POLITICAL ADS DON'T HAVE TO BE BORING

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GIDDIUP JACK & FANI

 

'NUF SAID

 

REFLECTING ON THE SCOTUS OF 2023

Asked for my reaction to the recent decisions made by the SCOTUS, namely:

(1) affirmative actions based on race (2) web designer free speech issue re: LBGTQ & (3) student loans, this is what I think.

 

My current respect for the SCOTUS is low. Their recent decisions reek of partisan politics. Once upon a time I considered it a vaunted institution with gravitas until it entered the political arena, accepted and decided the Bush v Gore election which was strictly a state matter. 

 

IMO, it's now a failing institution, populated by liars, morphed into another grubby political entity, guarantied a lifetime of supreme rights and privilege without ethical standards and no checks and balances. From that position, it cannot rule with credibility. Moreover, fewer and fewer of its decisions appear more and more rooted in closely held personal views, thinly disguised as ponderous legal decisions.

So, you tell me, what opinions could I offer about decisions made under a political cloud? In principal, I think none of them have much merit based on the people passing the judgements. 

OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system: let's take them one at a time.

 

Free Speech: The aggrieved web designer who decided she didn't have to provide her creative services to a same sex couple. This case should have been rejected because it had no standing.

There was no gay couple, there was no request from anyone for a website that included LBGTQ information, the person named in the suit is a heterosexual man with a wife.

In other words, the decision was based on lies; it was a problem made up of whole cloth by a conservative political group using cutouts. That's why I would throw it out. 

But my own opinion is that a business open to the public should serve the public otherwise we will return to a country peppered with signage like "No blacks allowed" or "No Jews here". By its decision the SCOTUS simply created a new exception: “No gays will be served”.

Student Loan Forgiveness. If the executive branch didn't use the proper tool/law/regulation to order the forgiveness as an executive matter, then it should be rejected, as it was. But as an aside, I think it's a travesty for graduating students to begin their adult life behind a financial eight ball.

 

Affirmative Action: Quotas of any kind should go away. There are other means to separate the best cows from the herd without resorting to special treatment. But, as it is, this was a half-assed decision based on personal politics, ignoring legacy students, privileged high school athletes, children of wealth who are regularly admitted based on generous parental contributions to a stadium, building, auditorium or departmental chair.  

 

So these are my thoughts & reactions to the current spate of judgements passed down from a crumbling Mount Olympus. 

RANDY RAINBOW

cLIcK liNk

LAUGH UNTIL YOUR SIDES HURT

SNIPPETS

After looking at American history, it's not unreasonable to wonder whether elite impunity is a national religion. SOURCE: WAPO // Daily 202

"Donald Trump's political operation has spent more money since he left office on lawyers representing the former president and a pair of nonprofits staffed by former Cabinet members than it has on Republican congressional campaigns, the Washington Post reports.

"The Department of Education in Ohio is investigating the openly antisemitic and racist Nazi homeschooling group with thousands of members being operated by a couple from Upper Sandusky, Ohio,” Vice…

Katja Lawrence, 37, also shares examples of how her family embraces Nazi ideology, including baking a Fuhrer cake for Hitler’s birthday and sharing a recording of her children shouting "Sieg heil.”

The fourth resident of The Villages in Florida admitted to voting twice in the 2020 election, WKMG reports.

"Advisors to Newsom and DeSantis, who are coming off landslide reelection victories, expect competition to escalate between the two governors, who could at some point run for president. But their differences are greater than one contest between two men. They also reflect widening national schisms over culture, lifestyle and the definition of freedom — between those who see institutions as forces to lift people up and those who see them bearing down on people.”

Inside Russia's Propaganda Machine: "Be sure to take Tucker." That is what one Russian news producer emailed a colleague, according to leaked documents published Thursday by The NYT's Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano, and Aaron Krolik. Relying on the leaked emails, the report provided a "rare glimpse into a propaganda machine that is perhaps Russia's greatest wartime success." And they showed how to spin up a narrative, "producers at the state media company cherry-picked from conservative Western media outlets like Fox News and the Daily Caller, as well as obscure social media accounts on Telegram and YouTube

 A.J. Bauer:  "The good news is 2023 will be the year that journalists finally learn how not to cover right-wing extremism in the United States. The bad news? They’ll learn by unwittingly bolstering its return to power in 2024."

Americans own nearly half the world's civilian-held guns ― but according to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), that's still not enough. "The Second Amendment is absolute, and it'S here to stay,” Boebert said Wednesday during a House floor speech. “A recent report states that Americans own 46% of the world's guns. I think we need to get our numbers up, boys and girls.”

On Doing Nothing | The Zen Teacher

March 9, 2020. One day a wife came in and saw her husband sitting in the La-Z-Boy recliner. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Nothing," he said. "You did that yesterday," she replied. "I know," the husband said. "But I wasn't done.". I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine about the difference between doing ...

The Art of Doing Nothing; Why Italians, not Americans, get this right.

 

HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF

If you are a true patriot, a news junkie, interested in "America First", a student of American History or about 80 years old, you should understand the importance of Rachel Maddow's podcast titled "ULTRA".  Listen to it here. 

WHEN ALL SENSE IS LOST, IT'S TIME TO LAUGH

 

MEET A MASS MURDERER IN TRAINING

AP Top News
U.S. News

California man avoids prison after 2021 attack on tortoise

Michelangelo, the 70-year-old African tortoise and San Jose preschool pet, wanders around at ARCHVET Animal Hospital in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021, following surgery the day before after being beaten and stabbed by an assailant. On Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, a judge sentenced the assailant to two years of probation and mandatory mental health and substance abuse treatment, according to The San Jose Mercury News. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group via AP)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California man avoided prison time Friday after he drunkenly trespassed at a preschool last year and attacked a pet tortoise named Michelangelo, The San Jose Mercury News reported.

The 42-year-old man was also linked to other break-ins at the East San Jose school, and stole thousands of dollars of items in the days before and after the attack on Michelangelo, a decades-old African sulcata, in January 2021.

The school's owner discovered Michelangelo bleeding last year after the attack, impaled in the shell with 6-inch (15-centimeter) shards from a wooden garden gate post. The man had also shoved a rake handle between the animal’s head and leg and broke flood lamps and put the shattered glass on the tortoise’s back, The Mercury News reported.

A judge sentenced the man Friday to two years of probation and mandatory mental health and substance abuse treatment. He had pleaded no contest to charges of animal abuse, commercial burglary and vandalism earlier this year, the newspaper reported.

The man is now also banned from having any animals for 10 years. His public defender said his client’s behavior against the tortoise was the result of excessive intoxication, rather than animal cruelty, the newspaper wrote.

The preschool did not return the newspaper's request for comment Friday.

BARBARA WALTERS (SEPT 1929 - DEC 2022)

When I thought about it, I knew in my gut that Barbara Walters was getting on in age but -- like most of you -- I was still both surprised and saddened to read of her passing on Dec 30th at age 93. 

It recalled memories from ~40 yrs ago when I was directing  "20/20" -- before Barbara arrived on the scene to share hosting duties with the gentlemanly Hugh Downs. That was after she was hired away from NBC News at the princely sum of $1,000,000 (unheard of) to anchor the ABC evening news with Harry Reasoner. That didn't go well. So 20/20 inherited Barbara; the Queen Bee arrived and life changed.

 

New office arrangements had to be made, bla, bla, bla and so forth and so on & Hugh had to make a few adjustments.

 

I had the "pleasure" of working with Ms. Walters a few times during my time on "20/20" but the one I remember most was her interview with Richard Nixon. Nixon had agreed to an interview, but only if it was live. He didn't want anyone editing his words. No problem for me as I had come off of Good Morning America and was used to going live but the "20/20" staff was not as sanguine about the idea. Naturally tensions were higher as "20/20" was really a recorded magazine type program.

 

A separate area of our set was arranged for the one-on-one interview, lighting and camera shots were set. We timed moving cameras from the "20/20" positions to the interview area; no need for more cameras (cameras were made to move, after all). And so 20/20 went on the air, live with Hugh at the anchor spot; Barbara & Tricky Dickey nowhere in sight. The change over occurred during a commercial break (usually 60 seconds, maybe 120 seconds; I don't remember) but everything worked smoothly & everyone was in position, lit, miked and ready to go.

 

Now we all know Barbara had this knack of asking pointed questions, sweetly but pointed....like a javelin to the heart. Barbara to Monica Lewinsky: 'What do you think you will tell your children? Lewinsky: That mommie made a big mistake.' You get the idea. So, in the back of my brain, I wondered what Barbara was going to do with Nixon.

 

Demanding that an interview go live is a two edged sword much like a taped interview but different. A taped interview is honed down by a producer, frequently overseen by a lawyer. That could be good or bad. On the other hand, a live event airs.....well.... live with few controls. Remember Geraldo Rivera's prime time hunt for Al Capone's safe?

 

As usual, Barbara had done her meticulous research and the interview started off pleasantly enough. Nixon was stiff..... as usual... and a bit arrogant... as usual.... and Barbara asked some good but relatively innocuous policy questions (for her) to soften him up, to make him feel like he had this but you just knew that Watergate had to come up. But when? 

 

By the first commercial break, the questions became more personal and that trend continued through the 2nd break. By the final segment, Nixon was somewhat uncomfortable, fidgety & a bit  argumentative but Barbara smoothed the waters.

 

But at 58:00 minutes into the 58:30 minute interview, she pounced. Barbara: "Are you sorry you didn't burn the tapes?" … "If  you had it to do all over again, you would have burned them?" Nixon: "Yes". And so the interview and the hour-long program ended. Guess what everyone remembers? Boom! Talk about a mike drop. That was the magic of Barbara Walters.

 

Link to Nixon Interview

TOM CRUISE AT IT AGAIN!

 

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POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS

I once had the temerity to suggest that the best "punishment" for Trump's misdeeds was to put him under house arrest at Mar-A-Lago where he could focus on himself without interruption.  Then I read the following in Vanity Fair:

Inside Trump's sad little Mar-a-Lago life, where his assistants beg people to call him and 'boost his spirits with positive affirmations' and people clap after he cuts his food with a fork and knife.

Here's the full article. I guess I was prescient. 

SIGN OF THE TIMES

First, the background.

.....so the former POTUS, who served the Nation from 2016-2020, had a wonderful Mar-a-Lago lunch with  white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West (aka Ye). 

Part of the conversation centered around Ye's intention to make another run for POTUS in 2024. He asked the former POTUS, who served the Nation from 2016-2020, if he would serve as his VP.  

The former POTUS, who served the Nation from 2016-2020, became irate & according to Ye:

"When Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was going to lose — I mean has that ever worked for anyone in history,”West said in the video. I'm like hold on, hold on, hold on, Trump, you're talking to Ye.”

SOURCE: Vanity Fair

Time For Some Humor

 

Subversion anyone?

If you are in the mood to read a long, but very revealing, article about Congressional support for invoking Marshall Law to overturn the results of the 2020 election, read this.  I thought I had a handle on the attempted coup but  this article gave me a jolt.

SOURCE: Talking Points Memo

WHO?

If you ever wondered about the [ WHO ] World Health Organization's  value, wonder no more. WHO else could have handled the following situation w such deftness & sensitivity? The WHO. That'S WHO.

"The World Health Organization announced yesterday it would begin referring to the monkeypox virus as "mpox," the result of a six-month effort to find a nondiscriminatory alternative to avoid stigma. The name "monkeypox" will be phased out over the next year. "

SOURCE 1440 Daily Digest

Tis The Season.....Ho, Ho, Ho

 

Today's Public Service Announcement

"London-based tattoo removal studio NAAMA is offering free tattoo removal of Kanye West tattoos amid the musician's ongoing anti semitic comments."

WTF? Who would get a Kanye tattoo in the first place? Steven Miller, that's who.

American Presidential Speech in Your Dreams

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Go Donald!

Do you remember, as I do, Ivanka saying about her father: you will not find anyone who will work harder for the American people; that he will never give up. Well, god bless her little heart, she was right. Keep it up, Donald. You're the best at positioning the Democratic party for continued success.