27 thoughts on “Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave”

  1. yesterday from David Horsey

    FBI director stands tall | The Seattle Times

    The Republican clown show in the House of Representatives attained a new level of absurdist comedy on Wednesday with the grilling of FBI Director Christopher Wray.
    To mollify the right wing in his caucus, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has allowed them to run “investigative” hearings – kangaroo courts that are revealing the extent to which many Republican congressmen are consumed by bizarre conspiracy theories and dark social-media fantasies.
    The GOP chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, accused the FBI and the Justice Department of “weaponizing” the legal system to persecute conservatives. Translation: Jordan and his extremist Republican comrades are upset that their party’s leader, President Donald Trump, is being investigated for carting off top-secret documents and attempting to overthrow a legitimate election. And they are outraged that the insurrectionists who invaded the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are being convicted of their crimes and given jail time.
    Apparently, to these red-nosed bozos, enforcing the law equates with persecution, if the criminals are on their side. 
    As each of the Republicans on the committee took a turn tossing cream pies at Wray, he stayed calm and rational, thereby demonstrating how an actual conservative Republican comports himself. Wray is the latest of an unbroken line of Republicans to run the FBI. He pointed out that “the real FBI” bears little resemblance to the left-leaning gestapo imagined in the fevered minds of the GOP committee members.
    Clowns, however, never let logic and reality get in the way of their performance. The show must go on, after all.

  2. amending another line from walter scott:

    “and come he slow, or come he fast, it is but death Justice who comes at last,”

    however, the gang that can’t shoot straight is still diligently working their master’s will.
    To wit:

    Trump strategizes with Hill allies to go on offense against January 6 criminal probe | CNN Politics

    Donald Trump has reached out to his top allies on Capitol Hill to strategize how they can help defend him against potential criminal charges over his effort to overturn the 2020 election – the latest example of Republicans racing behind the scenes to use their power and platforms to shield the former president without knowing details yet about the criminal investigation.
    Trump spoke Tuesday with both House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who leads the House GOP’s messaging efforts, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversation.
    One source described the call with Stefanik as “a long conversation,” and said the two went over her plans to go on offense through her role on the House subcommittee on alleged weaponization of the federal government, as well as her overall efforts to rally support from the House GOP conference around the former president and attack special counsel Jack Smith.
    [continues]

  4. Returning to the news is Senator Feinstein, petitioning to have her daughter be the trustee to her husband’s, he died last year, trust because her medical bills are not being paid.  This includes one detail that is important and most people would not know what it is.  There is something about a medical power of attorney.  In the LGBTQ world this is well known, and used a lot prior to the “Gay Marriage” rulling by the court formerly known as supreme.  This gives decision making to someone else, in this case her daughter. 
     
    It is being questioned by the current trustees for some reason.  I suppose it is to bring a different view to the petition about the competence of Feinstein.  People get a medical power of attorney prior to medical care, or for just in case with a partner so if there were to be a situation at least the partner would make decisions rather than stranger or hostile family.
     
    Why is this coming up now?  I think this goes beyond the senator needing medical care payments, I think she is succession planning by having her daughter in the trust not those who took it over.  Yes, I do think the good senator is not going to make it to end of her term.

  5. Patd, that Tuberville piece is one of those WaPo articles that could get thousands of comments but only needs a good half dozen words to express what the thousands would say. Liar, grifter, disgrace, trumper,… okay, 4 sums it up. Throw in racist and that about says it all. 

  6. BB, looks like Vingegaard probably has the Tour well in hand with 5 stages left. Pogačar lost 1’38” yesterday in the individual time trial and is 1’48” behind overall. I was kinda pulling for Tadej, but with only 2 mountain stages remaining I think his opportunity has passed. Congrats to Jonas for his likely repeat this year. 

  7. He does look good with the extra seconds added on.  Pogacar and Vinegaard are at the top of my picks which is why I was picking UAE and Jumbo as my top two picks.  This year has been rough for watching.  The VA medical center does not broadcast the stages so I end up lost.  Of note is more news media are carrying at least the stage results.

  8. Witch Hunt is a Parody of the Frank Sinatra hit “Witchcraft.” Witchcraft was written by Carolyn Leigh (lyrics) and Cy Coleman (music). For more information check below – right after the parody lyrics.

  9. No wonder the Right Wing Echo Chamber goes on and on about Biden’s age. It’s all they’ve got. (Even the border numbers are improving.)

    AXIOS: Surprise! The Economy is Better Than We Thought — Weakening inflation, slowing wholesale price increases, falling import prices and lower-than-expected claims for jobless benefits.

  14. More news on our Ottawa County commissioners. They fired the county’s legal team and hired a new legal team (Kallman Legal Group) back in January. Basically, a legal team that will help them accomplish all the things they want to do by fighting off all legal challenges against them. Well, it has been revealed that the county has already exceeded it’s legal budget and they’ve asked for $110,000 more to cover legal costs. They asked one county commissioner for 5 minutes of his time to answer questions and he would not answer any questions from the local news. He blamed “FOIA” requests as the reason the county has exceeded their legal budget. Kallman Legal Group insists that they’ve been charging the county very reasonable rates for their services.

  15. Just in case anyone missed the AG of Tennessee letting the world know he will pursue any woman who leaves Tennessee to have a health care provided in other states.  We should call the the breeding cattle call, women are the same as cattle being bred, no other rights available.  Other states have responded by saying “FU” to the idiot.  Part of this is the “carefully” drafted legislation in Tennessee and  other slave states based on the Fugitive Slave laws, and:
    Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2:
    A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.
     

  16. Pogo…
    the same law about generic drugs is also here in NH.  I think it has something to do with the expense of name brand drugs and insurance companies.
     
    Hey… don’t associate assholes with weavers…  we’re a quiet law abiding bunch.

  18. Incoming mail: 

    These are not serious people

    How should redistricting in Alabama work? I have a proposal no one in power would ever accept — a coin flip. 
     
    Democrats would draw their map. 
     
    Republicans would do the same. 
     
    Each could make changes until the last minute, but neither could switch theirs out without giving the other side a chance to reciprocate. They could make their maps as fair or advantageous as they like — matching the other side’s moves. 
     
    And then they flip a coin to see whose map we use on Election Day.  
     
    It’s a daydream, based on the philosopher John Rawls’ Original Position argument of fairness and justice. The only way to build a just game is for the designers not to know which square will be theirs when it starts. 
     
    But fairness is not the objective for Republican lawmakers this week as they meet to redraw Alabama’s congressional districts. Justice? That’s not their court either. And court is where this will wind up. 
     
    Again. 
     
    The United States Supreme Court has already spoken, humiliating the state in front of the nation. But our lawmakers in Montgomery have no sense of shame. As they redraw the maps, again, these lawmakers have learned nothing. 
     
    I’m not going to equivocate here. Democrats have as much say in this process as backseat drivers. Republicans have their hands on the wheel. When they wreck — and they will wreck — this will be their fault. 
     
    Again. 
     
    Two plans before the House and Senate today would create only one majority Black district in Alabama. Each would draw a second district with a large Black population but not one likely to give Black voters there a say in who represents them, as the Supreme Court has all but mandated. The map proposed in the Alabama Senate would leave Black voters with only 38 percent of the vote in the second district. 
     
    I’m not a fortuneteller, but it’s not hard to see what will happen when this reaches the courts. A judge will draw Alabama’s maps, not the Legislature. 
     
    Which is probably the best Alabama could hope for.-Kyle Whitmire, AL.com

  20. Found a lost item in my catacombs.
     
    glad you saw it Green, glad the winds were howling down the mountain when you went. Glad you saw the Rockies mean.”http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187919
    CBob, You can even make bad weather sound inviting. I don’t know how you do it. 🙂
    and when you say things like this: “Vestavia, ALPerfect place. I never heard of it. I love places I never heard of as much as the ones I went and saw.”, it reads like poetry. Thanks.

  21. Judge upholds $5M verdict against Trump in E. Jean Carroll abuse case | AP News

    NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday upheld a $5 million jury verdict against Donald Trump, rejecting the former president’s claims that the award was excessive and that the jury vindicated him by failing to conclude he raped a columnist in a luxury department store dressing room in the 1990s.
    Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said the jury’s May award of compensatory and punitive damages to writer E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation in the civil case was reasonable.
    Trump’s lawyers had asked Kaplan to reduce the jury award to less than $1 million or order a new trial on damages. In their arguments, the lawyers said the jury’s $2 million in compensatory damages granted for Carroll’s sexual assault claim was excessive because the jury concluded that Trump had not raped Carroll at Bergdorf Goodman’s Manhattan store in the spring of 1996.
    Kaplan wrote that the jury’s unanimous verdict was almost entirely in favor of Carroll, except that the jury concluded she had failed to prove that Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law.”
    The judge said the section requires vaginal penetration by a penis while forcible penetration without consent of the vagina or other bodily orifices by fingers or anything else is labeled “sexual abuse” rather than “rape.”
    He said the definition of rape was “far narrower” than how rape is defined in common modern parlance, in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes and elsewhere.
    The judge said the verdict did not mean that Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed … the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”
    [continues]

  23. BB, Vingegaad extended his lead over Pogacar by almost 6 minutes in today’s stage.  Put a bow on it. And Adam Yates moved up to 3rd, 3’10” behind Pogacar.

  24. Biden has a 1 point greater margin in polling than the one in 2020, but there are an additional 5% unaccounted for in the polling. My question is what about the margins in the 5-7 states that were razor thin margins in Biden’s favor in 2020 – and how far in advance of the 2020 election was that poll?

  27. Blue Bronc
    I think you are wrong about Feinstein   Her daughter who is former superior court judge is trying to change the trust.  Blum died last year and she has received nothing from the Trust. And this year she had outsized medical bills which the Trust is to pay.  She isn’t dying  and at this time no one has tomake medical decisions for her.

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