It’s becoming increasingly clear with every passing day that Elon Musk is converting Twitter from a messaging app to a personal soapbox. He’s been firing Twitter employees who dared to criticize him. It’s his company now, and he can do that, although whether he gets away with stiff[...]
Archive for December, 2022
Why Congress shouldn’t ban Trump under the 14th Amendment
Dozens of House Democrats introduced a bill that would disqualify Donald Trump from future public office under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause (see story here). It probably won’t make it through the House, and if it does, it’ll surely die in the Senate, although for wrong [...]
What now, now that soldiers won’t have to get Covid shots?
I’m ex-military. I served in the Vietnam war, then was an Army Reserve instructor. I know all about how military life works. It’s all about teamwork. Nobody accomplishes anything by themselves in military service; the tasks are too big. The mantra is, you look out for your buddies, and t[...]
December 15th, 2022 - 7:33 pm § in Misc.
What’s most interesting in just-released JFK documents
The 1963 assassination of President Kennedy partly deforested the planet, so much has been written and printed about it. The Warren Commission Report itself was a thick tome, running 899 pages, with 26 volumes of supporting documents. It was followed by countless books and articles, most of them spe[...]
December 15th, 2022 - 6:08 pm § in Law and Courts
Sheriff who harassed black newspaper carrier acquitted
Ed Troyer (photo, left), the elected sheriff of Pierce County, Washington, was acquitted of falsely reporting his encounter with a black newspaper carrier after a week-long trial that ended on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, with a jury verdict in his favor (read story here). From news stories it appe[...]
December 15th, 2022 - 3:16 pm § in Law and Courts, Republicans
Trigger-happy white cop convicted of shooting black woman
A trigger-happy Texas cop who killed a black woman while investigating an open door at her home was convicted by a jury of manslaughter on Thursday, December 15, 2022 (read story here). A neighbor had made a non-emergency call to 911 in the early hours of October 12, 2019, upon seeing an open door a[...]
The right’s war against “woke” is based on a discredited 1941 book
And Elon Musk is its knight in shining armor. The book, by James Burnham (1905-1987; bio here), a New York University academic and political theorist, is “The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World” (you can get it here). Nearly all of Burnham’s sweeping predictions [...]
December 15th, 2022 - 12:18 am § in Law and Courts, Religion
“Pastor” doesn’t always mean godliness
A Florida pastor and his son have been arrested for “fraudulently obtaining more than $8 million in federal Covid relief funds and attempting to use some of the money to buy a luxury home near Walt Disney World,” NBC News reported on Wednesday December 14, 2022 (read story here). Hey, I [...]
How to remain an unpopular minority party
Republicans don’t believe in elections, so it’s not surprising they’re not trying to win elections. Just for fun, let’s list a few of the ways they’re making themselves unpopular and pushing away voters: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claimed the Jan. 6 insurrection[...]
December 14th, 2022 - 5:05 pm § in Misc.
Anti-abortion lawsuit against V.A. should fail
In Texas, abortions are still available in V.A. facilities, because the state can’t regulate a federal entity, so a V.A. employee has filed a lawsuit seeking to shut down abortions at those facilities. The lawsuit is being brought by First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit Christian conservative [...]