Housekeeping

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Yesterday we beat back a dastardly attack by bots. That led to a few changes on our site, including more strict security protocols for registration and a new procedure for comment editing (see “Click to Edit” below your comments for a one hour option to edit or delete, sorry the plugin doesn’t allow unlimited but I can lengthen time limit if we want), and for uploading avatar pics attached to your screen name (click your screen name top right of this page, click “Edit Profile” and then scroll down to “Upload Avatar” near bottom of the page). These changes are not too difficult to navigate. If you need help, as always, write to me at help@craigcrawford.com

Cost of these fixes in additional security software just $79. As always your donations much appreciated.

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32 thoughts on “Housekeeping”

  1. craig, thanks for all the improvements and for tidying things up. 

    your trail maintenance is greatly appreciated.

  4. a thanks too to those patriots who lay down their political lives for their country

    texas tribune:

    The sweeping overhaul of Texas elections and voter access was poised from the beginning of the session to pass into law. It had the backing of Republican leaders in both chambers of the Legislature. It had support from the governor.
    Democrats who opposed the bill, chiding it as a naked attempt of voter suppression, were simply outnumbered.
    But on Sunday night, with an hour left for the Legislature to give final approval to the bill, Democrats staged a walkout, preventing a vote on the legislation before a fatal deadline.
    “Leave the chamber discreetly. Do not go to the gallery. Leave the building,” Grand Prairie state Rep. Chris Turner, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a text message to other Democrats obtained by The Texas Tribune.

    Debate on Senate Bill 7 had extended over several hours Sunday as the Texas House neared a midnight cutoff to give final approval to legislation before it could head to Gov. Greg Abbott‘s desk to be signed into law.

    In between their speeches opposing the bill, Democrats seemed to be trickling off the floor throughout the night, a number of their desks appearing empty. During an earlier vote to adopt a resolution allowing last-minute additions to the bill, just 35 of 67 Democrats appeared to cast votes. Around 10:30 p.m., the remaining Democrats were seen walking out of the chamber.
    Their absence left the House without a quorum — which requires two-thirds of the 150 House members to be present — needed to take a vote.
    […]
    SB 7 was one step away from the governor’s desk. It was negotiated behind closed doors over the last week after the House and Senate passed significantly different versions of the legislation and pulled from each chamber’s version of the bill. The bill also came back with a series of additional voting rule changes that weren’t part of previous debates on the bill, including new ID requirements for voting-by-mail, restrictions on Sunday early voting hours and a higher threshold for who can qualify to vote by mail based on a disability.
    But while Democrats were able to defeat the legislation Sunday, Abbott quickly made clear he expected lawmakers to finish the job during a special session.

  5. Today is one of those special days (as I write every year) when I remember those trips to the cemeteries to visit family and family friends who did not survive war.  Also, to make sure that those who were not killed in action had their grave stones cleaned up too.  We also would have a picnic or outdoor gathering, weather permitting, to meet with my father’s friends from when he served.  Of the many there were a few who had seen the worst of combat.  One was in the second wave on Omaha Beach, he went in without a helmet as his fell off when he was boarding the landing craft; he did get one as soon as he was on the beach.  The death he saw was horrific, those men are who this day  is for.

  6. Opinion | What a true Memorial Day celebration looks like – The Washington Post editorial board

    WHILE IT’S unlikely anyone can say with certainty what were the origins of America’s Memorial Day, it is generally accepted that the custom of decorating graves in remembrance of the war dead began after the Civil War, among families of fallen Confederate soldiers. But the historian David W. Blight makes an argument that the first such observance was in fact the work of newly freed Black people seeking to honor the 40,000 African American soldiers who died in the war. The tribute consisted of elaborate ceremonies, parades, prayers, scripture readings and speeches. The Black soldiers deserved the honor: They gave their lives for the most American of causes, freedom and Union. It’s good, though, that they had such attention lavished on them then, because fairly soon afterward, they faded from much of the nation’s memory, as did their cause.
    Instead, over time in the late 19th century, many such observances of this day of remembrance became occasions for unreconstructed Confederates to advance what became known as the Lost Cause, a willful displacement of actual history by a mythology meant to justify the rebellion and all but deify its leaders. ….
    [continues]

     

    now, today particularly amped by pandemic exhaustion, it’s more an observance of self and for selfies rather than for selflessness.

  8. Craig – you got to see what most of America will never see.  Your father gave you a time to learn about us and our world. 
     
    Veterans and Active Duty, including Reservists, form a small part of America now.  We cry for those who we buried, whether we knew them or not.  I had the honor of serving on the Air Force funeral detail for a year. 

  12. It’s a weird thing, I guess, but 5 of my uncles were all in the terrible fighting in the South Pacific, One  in marines, the rest army.  A sixth was a demolitions guy all over the place, wound up Air Force.  Not a single casualty in the whole bunch of them. 

  13. Uncle Joe’s speech today at Arlington spectacular. How nice to have a President who understands the day instead of talking about himself and hurling insults!

  14. Well, I know what my neighbors on each side of me did with their stimulus check. They bought brand new fancy charcoal grills. How do I know this? They both brought me a plate of food that had that special spice that only lighter fluid can give to your meal.  Hopefully by labor day they will have perfected their skills.
    I smiled and said thank you.
    Jack

  17. Many years ago, Dems actually fled to avoid a redistributing vote. Republicans sent out state troopers, but Dems were holed up in Oklahoma.  Voter suppression laws should be big news, as should Republicans blocking an investigation into the attack on democracy on January 6th.   

  19. the hill via msn:

    President Biden on Monday stressed the right for Americans to be able to vote “freely,” “fairly” and “conveniently” during Memorial Day remarks that came one day after Texas Democrats staged a walkout to block the passage of a sweeping election overhaul package.

    […]

    “Democracy thrives when the infrastructure of democracy is strong,” Biden said. “When people have the right to vote freely and fairly and conveniently.”

    “When a free and independent press pursues the truth, founded on facts, not propaganda,” Biden added. “When the rule of law applies equally and fairly to every citizen, regardless of where they come from, what they look like.”

  20. Sometimes a parody just begs to be written. Based on Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans,” this is a first-person tale of the events of Jan. 6, 2021, in our nation’s capitol. Lyrics and vocals by Amanda Cohen, keyboards by Bill Larkin, percussion by Bermuda Schwartz

  21. not your typical memorial day speech

    Mike Flynn Says US Should Have Military Coup Like Myanmar (mediaite.com)

    Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn spoke this weekend at a conference organized by supporters of the QAnon conspiracy in Dallas, Texas, and multiple attendees captured video of him endorsing the idea of a military coup like the one that happened in Myanmar happening here, presumably to install former President Donald Trump back in the White House.
    Flynn, who was issued a pardon by Trump a few weeks after the November 2020 election, was responding to an audience question. The unknown man in the audience introduced himself as “a simple Marine,” and said that he “wanted to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here.”
    […]
    As the audience cheered, Flynn responded favorably to the man’s question. There’s “no reason” a coup like Myanmar’s can’t happen here, Flynn replied, to the clear approval of the crowd. “I mean, it should happen — that’s right.”

  22. Pat
    It stuff like that that make me realize why Obama fired Flynn. I wasn’t about policy as much as it was about Flynn being an exceptional idiot. 
    Jack

  23. Truman quote about firing MacArthur 

    I didn’t fire him  because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.

    You don’t hear that kind of stuff any more, The military is sacred.
    Jack

  24. “wanted to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here.”
    That’s not at all what the simple marine said.  The simple marine said:
    “wanted to know why what happened in Minna-mar can’t happen here.”

  26. Hahaha…..The mantra has been: It can’t happen here.
    They’re trying their best to make it:  Happen here.  Ponderous.

  28. I having that ol’ sneaky filling dat we soon be looking at a “tonight we settle all family business” kinda thing…….Democrats can roll when it’s time to.   V is for victory.

  29. If the Sopranos were Sicilian —wouldn’t they have been the Soprani?   
    O is a different geogamaffi.

    I may have it backards.

  31. I’ve been very fortunate. A dad, three uncles and a cousin who collectively served in at least 3 wars and none were killed or injured.  So I don’t have skin in the game, but nothing in my life, LP’s birth, my marriage to Mrs. P, Mom’s, Dad’s and my favorite aunt’s funerals being the only exceptions, had a more significant effect on me than a visit in 2015 to Arlington and the Vietnam wall. To each of those under a cross or carved into the wall and their loved ones who lost them, I cannot begin to express my gratitude for your sacrifice.  I don’t hang a flag or visit a cemetery- I spend the day cherishing those still living, my wife this year, my wife & son until this year. (And I’ll see him in a couple of weeks).

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