shouting didn't keep a) Donald Trump becoming president; and b) Donald Trump appointing Neil Gorsuch to the vacancy. 

It's uncomfortable to admit it, but many Americans simply don't care about much of what goes on in DC. They should, but they don't, and no amount of shouting will change that.

[Rippounet]

So I do have one small juicy one on Adrian Vermeule...
Somehow he managed to find a way to be in contact with as few students as possible (a small select group pretty much got all his time - not mine), and for the conference he gave, only the local professors got to ask him questions (there was time for only two quick questions from the audience).
Not a huge surprise, unfortunately. And at first, I thought the whole thing would be depressing. Vermeule is really insufferable:  he obviously loves to listen to himself, keeps quoting ancient texts (with some latin here and there) and using big words, all in a grand theatrical manner of hiding what he is truly saying, while systematically dodging when someone asks him anything too specific. I don't think I've met a lot of people this annoying.
Like, when he was asked about whether "common-good constitutionalism" was compatible with an autocracy or dictatorship he dodged by saying by the ancient definition, "tyranny" was a regime opposed to the common-good. So no. Ha. Though he did later say that in his opinion, liberal-democracy was not the only means to achieve the common-good, or that individual autonomy sould not be the main objective of government (and yes, this means what you think it means).
And then one of the local professors, in the worst English you can imagine, mentioned that it was quite odd how close his concept of the "common-good" was to the definition of the "general interest" (intérêt général) by Maurice Hauriou, a relatively minor early-20th century jurist and sociologist who happens to be well-known here (the local research center bears his name).
And to my astonishment, Vermeule confessed he was totally aware of Hauriou's ideas, that he'd come across them in a book and read a few things from him, but had not referenced him because his French wasn't too good and he was afraid of misrepresenting his ideas, but that this was why he was so glad to be here to learn more...
Like, dude, what? What did you just say?
So, in a nutshell, tonight our dear Adrian Vermeule basically confessed to a small audience to having plagiarised his greatest concept from a French jurist. That's why his latest stuff feels so un-American and his reading of the US constitution feels so batshit crazy: because he's using the old version of a French concept that he recycled and sprinkled with a lot of savant-sounding stuff to sell to American conservatives.
 

[ThinkerX]

New Twist on the House Speaker Fight...or maybe not...

Supposedly, Scalise the current nominee, has 'blood cancer.' That doesn't sound like a good thing for a major political figure. Has me thinking of the scenes in medieval movies where counselors lurk about the sickbeds of dying monarchs... 

(I got this from a random FB video, so no link.)

[Kalbear]

45 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

New Twist on the House Speaker Fight...or maybe not...

Supposedly, Scalise the current nominee, has 'blood cancer.' That doesn't sound like a good thing for a major political figure. Has me thinking of the scenes in medieval movies where counselors lurk about the sickbeds of dying monarchs... 

(I got this from a random FB video, so no link.)

I mean, yes, he does. This isn't particularly shocking. He says he can work through it and it's going well for him.

Republicans won't really care. 

[IheartIheartTesla]

5 hours ago, TrackerNeil said:

I'm always dubious of the electoral effectiveness "shouting to the rooftops."

Its more a question of creating perceptions in the minds of voters. For instance, Republicans have been very successful in creating this Democrat=socialist perception, and nearly everything they throw out there is framed around bolstering that perception. I've not seen nearly enough from the Democrats about how the Republicans are a dysfunctional lot unserious about governance. They still seem to somehow think they'll win in the marketplace of ideas and that'll somehow translate to votes. 

[Martell Spy]

Alabama library mistakenly adds children’s book to “explicit” list because of author’s name

https://apnews.com/article/alabama-childrens-book-banned-f5179e7fb9c523b84e901453e07cfb5d

Quote

 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama public library mistakenly added a children’s picture book to a list of potentially inappropriate titles because the author’s last name is “Gay,” the library’s director said.

“Read Me a Story, Stella,” a children’s picture book by Canadian author Marie-Louise Gay, was added to a list of books flagged for potential removal from the children’s section of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library because of “sexually explicit” content.

But the book, which is about a pair of siblings reading together and building a dog house, should not have been on the list and was only added because of the keyword “gay,” Cindy Hewitt, the library’s executive director told AL.com on Sunday.

 

 

[TrackerNeil]

9 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Its more a question of creating perceptions in the minds of voters. For instance, Republicans have been very successful in creating this Democrat=socialist perception, and nearly everything they throw out there is framed around bolstering that perception. I've not seen nearly enough from the Democrats about how the Republicans are a dysfunctional lot unserious about governance. They still seem to somehow think they'll win in the marketplace of ideas and that'll somehow translate to votes. 

I certainly agree that Republicans have good message control, which makes sense since conservatives are better than liberals when it comes to taking and executing marching orders. I'm not sure just how often that translates to electoral success, however.

The older I get, the more I believe that no amount of Republican incompetence can destroy the Republican brand, which has survived Iraq, Katrina, Terry Schiavo, shutdowns, recessions, Donald Trump and the Dobbs decision. Maybe Americans just like sometimes voting against the party of adults, who knows.

Edited October 12, 2023 by TrackerNeil

[Jaxom 1974]

21 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

For those of you who are older, you may remember US Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, a real superstar when she won all her gold medals at the age of 16. She’s 55 now, and fighting for her life in a Texas hospital because she has a very bad case of pneumonia and can’t breath on her own.

She has no medical insurance.

Apparently there’s a go-fund-me page for her. You might want to donate a few bucks to help an American hero in her time of need.

Oh, the horrors of living in a socialist commie country like Canada, where I would never need a go-fund-me page if I caught pneumonia.

I've not looked into it, or verified yet, but apparently her strong republican politics helped create the situation she finds herself in vis a vis her lack of health insurance...

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

MTG, classy as always:

Quote

"I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress," Greene wrote on Twitter. "We need a Speaker who is able to put their full efforts into defeating the communist democrats and save America."

https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-steve-scalise-house-speaker-cancer-2023-10

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

19 hours ago, Gaston de Foix said:

Jordan is apparently meeting him and may throw him his vote/supporters for a promotion to Majority Leader.  LOL.  

The reporting I caught this morning suggest he's still really far away from 217 even with Jordan's support. The guess is he's somewhere between 150-200 votes, but it's hard to see how he can get to the necessary number considering somewhere between 10-15 Republicans will never vote for him. 

3 hours ago, TrackerNeil said:

Maybe Americans just like sometimes voting against the party of adults, who knows.

Pretty much. We all know most Americans don't benefit from voting for Republicans, hence the need for the culture wars and convincing enough people Democrats are evil because reasons. 

[Mindwalker]

Damn, now I have to watch the Cheesebro/ Powell trial. They have subpoenaed Ms Romney McDaniels and... Alex Jones.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

31 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

Damn, now I have to watch the Cheesebro/ Powell trial. They have subpoenaed Ms Romney McDaniel and... Alex Jones.

FTFY.

Wanted also to change Romney to Ronna, as I assumed some auto-correct fail. But no, Ronna is indeed a Romney (Mitten's niece). Wasn't really aware of that. So before her marriage she was Ronna Romney? And I thought she couldn't possibly get more cartoonish.

[Ormond]

4 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

FTFY.

Wanted also to change Romney to Ronna, as I assumed some auto-correct fail. But no, Ronna is indeed a Romney (Mitten's niece). Wasn't really aware of that. So before her marriage she was Ronna Romney? And I thought she couldn't possibly get more cartoonish.

Ronna Romney McDaniel is actually named after her mother, Ronna Stern Romney, who is also a Republican activist.

It is in fact highly unusual in modern American culture for a mother to give her daughter her own first name. It really could be seen as a somewhat feminist thing to do, though I am sure Ms. Stern Romney would deny that.  It certainly might help explain why Ronna Romney McDaniel is so much more willing to cowtow to Trump than her uncle, given what may be her identification with a mother whose first name she shares, especially since her mother and father are now divorced. It's a complicated family situation, though, as Mitt seems to have campaigned for Ronna Stern Romney during her two runs for the US Senate in Michigan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronna_Romney

[A Horse Named Stranger]

3 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Ronna Romney McDaniel is actually named after her mother, Ronna Stern Romney, who is also a Republican activist.

It is in fact highly unusual in modern American culture for a mother to give her daughter her own first name. It really could be seen as a somewhat feminist thing to do, though I am sure Ms. Stern Romney would deny that.  It certainly might help explain why Ronna Romney McDaniel is so much more willing to cowtow to Trump than her uncle, given what may be her identification with a mother whose first name she shares, especially since her mother and father are now divorced. It's a complicated family situation, though, as Mitt seems to have campaigned for Ronna Stern Romney during her two runs for the US Senate in Michigan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronna_Romney

I just find those alliterations in names very unfortunate and a bit cartoonish.

So Ronna Romney would kinda fit right into that pantheon of names.