It is a humpish sort of day, suitable for camels or Quasimodo: it’s May 26 2021: National Blueberry Cheesecake Day (make mine either plain or cherry, though). But it’s also National Cherry Dessert Day, Paper Airplane Day, Sally Ride Day (honoring her birthday on this day in 1951), World Redhead Day, and, in Australia, National Sorry Day, a day of apology for the mistreatment of indigenous people.
Today’s Google Doodle (click on screenshot) is an animated swing-dancing game celebrating the famed Savoy Ballroom, in which you can test your rhythm, individually or in a two-person game, for four swing songs. I haven’t played the game, so no guarantees.
This video explains the video, the Savoy Ballroom, and the game:
News of the Day:
According to the Washington Post, Manhattan’s district attorney has convened a grand jury to evaluate the possibility of criminal charges against Donald Trump and his business associates.
The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s investigation of the former president and his business has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance believes he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump then by someone potentially close to him or by his company.
Is anybody betting that the Orange Man will be wearing an orange onesie in jail? Remember, there is no Presidential pardon for state charges, even if Biden had the unlikely inclination to intervene.
More about grand juries from the AP: Madison Smith, a Kansas woman who accused a man of raping her convened her own grand jury when local prosecutors declined to bring rape charges. It turns out that, at least in Kansas, citizens can impanel a grand jury if they present a petition signed by hundreds of citizens. Smith was persistent and succeeded:
The process of seeking a grand jury wasn’t easy. Smith had to stand in a parking lot telling her story over and over again to strangers to collect hundreds of signatures, and then do it again when the first petition was rejected on a technicality.
The accused had already pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and was given two years’ probation. I believe that, at least in Kansas (a few other states have such procedures), this is the first time the citizen-impaneling procedure has been used in a case of sexual assault.
Down in Texas, the state legislature just approved a bill that allows anyone over 21 to buy and carry a handgun in pubic places without a permit and without training. The governor says he’ll sign the bill.
From the BBC, an article titled, “Miss, what’s a duck?” reveals the deep and sad ignorance of British children who get little exposure to nature. Here’s part of the sad report:
When school teacher Kim Leathley took her class on a trip to the local aquarium, she was asked an unusual question.
“Miss? What’s that?” said a nine-year-old boy, pointing towards the waves, as they walked along Blackpool promenade.
It turned out he’d never seen the sea before.
A surprise, given the school is in the middle of Blackpool and only a few streets from the seafront.
Other teachers have had similar experiences over the years on school trips outside the city, she explains. A 10-year-old once asked what a duck was, while a pupil – spotting cows in the field – said: “Look at those horses.”
Speaking of ducks (and we should), a California man was arrested for firing his gun to protect his pet duck. According to the BBC, the man fired into the air as a dog leapt his fence went after his duck. The duck survived, but with a broken leg. In my view, that man should get a medal, not a charge of reckless endangerment! (h/t: Matthew)
Over at the Atlantic, Matti Friedman has an article about how Americans’ attempts to see commonalities between themselves and Israel has distorted our view of what’s happening. Read “Israel’s Problems are not like America’s.”
Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 590,628, an increase of about 700 deaths over yesterday’s figure. The reported world death toll is now 3,500,840, an increase of about 12,650 over yesterday’s total.
Stuff that happened on May 26 includes:
- 1293 – An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 23,000.
- 1857 – Dred Scott is emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners.
Scott had lost a Supreme Court case, 7-2, which said that African-Americans had no right to citizenship in the U.S. Sadly, after he was freed, he died about 15 months later of tuberculosis. A photo:
- 1868 – The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson ends with his acquittal by one vote.
- 1896 – Nicholas II becomes the last Tsar of Imperial Russia.
Here are the final resting places in St. Petersburg of the Tsar and his family, shot by the Bolsheviks. I took this in 2011. Nicholas’s resting place is to the left in the center.
- 1897 – Dracula, a Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
A first edition, first printing of this puppy will run you around $40,000 U.S.:
- 1923 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held and has since been run annually in June.
- 1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
Here are some model Ts on Ford’s famous assembly line:
- 1940 – World War II: Operation Dynamo: In northern France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France.
It was successful. Here are some British troops lined up on the Dunkirk beaches, awaiting evacuation:
- 1967 – The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is released.
Here’s Abbey Road Two Studio, where most of the tracks of Sgt. Pepper (54 years old today) were recorded:
- 1998 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in New Jersey v. New York that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.
- 1998 – The first “National Sorry Day” was held in Australia, and reconciliation events were held nationally, and attended by over a million people.
Notables born on this day include:
- 1895 – Dorothea Lange, American photographer and journalist (d. 1965)
Lange was most famous for her images of the Great Depression in the U.S. Here are two of them. First, a family moves with its belongings:
“Migrant mother” (1936), perhaps her most famous image:
- 1907 – John Wayne, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1979)
- 1920 – Peggy Lee, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2002)
Here’s Lee singing “Why Don’t You Do Right” with the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1943. I love this video! Her singing is lovely and understated, and Goodman plays some sweet licorice stick.
- 1926 – Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (d. 1991)
- 1928 – Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist, author, and assisted suicide activist (d. 2011)
- 1940 – Levon Helm, American singer-songwriter, drummer, producer, and actor (d. 2012)
- 1948 – Stevie Nicks, American singer-songwriter
Here’s the best Stevie Nicks video ever, recorded spontaneously as she was being made up for a Rolling Stone shoot. Voilà: “Wild Heart.” This may be the best spontaneous rock song ever, and is infinitely better than the recorded version. You won’t regret listening to this.
- 1949 – Jeremy Corbyn, British journalist and politician
- 1951 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, founded Sally Ride Science (d. 2012)
Those who went belly up on May 26 include:
- 1914 – Jacob August Riis, Danish-American journalist, photographer, and reformer (b. 1849)
Here’s one of Riis’s photos. Wikipedia caption: “Bandit’s Roost (1888) by Jacob Riis, from How the Other Half Lives. This image is Bandit’s Roost at 59½ Mulberry Street, considered the most crime-ridden, dangerous part of New York City.” Would you walk down this street? Talk about “Gangs of New York”!
- 1943 – Edsel Ford, American businessman (b. 1893)
- 1976 – Martin Heidegger, German philosopher and academic (b. 1889)
- 2008 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1934)
- 2010 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (b. 1912)
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili doesn’t understand the prevalence of annoying insects (has she considered evolution?):
Hili: I can find no justification.Paulina: What for?Hili: Neither for mosquitos nor for any flies.(Picture: Paulina R.)
Hili: Nie znajduję żadnego usprawiedliwienia.Paulina: Dla kogo?Hili: Ani dla komarów, ani dla innych muszek.(Zdjęcie: Paulina R.)
Little Kulka is intense, as usual:
A meme from Bruce:
From Nicole, a plaint that I’ve sometimes had:
A bad joke from Jesus of the Day:
From Titania. Shoot me NOW!
If you have a white male child, you have already failed as a parent.pic.twitter.com/pyBI3fll0q
— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) May 25, 2021
Tweets from Matthew. The first is a science experiment: “How ducklings’ feet sound on different floors.” Awesome!
For science: Wie Entenkükenfüßchen auf verschiedenen Böden klingen pic.twitter.com/gUv1BoMAcA
— Karolin Schwarz (@raeuberhose) May 6, 2021
If they start opening beers we’re all doomed:
Haha – I always thought that honeybees are nowhere near as smart as our tool-using bumblebees, but this is pretty good 😉 https://t.co/oODQiw6W36
— Lars Chittka (@LChittka) May 25, 2021
I don’t think these ducks are particularly spoiled, do you?
I have raised the most spoiled and entitled ducks ever known to man. pic.twitter.com/xVB14Nr5Nu
— Angela King (@EnnoFarm) May 24, 2021
A nice optical illusion, and no, it does not expand! Click on it to enlarge the picture.
A black hole appears to expand. (Fujiwara's illusion) pic.twitter.com/MjzLoawoAC
— Akiyoshi Kitaoka (@AkiyoshiKitaoka) May 25, 2021
ARRESTED!???? This guy deserves a medal!
Escalon Man Arrested For Allegedly Firing Gun To Protect Duck https://t.co/ccemTXLBF3 pic.twitter.com/rbsQFSRJk5
— CBS Sacramento CBS13 (@CBSSacramento) May 25, 2021
This really is excellent even if it is the New Woke Times. Excellent graphics:
This is the most brilliant marriage I have ever seen of reporting, writing, history, graphics, 3d computerized images, and it tells an immensely important story. Congrats, @nytimes, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Anjali Singhvi and the rest of the team. https://t.co/j8SWwzF1JK
— Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 24, 2021
There are more pictures in this thread of quail walking alongside a gopher snake. Matthew’s take: “I reckon they are ensuring it leaves. Safety in numbers and intimidating to snake.”
After the quail encountered the snake, several males were following it, getting quite close to its head. pic.twitter.com/sEB4DufxiX
— Wendy (@geococcyxcal) May 21, 2021
:
You’ve got the story of a man firing his gun to rescue his duck in twice. First, in the news section and second in the Tweet section.
As for the “what’s a duck” story. There’s nothing new about this. When I was a child in the 70’s, teachers used to regale us with stories of how the children in the cities had never seen cows or fields and it was close enough to WW2 for people to remember being evacuated to the countryside and seeing nature for the first time ever. I am somewhat astonished that a child living in Blackpool had never seen the sea though.
As a child of the rural area and farm I am always amazed at the things urban folks do not know. Also of interest is their lack of concern for this missed knowledge.
My father grew up on a small family farm, and he was full of idioms from farming life. “Hit the hay”, “Make hay while the sun shines”, “Don’t look a gift horse…”, “chicken with it’s head cut off”, etc. But, it occurred to me that these terms entered the language over hundreds of years and it has not been that long since almost everyone farmed. Times change but it won’t be all over ’till the cows come home.
That’s pretty good…till the cows come home. I was thinking more about the self-sufficiency many years ago. All of the things that we automatically pick up the phone and pay for, they just did not do years ago. They did things themselves. Hell, even working on the tractors and equipment – they did it all themselves. Today a farmer just picks up the phone and pays for it. That is the modern farmer, more like the city guy.
I don’t think it is necessarily true that most repair work is done by techs somewhere. Lots of farmers are turning to equipment manufacturers that produce tractors and implements that can be repaired, or at least that do not take deliberate steps to keep people from repairing their own equipment.
Besides being very expensive to pay someone to do it, there is a serious element of time lost if you have to load your gear onto a trailer, drive it into the city, and wait for it to be repaired.
When we start cutting and baling, such a loss of time would be a disaster. I spend my evenings repairing whatever broke during the day. Often that means disassembling some piece of machinery, swapping out bearings, hot riveting sickle bar teeth, or welding broken components. Then it has to be put back together so we can get a running start in the morning.
My Dad’s estimate is that we tend to have some sort of equipment breakage every 400 bales. For us, that means twice a day.
A lot of what we do is the same exact stuff my Grandfather did, like maintaining fence lines and irrigation systems, and protecting the live stock from predators and their own stupidity.
“National Blueberry Cheesecake Day” – You mean, I finally hit one?
Well, actually, I made the cheesecakes yesterday, a no-bake eggless recipe (the crust is baked). They have to set up overnight in the freezer, so they won’t go into the dessert case until this morning. And, it’s really a plain cheesecake. I made blueberry sauce to go with it, but people can order it with or without.
OK, so maybe I didn’t actually hit one.
Have a good day, everybody.
L
Yikes. I hope they pay them more than minimum wage. That’s a mortgage-killer right there.
I was wondering what payment provisions are made there too.
Grand jurors — like petit (i.e., trial) jurors — receive a daily fee for their service, but it’s usually not much. Some corporations, particularly large corporations, will continue to pay salaried employees during their jury service. (All companies are prohibited by law from firing, or otherwise retaliating against, employees for their jury service.) Potential jurors for whom jury service (grand or petit) will cause a grave financial hardship can be excused from service for cause.
Although the NY grand jury in question is scheduled to sit for three days a week, that does not mean it will necessarily convene on all three days every week — and when it does convene, it may not be for full days. Also, unlike petit juries, grand juries are not required to have all grand jurors present to proceed, merely a quorum. (In New York, 23 citizens sit on a grand jury; 16 must be present to constitute a quorum.) Accordingly, it is possible for grand jurors to be excused from a particular day’s attendance if they have a work-related emergency.
I’ll also add that just because the grand jury is allotted 6-months’ time, that doesn’t mean it will be active for the entire 6-months.
I’m aware some companies do that. Heck, mine does it. But not for six months. I think they do it for something like 10 days/year.
With your caveats, it sounds like 3 days/week for 6 months is sort of the outer boundary, not the expected value. But still, that’s quite a lot of public service at minimum pay.
Right, but that skews the jury towards rich folk or well-educated folk who probably have more job flexibility. Which is not really what we want in our justice system.
I really think any case taking longer than about a week or two should be compensated at the person’s current income level, up to some reasonable maximum. And I’d also like a pony…
If I may presume to hold forth a bit regarding grand juries:
Years ago I learned a needed lesson from a a false friend/con artist situation. This friend purported to work for a log home kit company on a part-time basis. In short, he never forwarded any money to the company, using the money for his own benefit. I considered it a crime. I consulted the local district attorney’s office, and a subpoena was issued to the miscreant for a hearing in the local “trial justice” court. The miscreant was worried enough that he hired an attorney.
The assistant DA handling my case probably needed more experience and instruction in asking necessary preliminary questions of me, I myself not extensively versed in the nuances of the law. Which is to say, my complaint was dismissed becaused the transaction was deemed not sufficiently of an “arm’s-length” nature, that it was to-the-effect “tainted” with friendship, and therefore any remedy could only be obtained in civil, not criminal, court. (Apparently it won’t do for friends to go into business together.) I was a bit shocked, this “arm’s-length” stuff seemingly a bolt out of the blue. (I’m reminded of another such creature, the “attractive nuisance” doctrine. E.g., swimming pool diving boards, pools not fenced in with a sign stating it is only for motel guests. At that time I became greatly appreciative of property owners’ insistence on posting “No Trespassing” signs.)
Of course, this guy was a judgment-proof turnip. (Unbeknownst to me at the time, he had defaulted on a bank loan and had been sued by a bank to no avail a few years earlier, conducting his life in such a way that any money he made could not be tracked and garnished.)
A relative with nineteen years of experience as Clerk & Master of the local Chancery Court (TN) informed me that state law provided the option of personally making a “Presentment” to the grand jury in an effort to pursue criminal prosecution. The odds were against me but I decided to pursue it so as not to wonder years later if I had given it my best shot.
I gave about as good a calm rational, objective presentation as most any lay person could. The grand jury was most respectful except for one businessman type who in insisted on popping his bill, presuming to ask me if I had not ever “dealt with business” before. I guess he simply couldn’t resist taking me to the woodshed before the captive audience of his jury peers.
I wanted to rake him over the coals to the effect that I didn’t see the relevance of his tut-tutting chin music inquiry; that the miscreant’s action either qualified as a prosecutable criminal offense or it did not; that my naivete regarding snake-in-the-grass self-absorbed business types and con artists was not the subject of my presentment but that that he was welcome to similarly make a presentment seeking to indict me for my naivete; and that, as he deemed reasonable and appropriate, we could meet later to “discuss” my naivete and satisfy his need for get in a dig at me.
Rather, for the sake of comity and so as not to diminish what if any chance I had for success in my presentment quest, I restricted my response to acknowledging that my knowledge and experience perhaps were not what they should have been, but that most assuredly they would be henceforth.
It was a good learning experience, and significantly inclined me to the world view of my grandfather who, in his Appalachian vernacular, told me to beware “trade talk,” and advised me, “Don’t trust no one!”
FURTHER THE AFFIANT SAITH NOT.
Well said, counsellor KK. When I was practicing I almost never heard of these special jury thingies. They’re very rare I suppose.
Plus.. so few cases (almost none of mine) ever make to to jury stage, despite what Law & Order suggest. And the pay for jurors in any context is shitty.
They must have a lot of dope on the orange dope waiting for his orange onesie. Oh I can’t wait for the perk walk downtown on Center Street. I wonder if he’ll supply his own gold plated handcuffs?
hehheehe
“To the presidential cell, warden!” — hahaha the jokes just write themselves! 🙂
cheers,
D.A., J.D.
NYC https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/
Or, you know, on the other hand, the New York Attorney General could just be trying to keep the water boiling under the Boogie Man, who at this point appears to be the front-runner in 2024. I am sure we won’t at all see wild speculation about crimes fueled by “anonymous sources” in papers like the New York Times that increase in numbers as we get closer to the mid-term elections. And while there’s no Federal pardon for state crimes, there is a state pardon; New York is about due for another Republican Governor. I am not saying that there aren’t crimes. I find it easy to believe that Trump engaged in self-dealing. But one thing the last five years have taught me is that one of the effects of propaganda is that it makes things easy to believe. That’s great for witch hunts, especially if one is already predisposed to dislike the target.
It really works well with all things republican, eh. Well over 50% of them believe Trump is the president. Wild speculation is their main product. Democracy is not part of their vocabulary. The circus going on in Arizona is all the delusion you need.
From my brief research, there seems to be reason to believe that Republican administrations tend to be more corrupt, looking at the indictments arising out of special counsel investigations over the last 50 years of persons who either served in the president’s administration or worked on the president’s campaign:
Trump — 7 (going on 8?)
Obama — 0
Bush, Jr. — 0
Clinton — 2
Bush, Sr. — 0
Reagan — 33
Carter — 0
Nixon — 28
Just this morning, I finished reading Richard Hofstadter’s essay The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt-1954, which is a part of his larger work The Paranoid Style. I was blown away by the prescience of the last paragraph of the essay, especially the last sentence. (I always screw up block quotes, so italics it is.)
These considerations suggest that the pseudo-conservative political style, while it may already have passed the peak of its influence, is one of the long waves of twentieth-century American history and not a momentary mood. I do not share the widespread foreboding among liberals that this form of dissent will grow until it overwhelms our liberties altogether and plunges us into a totalitarian nightmare. Indeed, the idea that it is purely and simply fascist or totalitarian, as we have known these things in recent European history, is to my mind a false conception, based upon the failure to read American developments in terms of our peculiar American constellation of political realities. (It reminds me of the people who, because they found several close parallels between the N.R.A. and Mussolini’s corporate state, were once deeply troubled at the thought that the N.R.A. was the beginning of American fascism). However, in a populistic culture like ours, which seems to lack a responsible elite with political and moral autonomy, and in which it is possible to exploit the wildest currents of public sentiment for private purposes, it is at least conceivable that a highly organized, vocal, active, and well-financed minority could create a political climate in which the rational pursuit of our well-being and safety would become impossible.
Seems to me that in 1954, Hofstadter eerily predicted today ‘s GOP. Texas’ new gun law is a perfect example of how, under pseudo-conservatism “the rational pursuit of our well-being and safety would become impossible.” Trumpism is the essence of pseudo-conservatism as defined by Hofstadter and throughout this work, I was continually reminded of Trump and “his” party.
It was WEIT reader Historian who first brought my attention to Hofstadter’s writings and how they parallel today’s political climate in regards to Trump, so I wanted to say “thanks” for introducing me to this brilliant and enlightened historian.
Chrissake, how dumb would Republicans have to be to nominate a candidate who has twice lost the popular vote, by a combined total of 10 million ballots, who got routed in the electoral college in the last election, who in two tries never got so much as 47% of the vote, and who, in four years in office, never had an approval rating north of 50%?
You think Rudy Giuliani’s failson Andrew, whose only political experience appears to be having played golf with the Donald, is ready for the governor’s mansion in Albany?
New York is one of the bluest states in the nation. Should a Republican be elected governor, you think he or she would be willing to take the popularity hit that would accompany a Trump pardon? Remember what the Nixon pardon did for Gerald Ford’s approval rating? Drove it right off a 20 point cliff.
The problem is relative popularity. If Trump has the power to get a third of the GOP to stay home because he badmouths the person who beats him in the primary, they’ll have a lower chance of winning than they would had Trump been the candidate. And this also translates into less downballot victories with Trump off the ballot than on it – again, assuming he throws a temper tantrum against the party if he doesn’t get the nomination.
So I expect the butt-kissing right now is all about mollifying his ego so that he eventually gives a positive endorsement to the GOP’s preferred candidate. And that mollifying is critically important to them regardless of whether Trump runs and loses or doesn’t run.
“How dumb would Republicans have to be . . . .”
Ken, at this point I can’t believe you could actually be questioning their degree of “dumbness.”
+1
Yeah, that question was strictly rhetorical. Today’s GOP is not so much a political party anymore as it is a collection of internet trolls and their followers.
Republican congressional “leaders” (if I may employ that term so loosely) are deathly afraid of the Frankenstein monster they’ve created. If they don’t toe the Trump line, they know the hardcore, dead-end Trump supporters are a threat to run a QAnon nutcase against them in GOP primaries. And Trump himself holds the ultimate trump card (so to speak) — if Republicans piss him off through their perceived disloyalty, he can take his dead-enders and form his own MAGA-style third party. Doing so, would cost Republicans any chance of competing in purple areas of the electoral map, or anywhere on a national level in all but the deepest red states and most cracked-and-packed gerrymandered Republican congressional districts.
The Grand Old Party would be ruined for a generation, and perhaps permanently.
What nearly all of the republicans in congress are is full on racist. They do not even attempt to hide it any longer and the stuff the democrats are trying to get through congress right now proves this without question. So whether it is the denial of voter rights or the George Floyd bill, racism is front and center in their minds and performance. So I would have two questions for DRBRYDON. Does he have racism in the front of his political agenda as well? And number 2, why is he here?
I dunno, Randy, on most issues I sense I’m on the other side of the political spectrum from DrBrydon, but I haven’t seen anything he’s written here that qualifies as “racist.”
Plus, I like having people around here I disagree with; it keeps the vital bodily humors churning. 🙂
Yep, he basically holds a heckler’s veto over their electoral chances. Whether he’ll use it to seriously run or just extract deals is, IMO, anyone’s guess.
Or put another way, he’s grabbed them by the p***y.
An additional May 26th birthday: William Bolcom, am,erican composer, born 26 May 1938.
Bio at his own website: https://williambolcom.com/bio .
General Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bolcom
A Chicago connection is that three of his operas were commissioned and premiered by the Lyric Opera.
My own experience of hearing his music is mostly of the song cycle Songs of Innocence and of Experience setting those poems of Blake. A remarkable mixture of styles and musical genres!
Bolcom’s “Graceful Ghost” rag is a piece that I just have to hear several times every year. It brings a smile to my face every time I hear it, and it will surely be my earworm today.🎶https://youtu.be/aey6eL661PM
Thanks for the tip – I’m catching up with the Graceful Ghost Rag from your link. But meanwhile WFMT, referencing yesterday’s birthday, played the Incineratorag a minute ago.
8:15 am
William Bolcom: Three Rags for string quartet
III. “Incineratorag”
Altius Quartet
Dress Code
Navona NV-6078
Yeah, just when I’m about to cancel my subscription to the NY Times, they publish a winner like this one about the Tulsa Massacre and pull me back in (apologies to Michael Corleone).
Concrete is my favourite. But they’re all cute as hell.
As a Person with Hair of Color, PHoC, I say it’s about time we have our own day! Now, where’s our Ginger History Month?!
Sarah says that her infant is a white male. How does she know that they’re a male until they decide?
“Is anybody betting that the Orange Man will be wearing an orange onesie in jail?”
As a Florida resident, he has legal mechanisms to prevent his extradiction for crimes committed in another state. DeSantis gets to decide whether he gets extradited or not. It is obvious how that decision will go.
“… an article titled, “Miss, what’s a duck?” reveals the deep and sad ignorance of British children who get little exposure to nature.”
It is sad and possibly promotes ignorance not to get out in Nature. Everyone needs more of it, and there seems to be less of it. That is a fact.
However – and I’m looking at the Beeb here – publishing an article that contains “quotes” that are literally the stream-of-consciousness utterings of children, especially out and about, with their peers, having a good ‘ol time, being serious silly and everything in between, is nothing to stake strong claims on.
The kids are just having fun. Kids say stuff. It is really impossible to establish firm connections to major defects in the educational system, or of teachers this way.
Tsar Nicholas II was the son and grandson of conservative genocide-minded despots. His wife was German, his mother Danish, and paternal grandmother German: pan-national aristocratic privilege based on bad genes. Nicholas II kept his people happy by demeaning and persecuting Jews. The Bolshevik unit that assassinated his family may have done so fearing capture by an anti-Marxist expeditionary force that had invaded Russia from Czechoslovakia. Less than a week later Whites took the city.
A “law that allows anyone over 21 to buy and carry a handgun in pubic places without a permit and without training” is not accurate.
The law does not change the requirements for firearm purchase at all. The people who were prohibited from possessing a gun last week are still under that prohibition, and would face enhanced sentencing if they are caught doing so. Gun dealers are still required to perform federal background checks.
Also, businesses can still prohibit firearms on their property.
There are something like 20 states with similar laws, so the Texas law is unlikely to portend the apocalypse. Besides which, pretty much everyone already has a concealed carry permit.
I’m looking for work. Where can I apply for a role in the ” Department of Allocating Annual Day’s” whose role it is to ensure the day isn’t already taken by a competing cause?