Silver Mylar Balloons

[bodysong]

Junk Drawer, Miscellaneous

Junk Drawer

Miscellaneous

It is a wide, crowded world.

Blackbuck08
@V2GoRotate

Sun is fast setting on Tornado & at the going down of the sun we will remember them. 40 years have past & time as come for #TornadoFarewell #FarewellTornado

2:55 AM - 16 Feb 2019

Yorkshire Air Museum
@air_museum

Farewell Tornado. Here’s one of our two Tornados saying a goodbye to her colleagues. If you’d like to see a Tornado close up, don’t forget we have two right here at the museum #FarewellTornado

10:44 PM - 19 Feb 2019



John Nichol Verified Account
@JohnNicholRAF

Corking pic by @RafPhotog. If anyone has watched @bealejonathan's @BBCNews report today on #FarewellTornado, that looks suspiciously like him in the boot with OC IX (B) Sqn just before he up-chucked his brekkie.

1:57 PM - 20 Feb 2019

Jonathan Beale
@bealejonathan

Last chance to see these iconic aircraft flying over the UK ⁦@RoyalAirForce⁩ #Tornado

10:43 AM - 20 Feb 2019

 

[bodysong]

Junk Drawer, Miscellaneous

Snow falling on the 2019 Oscars ?


LAist Verified Account
@LAist

From Malibu to Pasadena, that was snow (something called graupel) falling on SoCal.


9:03 PM - 21 Feb 2019

Yes, That's Snow You Just Saw In Los Angeles

February 21, 2019 2:18 PM


KPCC/LAist education reporter Kyle Stokes enjoys the snow falling on Pasadena on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019 at approximately 2 p.m. (Kristen Muller/LAist)

Fill up on gasoline! Raid store shelves! Break out the reporters in parkas! Okay, don't do any of those things but feel free to squeal with delight — we did — because it just snowed in Los Angeles.

Early Thursday afternoon, before 2 p.m., SoCal residents began reporting that snow was falling in their neighborhoods. These reports came from various parts of L.A. County, from Malibu, Thousand Oaks and Northridge to Eagle Rock, Santa Clarita and Pasadena — and people were excited.

https://laist.com/2019/02/21/yes_thats_snow_you_just_saw_in_los_angeles.php


Seattle Informer
@seattleinformer

35 plows and 10000 pounds of salt: Seattle’s snow response – MyNorthwest.com seattle-informer.com

6:17 AM - 5 Feb 2019

 

[bodysong]

Junk Drawer, Miscellaneous


Wild Geerters
@classiclib3ral

This is what happens to your brain when you spend all your time in your online echo chamber reading about evil feminists taking over the world


8:21 AM - 24 Feb 2019


James Lindsay
@ConceptualJames

#NotAllBridges, and it would really only take one to be a ridiculous, easily avoided catastrophe. Also, I happen to know some things like this are beginning to happen, though perhaps not yet in bridge engineering. Mostly in tech.

7:34 AM - 24 Feb 2019


Demeter Alexandria
@DeeAlexandria42

galaxy brain take: giving women equal rights will cause all the bridges to collapse

7:31 AM - 24 Feb 2019


James Lindsay
@ConceptualJames Replying to @ConceptualJames

I picture a world in which men aren't allowed to tell women they're wrong, say in the little errors they made in the load-bearing calculations for a bridge on an interstate highway or in the code that helps land a plane, and I think I can do without that particular sexism.

3:02 PM - 23 Feb 2019


Melissa
@MissaMHx

Imagine being so caught up in your anti-feminism fantasyland that you tweet something like this and think it's anything other than complete and utter nonsense. "THE BRIDGES WILL COLLAPSE IF WE TREAT WOMEN EQUALLY!!!1!"

7:21 AM - 24 Feb 2019

Maie Lynn Bee PhD
@maie_lynn Replying to @MissaMHx @Montulator

The thought of a female engineer being so sensitive that she can't have a mistake pointed out is absolutely laughable. Especially in such a male-dominated field.

9:03 AM - 24 Feb 2019

James Lindsay
@ConceptualJames

I actually know of industries in which it is happening.

8:47 AM - 24 Feb 2019

Gino Orlandini
@ginoorlandini
8h
Replying to @MissaMHx @Dattypeg @ConceptualJames

You’re being super literal about what is clearly a joke about the absurdity of women telling him to shut up bc he’s a man.

View conversation · Reply Retweet Like

Melissa
Melissa
@MissaMHx Replying to @ginoorlandini @Dattypeg @ConceptualJames

It's not, though. After I questioned him he told me he knows of industries where "this is already happening". It wasn't a joke. He genuinely thinks it could happen and IS happening.

11:15 AM - 24 Feb 2019

Mothman!


SE
@stanedward Replying to @classiclib3ral

Look up the Silver Bridge collapse, 1967. Media covered it up

8:42 AM - 24 Feb 2019

Snopes said nope

bridge collapse at Florida International University

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/was-all-female-responsible-bridge-collapse/

Wild Geerters
@classiclib3ral Replying to @stanedward

You think the collapse of a bridge in 1967 was because of feminism? This went in an even crazier direction than I had imagined

8:46 AM - 24 Feb 2019

Nope

https://www.politifact.com/punditfa...was-not-all-female-company-built-bridge-coll/

 

[bodysong]

Chris Sommerfeldt Verified Account
@C_Sommerfeldt

A five-judge panel on New York State Supreme Court disbarred Michael Cohen on Tuesday, writing he "ceased to be an attorney upon his federal conviction of making false statements to the United States Congress."

11:02 AM - 26 Feb 2019

New York court officially disbars Michael Cohen
By Stephen Rex Brown and Chris Sommerfeldt

Feb 26, 2019

“Respondent ceased to be an attorney upon his federal conviction of making false statements to the United States Congress,” a five-judge panel on the court wrote in a disbarment decision, referencing Cohen’s guilty plea last year to lying to House and Senate committees about a scuttled Trump Tower development in Moscow.

The eight-page disbarment order categorically recounted the other “serious crimes” Cohen has pleaded guilty to, including tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

The decision bars Cohen from ever again serving as an attorney in New York, which was the only state he was admitted in. He first obtained his now-rescinded Empire State law license in 1992.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-new-york-cohen-attorney-license-20190226-story.html

 

[bodysong]

The sky is crowded, today. Some of the balloons are a great deal larger than the others.


Aaron Blake Verified Account
@AaronBlake

Reminder: Lynne Patton was on a conf call in which fellow black Trump aide Katrina Pierson said of the idea that Trump said the n-word: “He said it. He said it. He's embarrassed."

8:40 AM - 27 Feb 2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...hetical/?utm_term=.d177269d2db2&noredirect=on

United States of America's Official Oval Office Snake Pit, Much coiling, hissing, striking, retreating.


Josh Marshall
Josh Marshall Verified Account
@joshtpm

Meadows brings African American party planner, Lynne Patton, who worked for Trump org (and now runs part of HUD) to refute racism allegations.

8:42 AM - 27 Feb 2019

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019...ony-hearing-trump-is-racist-black-people.html

Matt Viser Verified Account
@mviser

"I am not calling the gentlemen, Mr. Meadows, a racist," Rep Rashida Tlaib says. "I'm just saying it is a racist act," she says of him using a black woman as "a prop" to suggest that President Trump is not racist.

2:01 PM - 27 Feb 2019

She had to give an aplology, but Meadows did not. Meadows brought (Wingnut) fuckery into the hearing, and he was not called on it.

 

[bodysong]

There are bright lights inside some of these balloons.

Maryland Congressman Cummings redeems Cohen hearing with passionate, poetic closing remarks

http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-112981835/

The president that EC mentioned, was Trump

During a March meeting about prescription drug prices at the White House, Cummings offered Trump "a road map for changing his ways to help all Americans," according to Jennifer Werner, communications director for the House oversight committee's Democrats.


The advice included asking Trump to investigate voter suppression instead of voter fraud, back legislation to reduce the prices being charged for prescription drugs and "immediately stopping his horrible language about the black community" and "the immigrant community" among other issues.

"He told the President that if he represented all Americans, he would have tremendous potential and that he should start leading instead of tweeting," Werner told CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/politics/elijah-cummings-donald-trump-best-president/index.html

“The one meeting I had with the president, I said, ‘The greatest gift we can give to our children is making sure we give them a democracy better than the one we came upon.’ ”

And then his voice broke a little as he said, “‘I mean, come on now, according to The Washington Post, our president has made 8,718 misleading or false statements. That’s stunning. That’s not what we teach our children.”

http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-112981835/

"… we are better than this. We really are. As a country, we are so much better than this."

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings

 

[bodysong]

Some ballons emit an unpleasant odor, and we are required to hold our noses, and pretend everything is fine.

"I am not calling the gentleman, Mr. Meadows, a racist, for doing so, I'm saying
that, in itself, it is a racist act."


Jess
@pengiun_pants

@RepMarkMeadows u r a racist, ur proximity to black individuals or other POC don’t excuse u of it. And to be clear, REVERSE RACISM IS NOT A THING! How dare u accuse @RashidaTlaib of being racist against u? We just wasted time on ur white fragility, sir. #WhiteTears #CohenHearing

2:45 PM - 27 Feb 2019

Do Not Offend The Hypocrital Trump Supporter Snowflakes That Read NPR

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/28/6990...-racism-at-cohen-hearing?ft=nprml&f=699009651

Tlaib may have been impolitic in her comments, but she was not being disparaging. She had sufficient evidence to describe Meadows, accurately, as a racist.


She chose instead to draw a line between his behavior and his character.


In public, at least, she entertained the notion that “racist” is a slur rather than a measurable descriptor. Why she did this is apparent: The impulse to protect the feelings of a racist colleague is both pragmatic toward maintaining a professional relationship, and indicative of a broader inability in American politics to speak honestly about — or even agree on the basic parameters of — racism. What became clear on Wednesday is that Meadows is not a credible arbiter of the term. Yet it was his position to which the committee was compelled to adjust — he was coddled, reassured, and if reports are accurate, embraced cordially by Tlaib on the House floor the next day. He was believed by some, and indulged by all, despite being demonstrably implausible on the subject. It was almost as if credibility was less important than guarding Meadows against an unflattering reality.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/tlaib-called-meadows-behavior-racist-didnt-go-far-enough.html

 

[bodysong]

There are some balloons that hug the ground. They loom in the distance.


River Front Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch kept our nation informed, about the aftermath of Michael Brown's murder.

Between the citizens that had too much to bear, and the newspapers, the news got out. The government stepped in, wearing two guises. The militarization of police stations began with Occupy Wall Street. That came to pass in Ferguson. The government could not ignore the level of racism. It lanced The Wound of Ferguson, and the poison poured out, for all to see.

After that, something new and terrible happened all over the USA. Republicans with money took over alternative print media. Buy it, gut it for profits, destroy it, convert it, from a beneficial source for the community to an ugly, racist, bigot, sexist, megaphone for the hateful. Some media escaped this fate, like the Gothamist, and the DCist.

Profitering pirates, and Trump Loyalist opportunists raid anything, that smacks of Freedom of the Press of the People

St. Louis Post-Dispatch is Hamstrung

In a move the United Media Guild had long feared, Lee Enterprises announced it is moving the design and copy-editing work at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to its design/editing hub in Munster, Ind., continuing the company’s looting and decimation through greed-driven staff cuts and consolidation.

Lee Enterprises’ Executive Chairman Mary Junck has overseen the layoffs of hundreds of journalists while enriching herself with more than $40 million in compensation.

“As far as I can tell, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has no permanent city hall reporter, no science reporter and no education reporter,” UMG member and retired Post-Dispatch reporter Michael Sorkin said in a Facebook post about the latest consolidation. “And soon it will have no copy editors or national/international news editors – the editing and headlines will be done remotely, in Munster, Indiana.”

One way loyal newspaper readers can fight back, Sorkin says, is to remain subscribers.

Leslie Smith
Leslie Smith Verified Account
@LeslieSmith_GF

Nobody should have to sacrifice their dignity pleasing for basic rights. Thank you @LaborTribune for bringing the labor struggle in the UFC into the homes of your 45,000 union families. #insolidarity

6:53 PM - 4 Jan 2019

Infection of Hatred, Spreads

"Socialism" dog whistle from CPAC 2019

St. Louis Police Union Blasts Megan Green with Propaganda: 'Better Dead Than Red'

Mon, Mar 4, 2019

Tomorrow's election...

...is driving everyone in St. Louis a little crazy, but none more so than the union representing city police officers, which over the weekend attacked Alderwoman Megan Green with a slew of anti-Communist memes — including a crude photoshop that affixed her head to the body of Mao Zedong.

Green, the alderwoman representing the 15th ward, is challenging Board President Lewis Reed in the city's Democratic primary, along with state Senator Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis). An outspoken progressive, she has denounced the police response to protests, opposed a tax hike for police salary increases and is even suing the department for tear-gassing her at a protest.

And while the St. Louis Police Officers Association is no stranger to boldly questionable social media strategies, this recent wave of memes and invective about Communists apparently went too far even for someone within the organization. After several days of anti-Green posts, on Sunday, the page published, and then swiftly deleted, a post that began with the words "BETTER DEAD THAN RED":

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/new...an-green-with-propaganda-better-dead-than-red

Swastika and 'Trump 2020' Graffiti Appear at St. Louis County Park

Jan 4, 2019

Why would someone do this? In reality, some groups of avowed neo-Nazis and white supremacists openly embrace Trump, particularly after he claimed there were "very fine people" on both sides of a white supremacist rally and counter-protest in Charlottesville. But it's also true that incidents of racist graffiti are distressingly common across the country, with reasons ranging from high school hate crimes& and attempted murder to bizarre hoaxes


https://www.riverfronttimes.com/new...20-graffiti-appears-in-a-st-louis-county-park

#Black Lives Matter

#Hands Up, Don't Shoot

#Trayvon Martin

#Tamir Rice ( 12-years old, police did not wait. He was shot dead, in seconds of police arriving. He had a toy gun.

#Freddie Grey
(tortured to death, by many sadistic police officers)

#Sandra Bland (activist woman 28 years old, dies at hands of police. Cover up follows.)

#Latest stupidity

Arrested beacuse they were gardening, because, you know...

 

[bodysong]

This ballon has sound effects.



A Bill Decriminalizing Teen Sexting Passes the House, Causing Republican to Scream About Anal Sex on the Floor


Republican representative Brad Klippert, who spent a lot of his time screaming about the depravity of anal sex and other acts after legislators rejected his amendment.


Republicans generally praised the underlying intent of the bill, but urged the legislature to adopt an amendment proposed by Representative Brad Klippert, a school resource officer and Pentecostal preacher representing South Central Washington.

Lawmakers ultimately decided that Klippert's apparent disgust for some sex acts wasn't enough of a reason to gut the bill.

After the amendment was voted down, Klippert had a fit.


"Mr. Speaker, I request permission to read the definition of sadism," Klippert said, apparently unaware of the permission-seeking trope popular among subs and doms.


"Please continue," the speaker said, offering Klippert the release he was seeking.


Though earlier in the debate, Klippert said it would be unnecessary to detail the relevant sexual acts cataloged under the state's definition of sexually explicit conduct, he went on for another couple of minutes doing just that,...

The bill will now move on to the state senate, where hopefully cooler heads will continue to prevail.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/20...ublican-to-scream-about-anal-sex-on-the-floor


Captain MJ
@captainMJ_ddock Replying to @TheStranger @richsssmith

Yep. My hometown. Full of screaming anti-LGBTQ, racist, terrified old white people poisoned by decades of driving to the Hanford Site listening to AM Right Wing Radio, Fox News, and the worst brands of Evangelism ignorance can buy. It really is beautiful country though.

4:03 PM - 5 Mar 2019


Suborn HjemmeFronten
@Hjemmefronten16 Replying to @TheStranger @richsssmith

Brad screams all the time. He likes to scream at ladies at our local town hall meetings. He never screams at dudes though. He’s super worried that his daughter might see a trans lady’s tinkle bits in the bathroom and then she couldn’t go to the Chastity Balls with daddy any more.

5:02 PM - 5 Mar 2019

 

[bodysong]

Gabriel San Román
@gsanroman2

Eva Schloss, Holocaust survivor, stepsister of Anne Frank, spoke with about 10 Newport Harbor HS students who attended infamous Nazi beer pong party. Story coming via@OCWeekly

1:41 PM - 7 Mar 2019

A report released late last year by the Anti-Defamation League notes that antisemitic incidents in 2017 increased 94 percent at K-12 schools across the country. “The most striking thing I heard from the students when asked why was ‘we weren’t thinking,'” Rabbi Peter Levi, regional director of the ADL’s OC/Long Beach chapter, told the Weekly. “We need these conversations, but if the default is hate and bigotry, we need a systemic solution. These kids learned a lot, but the context that they’re growing up in hasn’t changed one iota.”


https://ocweekly.com/anne-franks-st...ty-making-nazi-salutes/#.XIGyufbXCZc****itter

Local high school students at a recent house party arranged a “rage cage” in the shape of a swastika for a beer pong drinking game, but with Snapchat screenshots of the stupid stunt making the rounds this morning, many folks are expressing outrage! (The teens did “Nazi” see that coming!) In one of the screenshots, they did their best Hitler youth impression by posing around the table with the red cup swastika and while giving the Sieg Heil salute.


https://ocweekly.com/oc-high-schoolers-sieg-heil-over-swastika-beer-pong/

 

[bodysong]

Here are the dots for connecting an important piece of information. Dot one: On February 22, 2019, the owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft was charged with allegedly soliciting sex (a blowjob) at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, on the morning of Superbowl 2019. The next dot: Today, the Miami Herald reported that "Trump cheered Patriots to Super Bowl victory with founder of spa where Kraft was busted." The founder is Cindy Yang. She loves Trump like nobody's business. However, she no longer owns the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, though some of her spas have "attracted the attention of at least two local police agencies over allegations of prostitution." According to the Miami Herald, they are known as places a man can visit for a "rub and tug."

Dot three: Donald Trump (enough said about that). Dot four: Trump and Kraft are close friends. Dot five: Many of Trump's close friends are in court or going to prison. Dot six: Orchids of Asia Day Spa is not far from Trump National Golf Club, where the Superbowl party occurred the day Kraft was allegedly caught by cops with his pants down. Connecting these dots, which place the Trump at center of Kraft's prostitution charge, plainly introduces the possibility of presidential pimping.

Spotted at Trump’s Super Bowl Party: Florida spa magnate Cindy Yang

— Boston Magazine (@BostonMagazine) March 8, 2019

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/20...ericas-bible-signing-president-is-also-a-pimp

Tom Brady kept his distance.
Did he know something ?

 

[bodysong]

The conflicting faces of FOX TV

The unusual sight of a woman of the Muslim faith, thanking FOX TV

Ilhan Omar
Ilhan Omar Verified Account
@ IlhanMN

Minneapolis Mom, Refugee, Intersectional Feminist, 2017 Top Angler of the Governor's Fishing Opener and Congresswoman for #MN05.


Ilhan Omar Verified Account
@IlhanMN

Thank you, @FoxNews. No one’s commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth

9:27 AM - 11 Mar 2019

Is there a legitimate "news team" on FOX TV ?

From Hufia Kumal, that works with Bret Baieron on his Special Report show (FOX TV)

“Can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab aren’t American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself."

Speaking to Jeanine Pirro, who said

“Is her (Ilhan Omar's) adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which is in itself antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?” she asked.


By Sunday evening, Fox News issued a statement denouncing Pirro’s racism. “We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly,” it said.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/tucker-carlson-jeanine-pirro-and-fox-news-rebukes.html

The New Snopes adds a half-hearted, half- arsed effort

https://www.snopes.com/ap/2019/03/11/minnesota-politician-thanks-fox-for-condemning-jeanine-pirro/

 

[bodysong]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has not given a press briefing for six weeks. Was she hibernating ? Is she the emergency back-up liar ?

3/11/19

During today's White House press briefing reporter Jon Karl, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent, asked if Trump really believes that Democrats hate the Jewish people. He asked, "We've seen him tweet in the last couple of days, the Democrats are the quote anti-Jewish party. Does the president really believe Democrats hate Jews?"

Sanders usually just parrots Trump's words, and she did so here. She replied that Trump has been an unwavering ally of the Jewish people and, "the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats and failed to be called out by Democratic leadership is frankly abhorrent, and it's sad."

The press secretary attacked the Democratic resolution against all forms of hate. Sanders continued, "It should be done the way the Republicans did it when Steve King made terrible comments. We called it out by name, we stripped him of his committee memberships and we'd like to see Democrats follow suit."

Karl was quick to point a very important inconsistency. He replied, "First of all, you mentioned Steve King. The president, correct me if I'm wrong, has not condemned Steve King." Sanders begins to dissemble. "I, I, I," she choked, but Karl continued, "...Praising white supremacy. Has the president publicly come out and said anything to criticize or condemn?"

Not knowing what to say, Sanders made believe when she talks, it's actually Trump's voice talking mystically through her. She said, "I speak on behalf of the president on a number of topics, and I've talked about that a number of times, and I'd refer you back to those comments where I used words like abhorrent and unacceptable."

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/03/sarah-huckabee-sanders-cant-explain-why

 

[bodysong]

Mar 8, 2019

On Thursday, stage 4 pancreatic cancer patient Nolan Sousley posted a video of police raiding his hospital room, searching his bags for marijuana. The video has since been climbing the ranks on Reddit and trending on YouTube.

Sousley is being treated in Missouri, which has yet to implement its recently approved medical marijuana program, meaning that THC treatments remain illegal in the state.

The video depicts Sousley and a companion attempting to explain the benefits that cannabis has had on his treatment as two cops search the room.

"If we find marijuana, we will give you a citation," one officer tells him.

In the video, the officers explain that they are responding to a call someone made about smelling cannabis coming from the room. According to the video description, the police ultimately found no marijuana.

"I should have the right to choose my end of life medications," Sousley wrote.

https://www.civilized*****/articles...al-room-of-stage-4-pancreatic-cancer-patient/

The (security) guard, (...) had encountered Sousley earlier that evening in the parking lot of the hospital as he was hitting a Swisher Sweet cigar after taking cannabis oil capsules, which he says his doctor had full knowledge he was using.

According to the Bolivar Herald-Free Press:

Lying in his bed, ready to sleep, Sousley says the same security guard entered the room, saying he could smell marijuana. "I told him, 'I don’t smoke marijuana. I don’t have any with me,'" he said. Sousley said the security guard asked to search his bags. "I said, 'No, he can’t. He’s a security guard. Just leave my room,'" he said. Sousley said the security officer then called the Bolivar Police Department.

Sousley's doctor asked Officer Dumpsterfire, “Do you have the right to search his stuff? Or do you need a warrant for that?” An officer and the security guard, both of whom undoubtly have unexamined power issues, explain that because it's private property, they don't need a warrant.

Last November, Missouri voters approved a medical cannabis program which has yet to be implemented, something the Bolivar Police chief explained justified the officers actions. “It’s still a controlled substance in Missouri,” he said. “It’s not legal yet."

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/20...-patients-hospital-room-searched-for-cannabis

 

[bodysong]

Senate Confirms Hate Group Staffer with ‘Weakest Legal Resume Imaginable’ to Lifetime Seat on U.S. Circuit Court

March 7, 2019

The Senate this week confirmed Allison Jones Rushing, 37, a former intern at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative Christian organization designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. ADF has backed “recriminalization of homosexuality in the U.S.”

All Republicans present voted to confirm. All Democrats opposed.

Politico reports on the alarming fact that 1 in 5 judges on the Circuit Court is a Trump-nominated judge, and there is a list about to be ushered in the door by a rule change from Mitch McConnell

http://www.towleroad.com/2019/03/allison-jones-rushing/


Even more alarming for Democrats, the GOP is also preparing to pull the trigger on the “nuclear option” and change Senate rules once again with a simple majority to allow much quicker confirmation of lower court judges in the coming months.’

"They're trying to find all kinds of ways to move things through as fast as they possibly can with the least scrutiny possible,” said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. “One thing after another."


https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/06/trump-mcconnell-judges-1205722

 

[bodysong]

After an American-style, mass murder committed by a White Supremacist in New Zealand, it as disheartening to hear of an attack in the Netherlands.

So, nah, the two incidents do not mirror each other. The NZ murderer committed a terrorist act. There is evidence that the Utrecht murderer committed domestic violence murders.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/18/utrecht-shooting-tram-dutch-netherlands

Several Dutch media outlets reported that Tanis had appeared in court in Utrecht on 4 March charged with rape. RTV Utrecht said the suspect was well known to police for a string of further offences, including threatening to murder a woman and firing a weapon at a block of flats close to the Oktoberplein.


https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/7043...assailant-wounds-several-people-on-dutch-tram

 

[bodysong]

If White Supremacists look forward to Russian support, Russian-style government in the USA, and Russian influence on American government, they might have second thoughts, after this.

Russia's province of Chechnya on Monday sentenced a prominent rights activist to four years imprisonment

Titiyev has been in custody since his arrest in January 2018 in what has been largely perceived as a vendetta against a rare critic of the Chechen government. As the head of the Chechen office of prominent rights group Memorial, he played a major role in exposing extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and torture perpetrated by security forces in Chechnya.

Chechnya's regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who previously dismissed rights activists as liars and traitors, publicly called the 61-year-old Titiyev a "junkie." Titiyev's supporters said the case aimed not only to silence the activist, who is known as a devout Muslim, but also discredit him in the eyes of the community.

Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic late on Monday said that the charges against him "lacked credibility" and called Titiyev's conviction "the latest example of the hostile and dangerous environment" for rights activists in Chechnya.

Chechnya witnessed two devastating wars in the 1990s and early 2000s before a separatist leader switched sides to support the Russian government in return for almost full control over this region in the North Caucasus. Since his father's assassination in 2004, Ramzan Kadyrov has ruled this predominantly Muslim area as a personal fiefdom, using generous Kremlin subsidies.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/a...vist-gets-4-year-sentence-in-russias-chechnya

The law system has been corrupted. They have done the same to two other men that resisted evil, and were seeking to expose it.

 

[bodysong]

When I stop to observe mass murders related to tRump, I run into a great quantity of cognitive dissonance.


Pittsburgh synagogue massacre

Tree of Life
Squirrel Hill

Blocks away from Carnegie Mellon University.

28 Oct 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/27/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting


Squirrel Hill, a progressive and historically Jewish enclave, is literally Mr Rogers’ neighborhood, home for decades to the beloved children’s entertainer and educator. Rachel Carson, the famous environmentalist, went to Chatham University. The rapper Wiz Khalifa attended Taylor Allderdice high school. In recent years, the neighborhood has seen an influx of Asian immigrants, attracted to Carnegie Mellon University.

“It’s a very close-knit neighborhood,” said Jay Costa, the Pennsylvania state senate minority leader, an Italian American who grew up two blocks from Tree of Life. “It’s a diverse neighborhood and everybody gets along very well and it’s just incredible that this happened here today.”


The suspect in Saturday’s shooting, 46-year-old Robert Bowers, appeared to have targeted the neighborhood because of the presence of people associated with HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which helps settle immigrants and refugees in the Pittsburgh area.

“HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” he apparently wrote on social media hours before the massacre. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics I’m going in.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...shooting-squirrel-hill-mr-rogers-neighborhood

 

[bodysong]

Proposed Missouri Law Would Force Every Adult Resident to Buy an AR-15


Mar 15, 2019

No, this is not the Onion. And yes, that's the very weapon targeted by gun reform activists and in an ongoing lawsuit filed by families of victims killed in the Sandy Hook massacre.

Introduced last month by state Representative Andrew McDaniel (R-Deering), the bill, titled the "McDaniel Militia Act," would create a state tax credit (capped at $1 million annually) to function as an incentive for residents not yet strapped with Big Government's preferred Big Gun — the AR-15. Purchasers could then claim the tax credit on up to 75 percent of the gun's cost.

The bill's text states, "Any person who qualifies as a resident on August 28, 2019, and who does not own an AR-15 shall have one year to purchase an AR-15... Every resident of this state shall own at least one AR-15" [emphasis added].

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/new...ld-force-every-adult-resident-to-buy-an-ar-15



Andrew McDaniel
@drurep150

Nows the time to end gun free zones!

7:17 PM - 18 Mar 2019

A Republican pushed mandatory AR-15s. After mosque shootings, he says it was a ploy to bait the left.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...sque-shootings-he-says-it-was-ploy-bait-left/

St. Louis Store Asks Whether New Zealand Mosque Shooting Was Tragic or 'Fucking Great'

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/new...d-mosque-shooting-was-tragic-or-fucking-great

The Facebook poll, which appears to have been deleted between Saturday evening and Sunday, drew thousands of votes and hundreds of comments. According to a screenshot, fifteen percent of respondents viewed the killing of 49 innocent people as a cause for celebration.

But it wasn't just the poll that disappeared from (White Supremacist) Facebook feed on Saturday. That same afternoon, the account liked and then reshared the above meme, a version of the "distracted boyfriend" meme. In this case, the boyfriend in the meme is labeled "literally the whole fucking world" while ignoring the woman behind him — identified as "daily acts of terror committed by a religion preaching violence."

The object of the boyfriend's distracted attention is a woman in the foreground. She is labeled "one guy shooting Muslims in revenge."

White Supremacist's store location is St. Peters, St. Charles County
Not St. Louis County, where Ferguson MO is located.

 

[bodysong]

Matthew Miller Verified Account
@ matthewamiller
Washington, DC

Partner @VianovoLP. MSNBC Justice & Security Analyst. Recovering flack from DOJ, DSCC, and too many campaigns to count.

Matthew Miller Verified Account
@matthewamiller

There has to be something coming, right? Trump is incredibly unhinged today even for him, and with no apparent prompting.

4:43 PM - 17 Mar 2019

Vicky Ward
Vicky Ward
@VickyPJWard

Well, I know of one possibility coming tomorrow….


(Her book listed at Amazon!)

8:02 PM - 18 Mar 2019

Yes, I watched Stephen Colbert chat with Vicky Ward about her book ",KUSHNER, INC."

Jared Kushner has been very busy.

 

[bodysong]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not suitable for the situation ? (She does not have a fondness for facing situations that involve dead children.) They sent out Mick Mulvaney, to voice the lies, denials, and deflections.

“The president is not a white supremacist. I’m not sure how many times we have to say that.”

Over the past three months, Mulvaney has been detailed to the White House from the Office of Management and Budget, which he headed as Trump’s budget chief — adding to the temporary sense of his position.

But that seeming lack of permanence has not stopped him from building a large White House footprint.

Mulvaney meets with the president at least twice a day, golfed with him in Florida one weekend and traveled with him to Vietnam, where he attended an intimate dinner with top U.S. officials and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. He’s also installed roughly eight staffers at the White House in the chief of staff’s office, communications shop and Domestic Policy Council, which crafts policy on issues like health care, drug prices, welfare, education and transportation.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/19/white-house-mulvaney-acting-chief-staff-1226055

If there's one thing that really sums up just how profoundly messed up the Trump White House is, top to bottom, it's this: The one person capable of making Trump and Co. happy in the role of chief of staff is former Freedom Caucus maniac Mick Mulvaney.

https://www.dailykos.com/

 

[bodysong]

"Not Really A Supreme Court Judge," Brett Kavanaugh was still wearing his "resting rapist face" during a recent photo-op with tRump and Sen. Joe Manchin.


Forty-six Democrats in the U.S. Senate signed onto the Equality Act when it was introduced last week. If passed, the legislation would update the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to add gender identity and sexual orientation as protected characteristics.


One Democrat, however, refrained from attaching his name to the Equality Act: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.

Manchin’s position may be unsurprising to those familiar with his record on LGBTQ issues, however. A self-proclaimed moderate, he did not sign onto the Equality Act when it was last introduced in 2017. He also was one of the last Senate Democrats to hold out against supporting same-sex marriage—along with Arkansas’ Mark Pryor and Louisiana's Mary Landrieu.

https://www.advocate.com/news/2019/...uality-act-because-it-protects-trans-students

Check out Sen. Joe Manchin's cousin, Mark Manchin. He likes to bully children, too.

 

[bodysong]

Proof that anyone that works for tRump, has no self respect.



Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) does not have enough sense to cringe.



The lawsuit became a glorious self-own, as those parody accounts’ works ― like this photo depicting Nunes in the back of a human centipede with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ― were featured in the lawsuit and subsequently became a matter of public record and public dunking. More parody accounts were created, and Nunes was mocked by late-night hosts.

Andy Lassner, producer of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” caught wind of the hilarity and started a Twitter campaign to win @DevinCow more followers than Nunes himself.

We’ve gotten @DevinCow from 7,500 to over 80,000 followers overnight.

You can be part of one of the funniest things to ever happen on the internet if we can get the cow to get more followers than Devin Nunes.

Come on!

Follow @DevinCow
— andy lassner (@andylassner) March 19, 2019

By Wednesday, it had worked. The congressman has 394,565 followers as of publishing time. Devin Nunes’ Cow had 394,603.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/devin-nunes-cow-twitter-followers_n_5c925039e4b0dbf58e46be21

yes, Devin Nunes would swim through a sea of vomit to reach tRump's feet, so he could kiss tRump's shoes.

After the Night of the Ditched Uber Ride, People Could See How Far Devin Nunes would go.

 

[bodysong]

TheBeat w/Ari Melber Verified Account
@TheBeatWithAri

"I don't see how this ends without really dealing with his children" Trump's family "can be indicted" - @ElieNYC on the Mueller probe

3:13 PM - 20 Mar 2019

 

[bodysong]

Interior Dept. Official: Thrilling To Enact Offshore Drilling While Trump Distracts The Masses


Joe Balash announces plan for offshore drilling to private investors, shamelessly bragging about how easy it is to accomplish while Trump is off creating distractions elsewhere.

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/03/interior-dept-official-thrilling-enact