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Created
Sat, 11/03/2023 - 09:00
Senator Jim Risch, R-Id. MSNBC reports: Two years ago, a mob of rioters who believed former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election viciously assaulted police, smashed out windows, stormed into an office, flipped over a giant conference table and barricaded themselves inside the U.S. Capitol, readying themselves for a fight with police inside a suite of “hideaway” offices for senators. One of the offices, federal prosecutors recently disclosed, belonged to Republican Jim Risch, the 79-year-old junior senator from Idaho, where Trump is tremendously popular. Video shows a rioter — who has pleaded guilty to driving a stun gun into a police officer’s neck, nearly killing him — smashing out Risch’s window overlooking the Washington Monument and the national mall in an attempt to let more rioters into the building. Additional video released this week shows Risch’s trashed desk, including what looks like a framed campaign image bearing his last name. A review of Risch’s public statements on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot show no indication that he has ever mentioned what happened to his office that day.
Created
Sat, 11/03/2023 - 02:30
And your point is? A divorced couple in Virginia is arguing over custody of frozen embryos. Judge Uses a Slavery Law to Rule Frozen Embryos Are Property Frozen human embryos can legally be considered property, or “chattel,” a Virginia judge has ruled, basing his decision in part on a 19th century law governing the treatment of slaves. The preliminary opinion by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner – delivered in a long-running dispute between a divorced husband and wife – is being criticized by some for wrongly and unnecessarily delving into a time in Virginia history when it was legally permissible to own human beings. “It’s repulsive and it’s morally repugnant,” said Susan Crockin, a lawyer and scholar at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics and an expert in reproductive technology law. And her point is? This is your America on Trumpism, and oh so great again. “I would like to think that the bench and the bar would be seeking more modern precedent,” said Solomon Ashby, president of the Old Dominion Bar Association. The group is primarily African American attorneys.
Created
Sat, 11/03/2023 - 05:30
Murdoch has made a market and he’s selling to it. That’s all there is. I have always been skeptical of the economic deterministic view that you can reduce all human motivation to money. People are complicated and are motivated by many things, including ego, fear, love, status, etc. Economic motives are certainly part of the equation but I’ve never bought the idea that you can always explain everything if you just “follow the money.” Businesses, however, can usually be put in the “money is everything” category and many make the argument that that’s how it should be, fiduciary duty and all that. There are certain wealthy actors who are motivated by both ideology and money. These are people who use their power and their businesses to advance personal causes while also chasing a profit. The right-wingers among them (the majority of the bunch) have the felicitous advantage of their ideology working to their economic imperative so no doubt some of their alleged ideals are simply in service of that goal. Over the years it’s been assumed that Rupert Murdoch has been one of those businessmen.
Created
Sat, 11/03/2023 - 01:00
What people “hate even more is to be patronized” Andrew L Seidel (“The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American“) notes that the framers of the U.S. Constitution were for the most part not religious men. At least, not in the evangelicals’ sense. Where they referenced morality and religion as necessary to an orderly society, the two were separate things. For men such as themselves, morality was the product of their elite educations and deep inquiry. For the masses, religion was a pale substitute and ripe for abuse and exploitation by the unscrupulous.* To guard against the latter, the framers revered almost as secular saints were elitists in a groundbreaking way by wisely separating church and state. Thus, they wrote “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States” into the U.S. Constitution even before the First Amendment was added. On that note, Tom Nichols in his The Atlantic newsletter addresses the very different elitism of Fox personalities.
Created
Sat, 11/03/2023 - 04:00
Oy vey. This is just brutal I’ll be live-tweeting this morning’s portion of the House “weaponization” hearing featuring testimony from Matt Taibbi Rep. Plaskett begins by asking Jim Jordan if he plans to use information during today's hearing that Democrats have not had a chance to review. Jordan indicates that yes, he plans to do that. Plaskett refers to Taibbi and Shellenberger as "two of Elon Musk's public scribes" who "release cherry-picked, out of context emails and screenshots designed to promote his chosen narrative, Elon Musk's chosen narrative, that is now being parroted by the Republicans." Plaskett to Jim Jordan: "Americans can see through this. Musk is helping you out politically, and you're going out of your way to promote and protect him and to praise him." She then adds, "there are many legitimate questions about where Musk got the financing to buy Twitter." Wow. Plaskett is not messing around at all and Republicans are getting mad about it. LOL — Jim Jordan claims that Matt Taibbi is Democrat so he's not actually there to help Republicans !!!