Welcome to Thursday, December 28, 2023, only 3 days until Coynezaa, and National Boxed Chocolates Day. Once again I recommend See’s chocolates.
It’s also National Card Playing Day, Call a Friend Day, Pledge of Allegiance Day (this was the day in 1945 when the Congress made the pledge official; the words “under God” were added on June 14, 1954), and the fourth of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the December 28 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Obituaries first: Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers comedy act and t.v. show, has died at 86.
Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86.
The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle.
“Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner,” his brother and the duo’s other half, Dick Smothers, said in the statement. “Our relationship was like a good marriage — the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another. We were truly blessed.”
When “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967 it was an immediate hit, to the surprise of many who had assumed the network’s expectations were so low it positioned their show opposite the top-rated “Bonanza.”
But the Smothers Brothers would prove a turning point in television history, with its sharp eye for pop culture trends and young rock stars such as the Who and Buffalo Springfield, and its daring sketches — ridiculing the Establishment, railing against the Vietnam War and portraying members of the era’s hippie counterculture as gentle, fun-loving spirits — found an immediate audience with young baby boomers. The show reached No. 16 in the ratings in its first season.
Here are the brothers 13 years later on Letterman, singing a song and then discussing how and why they were canceled:
The show was canceled in 1970 on a ruse; CBS just couldn’t take the content.
*Unlike Colorado, Michigan (or its Supreme Court) has allowed Trump on the Republican primary ballot. Or, rather, they allowed a lower court ruling to this effect to stand,
The Michigan decision provides Trump with a new victory as he tries to get himself restored to the ballot in Colorado and avoid getting knocked off the ballot in other states.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution bars from office those who engaged in insurrection after swearing an oath to uphold the nation’s founding document. The amendment was adopted three years after the end of the Civil War and the section on insurrectionists was meant to keep former Confederates out of office.
Trump’s opponents have argued that the provision prevents him from running because of his actions leading up to and during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify Joe Biden’s victory. They have filed lawsuits around the country to try to keep Trump off the ballot.
The high court in Colorado went in a different direction, finding in a 4-3 ruling last week that Trump engaged in insurrection and is ineligible to appear on the ballot in that state. It temporarily suspended its ruling to give Trump time to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court. If Trump appeals — as he has said he will — the Colorado Supreme Court will keep its stay in place.
Michigan’s primary is Feb. 27, and Colorado’s is March 5.
They better get this thing settled, pronto! Wouldn’t it be lovely if he couldn’t run in several states. But he’ll be able to run in all states or none, depending on what the Supreme Court does.
*A New York Times “news analysis” questions whether Israel can really get rid of Hamas. I’ve wondered, too, but I’m coming down on the “yes” side. After all, Hamas leaders, comfortably ensconced in Qatar, are planning about who will govern Gaza after Hamas loses the military battle.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has repeatedly emphasized that objective even while facing mounting international pressure to scale back military operations. The Biden administration has dispatched senior envoys to Israel to push for a new phase of the war focused on more targeted operations rather than sweeping destruction.
And critics both within Israel and outside have questioned whether resolving to destroy such a deeply entrenched organization was ever realistic. One former Israeli national security adviser called the plan “vague.”
“I think that we have reached a moment when the Israeli authorities will have to define more clearly what their final objective is,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said this month. “The total destruction of Hamas? Does anybody think that’s possible? If it’s that, the war will last 10 years.”
Since it first emerged in 1987, Hamas has survived repeated attempts to eliminate its leadership. The organization’s very structure was designed to absorb such contingencies, according to political and military specialists. In addition, Israel’s devastating tactics in the Gaza war threaten to radicalize a broader segment of the population, inspiring new recruits.
Well, if Hamas surrenders, and isn’t part of Gaza’s new government, then that question is answered. Yes, the Israelis are a bit reticent to disclose what they mean by “ending Hamas,” but they are not required to tell us now, for there’s a lot of them left.
I sent the article to Malgorzata, who gave this response; I post it with her permission:
If the whole world didn’t support Hamas and helped it survive (a huge part of “humanitarian help”, including fuel, goes to Hamas), the task for Israel would be much easier. As it is, it’s difficult but it’s lasted only just under three months. It took 5 years to defeat the Nazis. It took much longer than 3 months to fight ISIS and Al-Qaeda. And nobody (except Iran and Pakistan) helped these two organizations.
A whole coalition of countries fought against Nazis, ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Israel is fighting alone. The author of this article is too impatient or he wants Israel to stop fighting and save Hamas. Of course Israel can eradicate Hamas. Israel needs weapons and time and less “help to the civilian Palestinians” from the West. In fact, the huge amount of humanitarian aid—especially fuel—is prolonging the war because it mostly help Hamas to survive.
*The NYT (which really does want Israel to lose, I think), tells us that any kind of truce, much less a cease-fire, is a long way off. I’ve put one bit in bold.
As casualties rise in the war between Israel and Hamas and global pressure to de-escalate the violence grows, international mediators are floating proposals for a new cease-fire. But both sides, at least in public, have staked out seemingly intractable conditions, leading diplomats to say they believe a deal for a durable truce remains far off.
In late November, a weeklong cease-fire saw Hamas release more than 100 hostages abducted during their Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In turn, Israel freed roughly 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and allowed more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. Mediators in Qatar hoped the pause would lay the basis for an end to the fighting.
But the truce expired, and Israeli forces have deepened the war, which military officials say could last “many more months” as they press their objective of dismantling Hamas. As the fighting drags on, fears have grown that the conflict could spread, with Israel trading cross-border attacks with the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah and Yemen-based Houthi militants launching strikes against Red Sea shipping, while U.S. forces bombard what they describe as Iranian targets in Iraq and Syria.
With more than 20,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since Israel’s military campaign began, according to Gazan health officials, mediators between the two sides continue to seek a way to stem the violence. A drumbeat of announcements of Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting — the military announced three more on Wednesday, bringing the total since Oct. 7 to 498 — has also rattled a country unused to taking such casualties.
The Egyptian government has circulated a proposal calling for further exchanges of hostages and prisoners as a step toward a permanent cease-fire, according to three diplomats in the region who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. But the diplomats cautioned that neither Israel nor Hamas appeared close to agreeing to such a proposal.
Yes, the NYT does add “according to Gazan health officials”, but they don’t mention that those are Hamas’s figures, and may include a large number of terrorists. I’m not doubting that the death toll of civilians is substantial, but the NYT could explain the source of their claims a bit more clearly. They ran into this same problem when they said that Israel bombed a hospital and killed 500 people, “according to the Palestinians.” Nope; the hospital was hit by an errant rocket launched toward Israel by Islamic Jihad, and the death toll from the Palestinian rocket was probably around 50. But yes, a truce doesn’t seem impending barring some big change of heart on the part of the Hamas leadership. And if Hamas accepts a “pause” but doesn’t release all of the hostages, the war will drag on forever.
*The Wall Street Journal‘s op-ed section, a bastion of conservative thought, may be right about one thing: their new editorial-board piece predicting that DEI is on its way out in American colleges. I hope they’re right, as DEI is shrinking back in some places (Wisconsin is one example they give), and people are getting tired of its bullying attitudes and racist ideology. We shall see. Here:
Under a deal shaped by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the state approved $800 million in pay raises for university staff and for plans to build a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. In exchange, the university will freeze all DEI hiring, eliminate a third of DEI positions on campus, and create an endowed chair to teach “conservative political thought, classical economic theory or classical liberalism” at UW Madison. At least now there will be one conservative.
That’s a step forward at a school that has as many DEI staffers as history professors, according to Jay Greene at the Heritage Foundation. The DEI infrastructure is entrenched, but after an initial negative vote and negotiations, the UW Board of Regents approved the deal 11-6.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called the deal “obnoxious” and “B.S.,” according to WISN-TV. But lawmakers have an obligation to taxpayers not to fund policies that practice racial favoritism or promote hostility to equal opportunity.
Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt recently signed an executive order to stop funding many of the DEI programs in that state’s government. The order instructs universities to “review” DEI positions and programs and “restructure” or “eliminate” those not necessary for compliance or accreditation. The order specifies that executive state agencies cannot use state “funds, property or resources” for programs that “grant preferential treatment based on one person’s particular race.”
The order also prohibits the use of state money for DEI mandates or loyalty oaths that discriminate on the basis of racial identity or ideological viewpoint. Those litmus tests have been used to toxic effect in hiring at universities as well as state agencies. But the order protects “the academic freedom of any particular faculty member to direct the instruction within his or her own course.” So no censorship complaints, please.
The ideology of DEI was sold in the name of opportunity for all, but in practice it has become a cudgel for political conformity and racial grievance. It feeds the progressive narrative on campus that America is a land of oppressor and oppressed, as the explosion of antisemitism on campus has illustrated. Let’s hope more state legislatures follow the lead of Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
All manner of liberal centrists, from Steve Pinker to John McWhorter, have called for the end of DEI. Its malign effects on campus are obvious; it’s divisive, intrusive, and breeds not diversity and inclusion, but conformity and exclusion. It’s time to get rid of irt.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej instructs Hili, who looks dubious) about religion:
Hili: What is the principal idea of all religions?A: Ignotum per ignotum – explaining an unknown by an unknown.
Hili: Jaka jest główna zasada wszystkich religii?Ja: Ignotum per ignotum – wyjaśnianie nieznanego przez nieznane.
*******************
Reader Rick sent this in, saying, “Today’s Word A Day is juxtapositive and this is the image used to illustrate it. Talk about black humor!”
From Linkiest:
From Richard:
From Masih. This is one event that kick-started the women’s revolt in Iran against mandatory hijabs. Vida Mohaved has her own Wikipedia page as an activist, and it says this:
Vida Movahed (Persian: ویدا موحدی; born 1985 in Tehran), more commonly known as Vida Movahed, is an Iranian human rights activist, protester, and women’s rights activist who is considered the initiator of the Girls of Enghelab movement. On December 27, 2017, on the Enghelab Street in Tehran, she symbolically took her white headscarf off to protest against the mandatory hijab in Iran. Subsequently, her picture was published as “The Girl of Enghelab Street”
The first protest
On December 27, 2017, Vida Movahed removed her headscarf and stood on a utility box to protest against the mandatory hijab while moving her headscarf, which was tied to a stick. She was immediately arrested. On January 27, she was released after spending a month in custody.
The second protest
On October 29, 2018, Movahed held a number of balloons and went to the top of the turquoise dome of the Enghelab square to protest against the compulsory hijab. Subsequently, she was arrested again and sentenced to one year in prison for the crime of encouraging people to commit corruption and prostitution through the removal of the hijab.
Today marks six years since Vida Movahed's defiant act in Iran. She hung her scarf as a symbol of protest against the forced hijab. Facing arrest and jail, she continued her stand, undeterred even as a mother to a young child. Her repeated defiance, epitomizes how Iranian women… pic.twitter.com/QgzZPWKsLg
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) December 27, 2023
Douglas Murray, ignored by many because he’s a conservative, is one of the most eloquent voices on Israel. I don’t agree with his comment
Pure brilliance!
I just love when Douglas Murray does what he does best:
Speak the truth. pic.twitter.com/cwMgtnDGh3
— Rabbi Shmuel Reichman (@ReichmanShmuel) December 26, 2023
This place has to be in Switzerland:
this place is just so surreal pic.twitter.com/MDOgBSAkE3
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 26, 2023
From Barry: “a cute thief “(and a fast one!):
The cutest thief 😍🤣pic.twitter.com/cOhK19OLmq
— Mr. X (@Wonder4X) December 13, 2023
From Malcolm; LOOK AT THIS CAT!
Beautiful cat 😺😸😺😸 pic.twitter.com/Yxlo5JpuaN
— YogaGer (@YogaGer) March 12, 2023
From the Auschwitz Memorial, an actress who died around age 30.
28 December 1915 | An Austrian Jewish woman, Gertrude Rosenbaum, was born in Vienna. An actress. During the war she lived in Berlin.
In 1944, she was deported to #Auschwitz. She did not survive. pic.twitter.com/tUwrbQf9Vj
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) December 28, 2023
Tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, the great Buster Keaton, whom Matthew loves:
Buster Keaton gets rejected by a hatcheck girl without a word being spoken in Seven Chances (1925) pic.twitter.com/rxqiSX6aqY
— Silent Movie GIFs (@silentmoviegifs) December 26, 2023
And a soccer team made up solely of Holocaust survivors:
This is a photo of a local soccer team, made up of #Holocaust survivors, who came together to bond over their love of sport. Many of them arrived as the only survivors of their families. #Cincinnati became the place where they rebuilt their lives and found community. pic.twitter.com/Hp969BPKzv
— The Holocaust & Humanity Center (@cincyhhc) December 26, 2023
Now the Palestinians are even claiming that Jesus was a Palestinian!
If Jesus existed (which I am not sure of), then according to Scripture he was a Jew, for crying out loud! (h/t: Malgorzata) This Palestinification of Jesus is an example of the reverse appeal to nature: what is ideologically compatible is what must be true:
What does the Christian Bible say about the life of Jesus?
For example:
- Jesus was of the Judean nation (Matthew 2)
- He lived in the land of Judea/Israel (Acts 1)
- He practiced Judaism (Matthew 12)
In short, the Christian Bible says Jesus was a Jew.
And for some grins, a Biblical sketch from the Israeli satirical t.v. show Eretz Nehederet:
On this day:
1065 – Edward the Confessor’s Romanesque monastic church at Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
1795 – Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto).
1836 – Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico with the signing of the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty.
1879 – Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
1885 – Indian National Congress, a political party of India, is founded in Bombay Presidency, British India.
1895 – The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines.
1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
1912 – The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco.
1918 – Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway prison, becomes the first woman to be elected Member of Parliament (MP) to the British House of Commons. [She doesn’t take her seat.]
1943 – Soviet authorities launch Operation Ulussy, beginning the deportation of the Kalmyk nation to Siberia and Central Asia.
1943 – World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the Battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.
1967 – American businesswoman Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
1972 – The last scheduled day for induction into the military by the Selective Service System. Due to the fact that President Richard Nixon declared this day a national day of mourning due to former President Harry S Truman’s death, approximately 300 men were not able to report due to most Federal offices being closed. Since the draft was not resumed in 1973, they were never drafted.
1973 – The United States Endangered Species Act is signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
Births:
1722 – Eliza Lucas, Caribbean-American agriculturalist (d. 1793).
1763 – John Molson, English-Canadian brewer, founded the Molson Brewery (d. 1836).
1789 – Catharine Maria Sedgwick, American novelist of “domestic fiction” (d. 1867).
1856 – Woodrow Wilson, American historian and politician, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924).
1882 – Lili Elbe, Danish model and painter (d. 1931). [Died following cross-sex surgery. The subject of the film The Danish Girl.]
1903 – Earl Hines, American pianist and bandleader (d. 1983).
1903 – John von Neumann, Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist (d. 1957).
1914 – Pops Staples, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2000).
1921 – Johnny Otis, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2012).
1922 – Stan Lee, American publisher, producer, and actor (d. 2018).
1929 – Brian Redhead, English journalist and author (d. 1994).
1932 – Roy Hattersley, English journalist and politician, Shadow Home Secretary.
1934 – Maggie Smith, English actress.
1943 – Joan Ruddock, Welsh politician.
1946 – Edgar Winter, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer.
1954 – Denzel Washington, American actor, director, and producer.
1968 – Akihiko Hoshide, Japanese engineer and astronaut.
1969 – Linus Torvalds, Finnish-American computer programmer, developed Linux kernel.
1978 – Chris Coyne, Australian footballer and manager. [Included as a namesake of our host.]
1981 – Sienna Miller, American-British actress and fashion designer.
1994 – Adam Peaty, English swimmer.
No one owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death:
1663 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician and physicist (b. 1618). [Investigated the free fall of objects, confirming that the distance of fall was proportional to the square of the time taken. Grimaldi and Riccioli also made a calculation of gravity at the earth’s surface by recording the oscillations of an accurate pendulum. He was the first to make accurate observations on the diffraction of light (although by some accounts Leonardo da Vinci had earlier noted it), and coined the word ‘diffraction’. His accurate map or, selenograph, of the lunar moons, which was published by Riccioli, now adorns the entrance to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.]
1708 – Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, French botanist and mycologist (b. 1656).
1734 – Rob Roy MacGregor, Scottish outlaw (b. 1671).
1907 – Louise Granberg, Swedish playwright (b. 1812).
1937 – Maurice Ravel, French pianist and composer (b. 1875).
1945 – Theodore Dreiser, American novelist and journalist (b. 1871).
1967 – Katharine McCormick, American biologist and philanthropist (b. 1875).
1971 – Max Steiner, Austrian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1888).
1983 – Dennis Wilson, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (b. 1944).
1984 – Sam Peckinpah, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1925).
2004 – Jerry Orbach, American actor and singer (b. 1935).
2004 – Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, critic, and playwright (b. 1933).
2010 – Billy Taylor, American pianist and composer (b. 1921).
2012 – Mark Crispin, American computer scientist and academic, designed the IMAP (b. 1956).
2015 – Lemmy, English musician, singer, and songwriter (b. 1945). [The anniversary of his birth was noted here on Christmas Eve.]
2016 – Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer and dancer (b. 1932).
2017 – Rose Marie, American actress and comedienne (b. 1923).
“The Gospel according to Berkeley” was great!
Yes. +1. You beat me to it Lou!
* Hm. Yes, Murray is indeed “extreme” when he suggests that muslims don’t care about other muslims who are suffering. This is (verifiably) false. He’s right about the rest. There is a palpable double standard when it comes to Israel/jews.
* The WSJ is not a “bastion” of conservative thought; not lately. Lately it’s been a bastion of *reason*, unlike the NYT, which appears to be on a regular diet of pakalolo.
* Trump should be on every state’s ballot. The people should vote him out. With ~50% of the nation supporting him, invoking the 14th amendment with reference to ambiguous interpretations of “insurrection” is not worthy of a democracy such as ours. The democrats show increasing signs of asininity – to the detriment of the nation.
* This is worth listening to: https://youtu.be/eMBBZS3rhcU?si=kuy3aqyGn73-klEx. (Alan Dershowitz ‘slamming’ the decision, while indicating he does not plan to vote for Trump)
* Watch Texas try to remove Biden from the Ballot; the insanity needs to stop.
* Apparently Gavin Newsom is pushing back against removing Trump from the ballot. Why? He’s smart.
* Please. Let’s not turn into a banana republic. I came from one. We are the west, let’s adhere to western values and applaud fair play. Let the courts decide what happens with Trump.
* Hili looks a bit plump. And. Adorable.
Douglas Murray has been quite forward in openly standing up against the “river to the sea” protests in London, and asking why the UK should allow ex-Hamas leaders to live in the UK. If Rosemary, above, is correct in divining that you disagree with Murray on the grounds that Muslims do care for other Muslims, he does make a hard to answer point about the huge death toll in Syria and Yemen. Is it that they care, but need to show solidarity with other Arabs and thus stay shtum?
Does it depend on whether they / you are shia, sunni or wahabi? Muslims have different opposing tribes quite ready to kill each other. This does not make any of them less dangerous.
Let it not be said that irony is dead. It was Republicans that brought the ballot case against Trump in Colorado.
Darrell Ernst,
The case in CO (against Trump) was brought by Noah Bookbinder and his group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The group is described this way by Wiki: “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is a nonprofit 501 watchdog organization devoted to U.S. government ethics and accountability”.
and this way:
“Founded in 2003 as a counterweight to conservative government watchdog groups such as Judicial Watch, CREW works to expose ethics violations and corruption by government officials and institutions and to reduce the role of money in politics.” Wiki.
Also:
“WASHINGTON — The Colorado Republican Party on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to overturn a state court ruling saying former President Donald Trump is ineligible to run for president in the state because of his role in events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/colorado-republicans-ask-supreme-court-hear-trump-ballot-dispute-rcna131393
“The Colorado Republican Party on Wednesday appealed that state’s Supreme Court decision that found former President Donald Trump is ineligible for the presidency, the potential first step to a showdown at the nation’s highest court over the meaning of a 155-year-old constitutional provision that bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-republican-party-appeal-u-s-supreme-court-trump-ballot-ban/
(not by republicans)
Rosemary,
CREW represented the plaintiffs, of which there were 6, some of which are Republicans while others are unaffiliated. None of the 6 plaintiffs who brought the suit were Democrats.
Of course Republicans are contesting this ruling. How does that demonstrate that Republicans didn’t bring the suit? The Republican party is fractured. Many have become their parties most severe critics and publish attack ads more brutal than any Democratic organization. They do so because they recognize that their Party has become a “wretched hive of scum and villainy”.
(not by democrats)
” Trump should be on every state’s ballot. The people should vote him out. With ~50% of the nation supporting him, invoking the 14th amendment with reference to ambiguous interpretations of “insurrection” is not worthy of a democracy such as ours. …
* Please. Let’s not turn into a banana republic. ”
I could not disagree with you more. The fastest route to a banana republic is to ignore the Constitution for the sake of political expediency. And the Constitution could not be more explicit:
‘No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.’
We all saw with our very eyes what Trump did on January 6 and in the days leading up to it. The January 6 Committee investigated it and showed beyond any reasonable doubt that Trump not only engaged in an insurrection against the Constitution but also gave aid or comfort to those who did. He did it right out in the open.
No less legal expert than John Michael Luttig, who served as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006, has stated that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to Trump. So has the Colorado Supreme Court. So has Lawrence Tribe. So have conservative Constitutional experts William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen.
It was the representatives of the people of the United States who authored Section 3, drawing a bright line which Trump clearly crossed. What is not worthy of a democracy are the mental gymnastics of the very courts you recommend who have avoided adjudicating against Trump on this issue. The courts should do their job, and leave it up to Congress, as specified, to “remove such disability” if it so warrants.
Saw a comment explaining that the 14th amendment is put into effect by a statute that defines insurrection, and that Congress passed such a statute. The current version is 18 U.S.C. § 2383, and a candidate who is convicted under that statute is barred from holding elected office (so can’t be on a ballot). Is that correct? Hoping Ken will weigh in.
Gingerbaker,
** The 14th amendment was intended to be exercised by congress, not by state legislatures. It’s a civil war amendment intended to prevent former confederates from running for office – not to be exploited the way it is being exploited today.
“Section 5. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
Full text is here:
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/fourteenth-amendment
** And indeed, the constitution is explicit:
Quote:
“…. shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
** The word “insurrection” and/or rebellion has an inherently variable interpretation. What I saw on Jan 6, was (“at best”) a riot gone bad – not an insurrection – you may see it as an insurrection. I don’t. Neither do millions of Americans. And not because of bias and/or favor. (What is an insurrection? The civil war was certainly an insurrection.)
** There is also ambiguity whether the 14th applies to the office of the president.
** SCOTUS will reverse the Colorado decision. My guess is that more than 1 ‘liberal justice’ will join the majority. As we saw with the Jack Smith petition to SCOTUS for expedited consideration on Trump’s immunity claim. It was denied. Unanimously.
We agree to disagree on what precipitates a banana republic.
Note* much of the above was “borrowed” from Alan Dershowitz’ analysis. I agree with him.
There is much here to ruminate over. But this re. the 14th:
“It’s a civil war amendment intended to prevent former confederates from running for office – not to be exploited the way it is being exploited today.”
If it’s only intended for confederates (all of whom are dead…at least the “real” ones) then why do we have this Amendment at all? Has it never been cited in a court where the plaintiffs or defendants weren’t dead confederates? It seems you’re being an 1866 originalist with this argument (or maybe it was Dershowitz’?). Anyway, not buying it.
Colorado won’t win, and that’s simply a sad state of affairs. It’s politics, Jake, and this SCOTUS toes the Trump political (GOP) line, not the Constitution’s. This SCOTUS says it’s not political, which is the normal judicial mandate, but this SCOTUS is political, it wades neck deep into American politics and then dissimulates. That’s the new SCOTUS, and 6 of 9 were groomed by the billionaire class, and half of those Trump calls “his.” These justices, this most consequential body, do the bidding of ultra-rich, religious ideologs. Alito and Thomas actually peck at the hands of billionaires for all to see, and when one of their “friend’s” cases reach them, who do they side with? The brazenness is breathtaking. Thomas’s wife was engaged in the Jan. 6 insurrection for Ceiling Cat’s sake. I’ve ranted enough.
On owning death and frying pans, I have a 14″ deBuyer’s carbon steel pan that seems like it must weigh 50 lbs, and the main handle is as long as my forearm + hand. I often joke that it seconds as home defense. I own death!
🤓
” … is ineligible to appear on the ballot in that state.”
Isn’t all this moot as anyone can be written in on that “write-in” line?
In the Colorado case, if I remember correctly, the ruling says that write-in votes for tRump can’t be counted.
I can’t tell with all the clouds, but I suspect that the place that ‘has to be in Switzerland’ is really in the Italian Dolomites.
Instagranm says passion_to_flyy
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Madonna, Sickick•Frozen
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Italy 🇮🇹
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1d
My guess is that the only states that will take administrative steps to ban Donald Trump from the ballot are those in which he has no chance of winning anyway, so will not affect the election. Doubtless aware that it is a battleground state, the Supreme Court in Michigan has wisely decided it wants no connivance of such a scheme no less partisan just because it was brought by Mr. Trump’s political enemies in the GOP.
My other guess is that the U.S. Supreme Court will put the kibosh on the whole movement by ruling that picking the president is the job of the voters through the Electoral College, not state election bureaucrats, …unless the candidate is Jefferson Davis or other amnestified co-conspirators.
It’s hard to imagine any appeal to the insurrection clause of the 14th amendment that can’t be dismissed as ‘partisan’ if we are to define a ‘partisan’ as ‘anybody opposing the candidate in question,’ regardless of…um, well you know, parties. Surely even Mr. Davis himself could claim that it was ‘partisanship’ that kept him from pursuing office in the re-United States.
It’s also hard to take seriously any attempt to marshall a ‘let the voters decide!’ argument on behalf of the candidacy of Mr. Trump – the only President in US history to defy of the express will of voters and attempt to retain his office through extraordinary means. Surely the very purpose of the 14th Amendement is to establish that some actions are disqualifying to a candidate, no matter how many voters may wish to see them in power.
I don’t know if Mr. Trump’s actions rise to the Constitutional bar of ‘insurrection,’ but they were manifestly undemocratic, and unprecedented in their scope and gravity. The argument that his behavior might meet the purposely broad standard set by the framers of the 14th is a serious one, worthy of consideration by the courts. Apologists who simply dismiss it as ‘partisan’ are in danger of displaying the very vice they decry.
We’ll see what the Supreme Court says. Love ’em or hate ’em, theirs is the only opinion that counts.
Indeed. Theirs will be the defining opinon. At least until some future court decides to hold a different one, precedent be damned.
But FWIW, I agree with you that we must ultimately accept the judgement of SCOTUS if we are to have any hope of a society governed by laws.
Hamas *can* be destroyed. It’ll take time. Soon Israel will shift to a lesser intensity strategy to root out the remaining fighters and pursue the leadership. Just as Bin Laden retreated to his ugly concrete bunker house until U.S. special forces assassinated him, the remaining Hamas leaders will do the same and Israel will make sure that they suffer the same fate.
Despite the outcries over civilian deaths—those unreliable numbers provided courtesy of Hamas—no one outside of the brainwashed Gazans and Hamas’s Iranian backers wants Hamas around. Its days are numbered.
Yep, nuts and chews – best standard See’s box.
Heretic! Idolater! Soft centers are the best. This is known.
“She said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed her over.”
Do I Have a Mosaic or a Chimera?
You can’t visibly say for certain that any cat is a mosaic or a chimera, especially when it comes to tortie or calico females. The random activation and inactivation of the orange and black fur (along with other color combos) in cells make it difficult to know if a pattern is simply random or if it’s from two embryos.
If you have a kitty with a split face and really want an answer, there are a number of companies that do DNA tests on cats and they’ll be able to answer your question with certainty.
https://mylovelyfeline.com/blogs/content/what-is-a-chimera-cat
Mosaic
When you think of a mosaic, you probably have images of the art form, with pieces of different colored glass creating a full image. While that’s not exactly what we’re talking about, it isn’t too far off.
A mosaic has one set of DNA from two parent cells. And the best way to explain how this presents itself is through reviewing the genetics of tortoiseshell cats.
The gene that causes orange or black fur is carried on the X chromosome. Female cats carry two X chromosomes (one from each parent), however, during embryonic development, one X chromosome is activated in each cell at random, causing the other to be deactivated.
So, for example, if a cat inherits an X with black fur from one parent and an X with orange fur from the other parent, the kitten will be a mosaic of orange and black fur aka a tortoiseshell. This happens because in some cells, the orange fur is active, and in others, the black fur is active. This cat is a mosaic.
Calicos come from the same genetics (one X chromosome with orange and one with black), however they also carry the white spotting gene which gives them random patches of white.
Because the patterns are completely random, sometimes, a cat can appear to have a face that’s half orange and half white, and it looks like it’s split down the middle. It’s just the way the cells were activated during development.
Chimera
In chimeras, you may also see a line down the middle of a cat’s face or body, and it looks like two different cats formed one.
That’s because they did.
A chimera is the result of two fertilized eggs or two embryos joining to create one organism. Basically, two fraternal twins join to create one cat. That means the cat will have two sets of genetics. Some cells will have one genotype, and others will have a different one.
Where a mosaic has one set of DNA from two parent cells, a chimera has two sets of DNA from four parent cells!
Although people tend to think of well known cats with split faces, many of those cats are in fact mosaics. A chimera isn’t always visibly obvious – in fact, it may happen more than we realize. A kitten can be born showing only small visible signs of being a chimera that aren’t even noticeable. Internally, the cat may even have entire organs that possess different genotypes or even blood that’s two different types!
I’ll have to remember that one the next time someone starts spouting Panspermia at me.
Politics overwhelms everything.
The above statement – from an article on moral decay in The Atlantic – sounded so familiar. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/us-culture-moral-education-formation/674765/ For some reason, the scientific rational ethics of biology is not filling the void left by secularization. Also interesting is the fact that tribes of monkeys have been observed to engage in war (Gombe Chimpanzee War is easy to find in wikipedia) – yet they do NOT read religious texts!
Things are bound to get more interesting, now that Maine has ruled to keep Trump off the ballot. Could this snowball? It’ll be fascinating to see how things unfold.
Murray is surely wrong to talk about hatred between Jews & Moslems historically – surely that is a 21st century thing? Previously I thought Jews were protected in various Moslem kingdoms, whereas it was Christianity that picked out Jews. He has a very good point about Yemen & other oppressed Moslem groups.
I have to say, Netanyahu seems to have painted Israel into a corner. He is laying the foundations of generations of future hatred & anger against Israel, & even if he gains a tactical victory, it has been said he may be building a strategic failure.
Meanwhile, thousands of children are orphaned, injured, die. Is that a success?
I’m sorry to say but you are very much mistaken thinking that Muslim hatred towards Jews is a “21 century thing”. It started when Jews refused to believe that Muhammad was God’s Prophet. The Quran is full of verses about Jews being the greatest enemies of Islam, about their treachery, how they killed God’s prophets and how Allah changed them into apes and swines.
Muhammad killed most of the Jews who lived in the Arabian Peninsula and expelled those who survived. For centuriesm in all Arab countries Jews were allowed to live as “dhimmis” (persons of lower worth) and for this privilege they had to pay a special tax called Jizya. Pogroms happened quite often.
Then, at the beginning of 20th century, The Muslim Brotherhood was created and adopted much of the European form of antisemitism and later cooperated with Hitler’s Germany. Hitler supported this movement financially and by delivering Nazi ideology (books and pamphlets in Arabic). Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian Arabs (venerated by them until today) was living in Germany during WWII and took Hitler’s word that after the German victory, Arabs would have a free hand in dealing with Jews. Husseini even planned extermination camps in British Palestine after a Nazi victory. Read Hamas’ Charter – Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The visceral hatred of Jews was also there long before Netanyahu was even conceived, not only before he became Prime Minister.
I see. Thanks for the explanation. You will find muslim ‘scholars’ – on x or twitter, well one at least, in an advert of some sort, claiming this. I forget the name of the person/organisation as I blocked it.
I don’t believe “juxtapositive” is a real word.
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Jesus was a Palestinian if you define “Palestinian” to mean anybody who comes from the region now known as Palestine and sometimes referred to as Palestine during the classical period. If you define “Palestinian” as “person who comes from the region (excluding the modern state of Israel for some reason) who is a Muslim, then nobody around at the time of Jesus was a Palestinian.
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There’s no such thing as a cute gull. We have a lot of them here in Bristol. I’ve seen them attack, kill and eat pigeons. I saw one flying past the cross-harbour ferry pontoon with a fairly large and alive cormorant chick in its beak.