Month: July 2019

Athenae, Congress1 Comment

Impeach the Cabinet First

Allison Hantschel

Starting with Elaine:  According to the Politico report, questions about ethical conflicts center on the number of grants DOT has approved for projects in Kentucky, many of which could benefit McConnell politically as he hits the campaign trail for his 2020 reelection bid in the southern state. Chao has helped greenlight at least $78 million in grants for construction projects in Kentucky, Doherty and Snyder write. Additionally, she helped designate a special go-between that worked with McConnell’s office on Kentucky-related projects: It’s a win-win-win scenario: Mitch has to defend his wife’s double-dealing instead of running for re-election, she IS ACTUALLY … Continue reading Impeach the Cabinet First

Athenae2 Comments

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

My forever president, John F. Kerry, is still out here trying to tell us what’s going on: Silence from Republicans who know better is astounding but sadly not surprising. I’ve known @AyannaPressley for more than 20 years – she’s family to me, and she’s made of tougher stuff than any Trump tweet or any bully’s bombast. (1/2) https://t.co/7spzFaa39j — John Kerry (@JohnKerry) July 15, 2019 I WILL NEVER BE OVER that we did not have this man as president. Never. A. Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Adrastos, Bigotry, Political Crack, The Darnold, Twitter1 Comment

Tweet Of The Day: John Kerry Edition

Peter Adrastos Athas

Before entering electoral politics, Ayanna Pressley was a senior aide to then Senator John Kerry. Big John rose to Pressley’s defense after the president* told her and three of her colleagues to “go back” to their shithole districts. I’m the one who said shithole this time, but he’s said it before and will say it again. Believe me. Ayanna's life story is more American than this president and his warped worldview could ever imagine. The only person who should "go back" anywhere is @realDonaldTrump: to Trump Tower where he cooked up birtherism and debased politics. (2/2) — John Kerry (@JohnKerry) … Continue reading Tweet Of The Day: John Kerry Edition

Free Republic, Immigration, The Darnold, Tommy T6 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – My citizenship is sinking edition

Tommy T

Morning, all! Only one thing on the Obsession agenda this week – LOSING!!!

Trump drops executive action on U.S. Census, will seek citizenship survey by other means
R ^ | 7/11/19 UPDATED AN HOUR AGO | Jeff Mason, David Shepardson

Posted on 7/11/2019, 3:20:54 PM by conservative98

A government official confirmed that Trump is expected to announce he will drop the legal battle to include the question on the census survey and instead direct the Commerce Department to obtain answers on citizenship through other means, but it was not clear how that would occur or how it would be funded.

The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Department. The U.S. Constitution specifically assigns the job of overseeing the census to Congress, limiting the authority of the president over it, which complicates adding the question to the decennial survey via presidential missive.

Trump’s decision not to proceed with an executive order on adding the citizenship question to the census was first reported by ABC News.

1 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:20:54 PM by conservative98
Uh oh.
To: conservative98
So he didn’t announce it yet?

Speculation……

3 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:22:43 PM by Trump.Deplorable

Just keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.
To: Trump.Deplorable

have confirmation apparently

12 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:24:46 PM by conservative98

Oops.
To: conservative98

Damn. The Census determines representation, not meaningless surveys. Tired of caving to the Left.

5 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:23:08 PM by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats… when they do.)

Poor baby.
To: conservative98

LOSING

6 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:23:10 PM by morphing libertarian ( Use Comey’s Report, Indict Hillary now; build Kate’s wall. — Proud Smelly Walmart Deplorable)

SO much losing!
To: conservative98

Looks like the immigration enforcement vehicle Trump uses only has three gears, all operating in reverse.

8 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:23:59 PM by odawg

They’re not even bothering with the dog whistles any more, are they?
.
Apparently, the national census is an “immigration enforcement vehicle”.
Hoocouldanode?
To: conservative98

Hey Trump???? WTH is this about???

15 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:25:39 PM by devane617 (Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.~ George Orwell, 1984)

Offhand, I’d say it’s about a little thing called The Constitution.
.
You may have heard of it.
To: morphing libertarian

Damn it! Another surrender. Absolute disgust is what I feel. Great surrender 15 to 20 house seats and who knows how many EC Votes

21 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:28:38 PM by gibsonguy

How many? I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?
To: over3Owithabrain

I don’t need any more evidence that President Trump has very little control of the executive branch.

24 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:29:42 PM by lodi90

Executive branch?
I doubt that drooling kumtwat even has control of his bladder.
.
More caterwauling after the thingy.

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – My citizenship is sinking edition”

Athenae, Do Something, Immoral Values1 Comment

Signal This Virtue

Allison Hantschel

Of all the dismissals of protest and outrage that we’ve heard from conservatives over the past two years I think the one that makes me the craziest is the accusation of “virtue signaling.”  Expressions of moral outrage are playing a prominent role in contemporary debates about issues like sexual assault, immigration and police brutality. In response, there have been criticisms of expressions of outrage as mere “virtue signaling” — feigned righteousness intended to make the speaker appear superior by condemning others. Clearly, feigned righteousness exists. We can all think of cases where people simulated or exaggerated feelings of outrage because … Continue reading Signal This Virtue

Adrastos, Diary, Fog Of History, Music, Nature is Scary, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, R.I.P., Television, Twitter1 Comment

Saturday Odds & Sods: The Other Side Of Summer

Peter Adrastos Athas
o-GUSTON-900
City Limits by Philip Guston.

I wrote the opening, now second, paragraph below before posting yesterday. I’m too stressed and/or lazy to change it. So it goes:

It’s been the week from hell in New Orleans. Our car flooded during Wednesday’s deluge and there’s a tropical system nearby. I’m writing this on Thursday: our internet is wonky so I want to have something in place in case it and/or the power goes out. I refuse to be buried by Barry.

I don’t have the full-blown Odds & Sods spirit BUT since I’d assembled a post,  I figured I’d put it out there for y’all to enjoy. I know our Saturday readership is devoted so I don’t want to let you down. Instead of our usual three acts, we have a first act followed by what would usually be our third act of regular features. Highly irregular but what can ya do?

Elvis Costello wrote The Other Side Of Summer for his 1991 album, Mighty Like A Rose. I used it the other day in the post about my Bayou Brief newspaper war piece. This time we have two versions: the video and EC live.

Now that we’ve seen the other side of summer for what it is, let’s jump to the break.

Continue reading “Saturday Odds & Sods: The Other Side Of Summer”

Athenae, Congress3 Comments

This Matters More Than Trump

Allison Hantschel

Look, I want Trump out on his ear, more than almost anything, and this is that almost:  (CNN)Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot who rose to national prominence last year in her failed campaign for Congress against Republican Andy Barr, is turning her sights on a new target: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a three-minute video released Tuesday, McGrath said McConnell has “bit by bit, year by year, turned Washington into something we all despise.” “I’m running for Senate because it shouldn’t be like this,” McGrath added. McGrath’s candidacy marks a significant recruiting coup for Democrats. She … Continue reading This Matters More Than Trump

Athenae, Immoral Values

As Well as If: IVF, Abortion Rights, and Consistency

Allison Hantschel

I’ve written before about our 10-year science experiment that led to Kick being born. Ten years of fertility treatments, ranging from minimal intervention to the six IVF cycles that finally resulted in what we call, horrifyingly, a “live birth.” Those six cycles, over two years, involved thrice-daily injections of multiple medications, some with side effects that are still being felt five years later. I was allergic to one of the carrier oils for one of the meds and developed a tendency to break out in hives, for example. Another medication simulated menopause, a super-fun experience in your early 30s. Days … Continue reading As Well as If: IVF, Abortion Rights, and Consistency

Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T1 Comment

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Farce Of July edition

Tommy T

Well, now wasn’t last week fun?

I’m not going to post any of the endless stream of Revolutionary War Airport stories and memes, since you’ve probably seen all of them more than once.  (just in case you haven’t…)

Instead, let’s see what the Freepers thought of it – when they finally acknowledged its existence, that is. It took a day or so.

Trump blames ‘airports’ gaffe on teleprompter
BBC News ^ | 5th July 2019 | BBC News

Posted on 7/5/2019, 11:51:58 AM by Ennis85

US President Donald Trump has blamed a teleprompter going “kaput” for a glaring anachronism in his Fourth of July speech.

He told crowds on Independence Day the Continental Army “took over the airports” from the British during the American Revolutionary War in 1775.

Explaining away the slip-up on Friday, Mr Trump also said it was hard to read the teleprompter in the rain.

He hosted a military parade at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday.

During his “Salute to America” speech, he was talking about the year 1775 when he said: “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”

Critics pointed out the revolutionaries could not have seized airports more than a century before the first powered flight – credited to the Wright brothers in 1903 – took off.

Outside the White House on Friday, Mr Trump said: “I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter.

“I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it without a teleprompter but the teleprompter did go out and it was actually hard to look at anyway because there was rain all over it.”

The president spoke to reporters as he departed with First Lady Melania Trump for the weekend to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Mr Trump said the military parade he hosted on Thursday was a “fantastic night” and forecast a rise in US military recruitment.

Before winning the White House, Mr Trump used to mock ex-President Barack Obama for relying on an autocue.

Twitter users were quick to poke fun at Mr Trump for the error, with many using the hashtag #RevolutionaryWarAirports.

1 posted on 7/5/2019, 11:51:58 AM by Ennis85
Freepers?
To: Ennis85

 

We probably would have caught that, but there are times when you read and aren’t totally tuned in to what you are reading. He may have been thinking a bit too much about events coming up.

It was a great speech. The guy is a human dynamo. Mistakes will happen, and some will look glaring. It comes with the territory.

6 posted on 7/5/2019, 11:55:05 AM by DoughtyOne (This space for rent…)

To: Ennis85

 

If Trump said we took over the airports, then we took over the airports. There were no airplanes yet, but our forward thinking had us take over the airports. Thank you Trump.

9 posted on 7/5/2019, 11:58:41 AM by coon2000 (Give me Liberty or give me death)

NotSureIfSarcasticOrStupid

To: right way right

The people seated behind him during the speech appeared to be all White.

NoShitSherlock

I thought they would jump all over that, too.

21 posted on 7/5/2019, 12:07:00 PM by hsmomx3

ThatShipHasSailed
To: Ennis85

 

The President rewrote a little bit of history – so what?

The Left rewrites history all the time – it’s about time we had a leader who fights fire with fire. Besides, President Trump always turns out to be right.

Oh boy are they going to have egg on their faces when it turns out there WERE airports back then!!

62 posted on 7/5/2019, 6:23:50 PM by enumerated

MountStupid
To: GodAndCountryFirst

 

“Members of the DEEP STATE are said to be fleeing Washington.”

That’s why the tanks are there. Go get ‘em!

247 posted on 7/4/2019, 6:54:37 PM by Jim Noble (1)

Ah yes – about those tanks…
To: deks

 

Can someone tell me what happened to the tanks?

321 posted on 7/4/2019, 7:51:53 PM by Vaden (First they came for the Confederates… Next they came for Washington… Then they came…)

MarvinKaboom
To: Vaden

 

There was one right in front of the stage I believe

327 posted on 7/4/2019, 8:00:00 PM by Jrabbit

.
To: Jrabbit

 

I guess I was confused about what this was. I thought it was going to be a parade with the equipment rolling by and so forth. According to sources on the internet, the attendees could not get near the tanks. Many people complained they never saw a tank.

Doesn’t make sense.

334 posted on 7/4/2019, 8:05:36 PM by Vaden (First they came for the Confederates… Next they came for Washington… Then they came…)

.
Tanks for nothin’.
.
The Darnold wanted a parade train of hundreds of tanks, Moscow / Beijing / Pyongyang style, and what did he get?
.
Two tanks,  (no, a Bradley is not a fucking tank)  parked immobile on concrete pads, so far away you needed binoculars to see them.
TWO!
Biggest dictator fail EVAR!
.
Read more at the “read more”.
.

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Farce Of July edition”

Athenae, Current Affairs

Not Everything Sucks

Allison Hantschel

There’s an all-woman detective agency. The agency is an intentional anomaly in a heavily male-dominated industry. Trade publication PI Magazine estimates that of the roughly 60,000 private investigators in the United States, only 15 percent are women. Women of color are even less represented in the field. Joseph says about 3 percent of private investigators are black women like herself — numbers which inspired her to launch her own detective agency in an attempt to change the face of private investigation in Louisiana. There had better be a movie or I’m going to fight someone. A. Continue reading Not Everything Sucks

Adrastos, Bayou Brief, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Krewe du Vieux, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Sports

Saturday Odds & Sods: America

Peter Adrastos Athas
Subway Portrait by Walker Evans.

I spent a lot of time this week researching and writing a piece about the New Orleans newspaper war for the Bayou Brief. It will be dropping in the next few days. That’s why I’m keeping this introduction, well, brief.

This week’s theme song continues the patriotic theme of the week. The left should never have let the right hijack patriotism in the Sixties, which was when Paul Simon wrote America. 1968, the year from hell, to be precise. It was one of many stellar tracks on one of Simon & Garfunkel’s best albums, Bookends.

We have two versions for your listening pleasure: the S&G original and a brilliant 1971 cover by Yes. It features some of Steve Howe’s finest finger picking and that’s saying a lot.

Now that we’ve counted the cars on the New Jersey turnpike, we’ll jump to the break and bypass Saginaw even though Michigan is nice at this time of year.

Continue reading “Saturday Odds & Sods: America”