It's as good as it is — no better or worse. You can choose to think about: 1. how much better it could be or 2. how much worse it could be or 3. what it actually is. Which is more Thanksgiving-y?
November 26, 2020
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I hope everyone here has a great thanksgiving.
Thank you, Ann and Meade, for providing this forum. Something to be grateful for.
What it is, what it is . . . Is what it's about.
It's a fine day here, and "my heart still splashes in my chest" (P. Simon).
That's two thanks thangs right there.
Narr
Music. Make that three thangs
You need not see the sun to enjoy that it is risen.
The dark goes away. That is sometimes enough,
That is sometimes all you get.
Happy Thanksgiving
Rusty - Agree. AA (Blonde Brainiac) and Meade (Ohio Stallion) are Great Americans. May they live long and prosper.
Choosing to accept the world as it is without the desire to judge or control it.
I'm successful in doing this about 2% of the time, but getting better.
I am thankful for the availability of more ideas than I will ever have the time to consider.
I kind of like the subtle pink with the blue and grey.
This morning I saw a lizard in the back yard the size of a squirrel, brown, and it ran away on it’s hind legs. This is in South Florida, BTW. I think it’s some kind of ameiva lizard (jungle runner) based on the picture and the way it ran away. South Florida pet owners are stocking this place with some crazy stuff.
This is about the worst Thanksgiving I’ve ever experienced. So could be better. Lots better.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Seems like this year everyone's been trying to force Christmas since before Halloween. Family here has The Hallmark Channel cranking while prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. Weird...
Also, a query: Where do the Hallmark movies get all those orphans and single dads when nobody ever rounds first base?
We were eating at noonish, early, so as to synchronize with a family with young kids and do a Zoom together but the outdoor grill fire proved a turkey (went out). Now I'm wondering how much to eat to tide me over till the bird cooks. I was carefully saving my appetite and I'm hungry NOW. Cheerios? small PBJ? 2020 strikes again.
The photo is quite nice as-is...it looks like the definition of 'cold.'
My thanks to :
CORECO JA’QAN PEARSON, VIKKI TOWNSEND CONSIGLIO, GLORIA KAY GODWIN, JAMES KENNETH CARROLL, , CAROLYN HALL FISHER, CATHLEEN ALSTON LATHAM, and BRIAN JAY VAN GUNDY,
the seven heads of the KRAKEN >>> long may they feed yuugely mightily
Definitely #3.
Political Junkie said...
Rusty - Agree. AA (Blonde Brainiac) and Meade (Ohio Stallion) are Great Americans. May they live long and prosper.
----------=========
that could definitely be Hallmark movie plot line
Serenity Now!
We are eating around 6, just my wife and me. Family is located in Pittsburgh and Southern California, so we won't be seeing them, just talking. The weather is cloudy/rainy, mid/upper 40s, typical NW weather. Dinner is Cornish game hens plus salad.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
As a true believer in The Almighty, I am thankful for what it is.
@Tim
When I take my dogs out, I have to be vigilant about cane toads, another invasive species that is lethal to pets.
You go to blog with the sunrise you have
...not the sunrise you wished you had.
know that behind that temporary obfuscation, shines the unfailing Light
Aging parents doing relatively well; we are blessed with seven grandchildren (ages 1-6). Thankful for what it is.
As the dawn recedes, maybe, inevitably, we, by choice, return to the Twilight fringe.
Like a June Gloom Santa Cruz sunrise. It's a very beautiful world.
The healing powers of George and Billy ..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EORbL8N-R8
Headphones, your soul will thank you.
Just before Thanksgiving 2019 we learned my wife had cancer. It was a tough holiday season with a lot of uncertainty.
However, after surgery in early January, followed by recovery and five weeks of daily radiation treatments during the early COVID peak, she’s doing better and recently received encouraging news from her various doctors.
Despite a challenging year on many fronts, there is much to be thankful for this beautiful Thanksgiving Day.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 western starring James Stewart, Vera Miles, Strother Martin and John Wayne. I've seen it a number of times but not in a while and just watched it again the other day.
It's a pretty good way to spend a couple hours.
There were a couple of things stood out that I've seen before but hit me in a different way this time.
First was the way the press treated him. Th elocal editor would not leave them alone with John Wayne's coffin to pay their last respects. They INSISTED!!! on an interview. They REFUSED!!! to leave when Stewart asked them to respect the occasion. This takes place around 1900, though the year is not specified.
And people can't understand why we hate the press.
So Stewart gives in and tells them the story behind the funeral and we flashback about 30 years.
Then, at the end, we come back to 1900. Although Stewart told him who really shot Liberty Valence, the editor says "This is the west, Senator. When the fake news becomes fact, print the fake news."
Actually he said "legend" instead of "fake news" but I just realized, after having seen that line a number of times and even having used it, that he was really talking about fake news.
As the preacher said "There is nothing new under the sun"
John Henry
Something else I realized:
When the movie was made, Wayne and Stweart were both in their mid 60s. They were a bit long in the tooth to be competing like a couple of teenagers over the affection of a Vera Miles who was about 30 at the time.
It didn't really distract from the movie, though.
John Henry
Mike of Snoqualmie said: "We are eating around 6, just my wife and me. Family is located in Pittsburgh and Southern California" ...
My stepson was born in southern California (Orange county). Prior to our marriage, my spouse moved the both of them back home to Pittsburgh. My stepson was raised in Pittsburgh by the two of us. Stepson then joins the Air Force, becomes a loadmaster on a C-17 based at McCord AFB. He finishes his Air Force stint gets a job at Snoqualmie ski area. He has since moved on.
Your comment touched all the bases.
The National Dog Show is on TV, and they got right into it without the obligatory bow to BLM. The election must be over.
The reason I watched Liberty Valance was because I had just read a great bio of Stweart called Mission by Robert Matzen.
It covers his whole life, but the focus, perhaps 80%, is on his service in WWII.
In 1940, he was 32 years old, a well known, oscar winning actor. He realized that the US was going to be involved in the Euoropean imbroglio, felt he needed to be part of it and wanted to do it in the Army Air Corps. So he started taking flying lessons, including buying his own plane. Then he took lessons in 4 engine planes and accumulated a couple hundred hours in them.
He could not join the Army because MGM would not release him from his contract. So he got the Army to draft him. They didn't want to, because of age and some other things but he finally taled them into it.
They also didn't want him to fly, they wanted him for publicity. Then he got into the Air Corps, they did not want him going to Europe and especially not in combat.
He wound up flying 20 missions over Europe in B-24's rising from private to Lt Colonel. He led successively large groups. Into pretty fierce combat.
Stayed in the AF after the war and left as a Brigadier General.
I'd sort of known this but never realized how intensive and how much combat experience he had.
Knowing all that, when I watched him in Liberty Valence it put a whole new light on him.
As a reminder to the young'uns here, more US aircrew were killed flying bombers over Europe (@50,000) than Marines were killed in the Pacific (@25m)
The book is excellent both for fans of Stewart and those interested in the air war over Europe.
John Henry
@JRoberts
God bless you for the positive attitude— you and yours in our prayers
@JRoberts: prayers up for you and your wife.
@John Henry: Paul Lynde was originally cast by Ford as the Liberty Valence role in "The Man Who's Hot: Liberty Valence." Here's a a sound bite: link
Subtle hints of color.
Here's to BG Jimmy -- and all his fellows in the USAAC, USAAF, and USAF (and all the rest).
Had a great store-bought TG dinner (late lunch). The only thing my wife actually had to fix and cook was pecan pie, everything else was unwrap and cook.
No politics! Just old stories and anecdotes of work and daily life.
Narr
Contentedly bloated
The Quiet Man
Wake of the Red Witch
The Searchers
True Grit
Andy Dalton is the Dallas QB. Home to Texas at last. Wisconsin remembers him well.
Make America Grateful Again
as we bask in postprandial satiety,
let us remember the source of all our blessings
Chick lit,
It's interesting to think how different movies would be with different actors.
Would liberty be better or worse with Paul lynde? Perhaps. It certainly would have been a different movie.
I'm a big Strother Martin fan. He was originally supposed to play Butch Cassidy. That would have been a helluva movie. Not that it wasn't anyway.
John Henry
I got stuff done today. I'm thankful for that. I have a job. I'm thankful for that.
Former federal prosecutors are suggesting Judge Sullivan ignore the pardon of General Flynn.
They want Judge Sullivan to investigate the motives of the pardon.
They're fucking around the bend.
Way around the bend.
Former federal prosecutors are suggesting Judge Sullivan ignore the pardon of General Flynn.
How? Flynn could go on TV and confess to a crime and of having an affair with Sullivan's wife, and there's nothing Sullivan can do. Presidential pardons are absolute. You can bet the democrats would have overturned Ford's pardon of Nixon if there was a way.
George McGovern was Jimmy Stewart on steroids. Very similar awe shucks Midwestern sensibility honored by Garrison Keeler. Eg, the anti Trump
I know Ann doesn't like suggestions for posts, but Maureen Dowd's brother's column in NY Times today is a good read, and would make good fodder for discussion.
Is Bruce Campbell going to star in "The Voting Dead"? Asking for a friend.
Blogger Birkel said...
They're fucking around the bend.
Way around the bend.
Positively Harpic.
John Henry
I was thinking #2. Cuz it could sure as Hell be worse, and I'm grateful it isn't. But hen I starting reading the complaints Powell's team has filed, on behalf of the Republican candidates for Elector, and I am just about equally thankful for all three.
George McGovern was what he was.
He was not proud of his life, as he grew old.
Just saying.
Spent the day with son, daughter-in-law, the dogs, and a Mask and Social Distancing lunatic who ruined the whole day. I already hate this Christmas.
"As a reminder to the young'uns here, more US aircrew were killed flying bombers over Europe (@50,000) than Marines were killed in the Pacific (@25m)."
It is not my intention to take anything away from the marines or the crews of the Army Air Force. But the fact is that both groups suffered hideous casualties in actions that had more to do with the war between the arms of the US military than the wars with Japan and Germany. Never mind that America should have been standing aside and watching Germany and the USSR beat each other down to manageable size.
Howard: "George McGovern was Jimmy Stewart on steroids. Very similar awe shucks Midwestern sensibility honored by Garrison Keeler. Eg, the anti Trump"
What a joke.
After leaving office, good old "Jimmy Stewart on Steroids" George McGovern attempted to actually run a business. His Stratford Inn in Connecticut lasted about 4 years before the impacts of all the laws and regulations McGovern had passed for decades came back to drive his one actual business attempt into the ground
Far too late in life, McGovern realized how badly he had screwed up by passing democratical policies into law.
"In a famous 1992 letter to the Wall Street Journal entitled “A Politician's Dream Is a Businessman's Nightmare,” McGovern stated:
"While I never doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: ‘Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.’ It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators."'
As I search my memory, I cannot recall a single thing Jimmy Stewart ever did that helped send thousands of businesses into bankruptcy and throw tens of thousands of employees onto the unemployment rolls, and last time I checked, Trump businesses continue even now to number in the hundreds and employs around 20k.
Powerline excerpts Josh Gerstein of Politico:
"Gorsuch appeared to skewer and diminish Roberts’ concurring opinion in the California cases that went before the court on an emergency basis in May.
“As we round out 2020 and face the prospect of entering a second calendar year living in the pandemic’s shadow, that rationale has expired according to its own terms,” Gorsuch wrote. “Even if the Constitution has taken a holiday during this pandemic, it cannot become a sabbatical. Rather than apply a nonbinding and expired concurrence … courts must resume applying the Free Exercise Clause.”
Gorsuch also accused Roberts of “a serious rewriting of history” for now insisting that his May opinion did not rely on a century-old Supreme Court precedent that allowed mandatory smallpox vaccinations in Massachusetts.
“We may not shelter in place when the Constitution is under attack. Things never go well when we do,” Gorsuch warned."
Brought a smile to my face.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/11/cutting-back-on-cuomo.php
Thankful for where we are at, at this moment.
Yes the year was not perfect. Expectations were all shorted by a long shot. Derecho was devastating for lots of people I know. A huge geographic footprint, which made is so much worse than other natural disasters, like floods and tornados.
But as we gather (yes we ignored the experts, because they dont have much of a track record of predicting things) I can look at each of our children, and the 6 healthy, bright, funny, and personable grands, and I know it is impossible to be thankful enough for my bounty of riches.
To all here, have great Thanksgiving.
Blogger Drago said...
As I search my memory, I cannot recall a single thing Jimmy Stewart ever did that helped send thousands of businesses into bankruptcy
I voted for McGovern in 1972. I can only plead youth and ignorance. I was so traumatized by that experience that I have never voted in a presidential election since.
Your, and others' comments on McGovern the politician and businessman are quite correct.
I think, and correct me if necessary, what Howard was talking about was McGovern's and Stewart's war service.
McGovern flew 35 combat missions. Stewart 20. Both in B-24 widowmakers. On the other hand, Stewart flew most of his missions not just in charge of a single plane but in command of increasingly large groups.
Both faced the same dangers, both had narrow scrapes,
Other than more missions, I see their service are relatively equal.
Citizen Stewart did a much better job for American than Citizen McGovern. I don't question McGovern's good faith, but he was terribly misguided. I feel similarly about Jimmy Carter.
John Henry
Gahrie,
I agree it is stupid on stilts.
I duck ducked it and sure enough.
Glenn somebody or another.
Probably an MSNBC contributor.
Jupiter said...
"As a reminder to the young'uns here, more US aircrew were killed flying bombers over Europe (@50,000) than Marines were killed in the Pacific (@25m)."
It is not my intention to take anything away from the marines or the crews of the Army Air Force. But the fact is that both groups suffered hideous casualties in actions that had more to do with the war between the arms of the US military than the wars with Japan and Germany. Never mind that America should have been standing aside and watching Germany and the USSR beat each other down to manageable size.
----
+1 for every American who died in that stupid war and the "peace" that followed after
+1 for every other allied soldier and civilians turned over to USSR by FDR and Truman
They aren’t saying ‘no evidence’ anymore they're saying they don’t like the evidence...
On Thanksgiving Lucy moves the football not lefties move the goal posts.
I just want to say thank you to Ann and to the majority of commenters here for helping me maintain my sanity as the world becomes ever more insane. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
"As I search my memory, I cannot recall a single thing Jimmy Stewart ever did that helped send thousands of businesses into bankruptcy and throw tens of thousands of employees onto the unemployment rolls."
Well, bombing the living Fuck out of Germany comes to mind. Just sayin'.
Considering the anti-communism that apparently pervaded US politics post WWII
Q: what was the motivation to join and fight for veterans who returned and civilians and leaders who stayed behind and later sought office? as R and D
patriotism or socialist sympathy?
since we would be in much better place if
"Never mind that America should have been standing aside and watching Germany and the USSR beat each other down to manageable size. "
I’m thankful for remaining healthy, my family remaining healthy and all the Zoom, Facetimes and texts from my kids and grandkids. It’s been rough not seeing them for Thanksgiving, but there will be more holidays together indoors when Covid is behind us. 2020 seemed to be the last gasp of 4 years of unrest, I’m thankful that we who voted for Biden can look forward to a change. As for the rest of you... nah I’ll be nice. Happy Thanksgiving!
Johns Hopkins University has just reported the following:
“Surprisingly, the deaths of older people stayed the same before and after COVID-19. Since COVID-19 mainly affects the elderly, experts expected an increase in the percentage of deaths in older age groups. However, this increase is not seen from the CDC data. In fact, the percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same.”
I'm not sure how to interpret this. But it could be that deaths of older people from other things have gone down as deaths from COVID (or deaths reported as being from COVID) go up.
Oh good, more Thoughts From the Historical Overmind.
What a shame that geopolitics and geostrategy in the past couldn't be calibrated to the refined sensibilities of Jupiterian poseurs on the internet in 2020.
@Jupiter804pm doesn't even approach sniffy counterfactuality, it's just inane: yes, it appears that Jup has the notion that Jimmy Stewart and the Mighty Eighth should be blamed for putting German workers out of work. I want to be charitable, especially to a registered D, so I invite His Gasbagginess to clarify for those with an interest in WWII.
Start with the fact that under the CBO (as it happened in something known as reality), the Kraut problem was getting enough workers to rebuild damaged plant and new weapons and machine tools, not unemployment--German men were in the forces (including large numbers of militarized firefighting units) and industry was using women, foreign laborers from bribed to enslaved, and POWs to make up numbers.
That's leaving aside whatever impressive political, moral, or ethical point the Jupster imagines he's making.
Narr
Just sayin'
Lurker21:
With =/= From
Yeah, the excess deaths are, statistically speaking, zero.
Winnie Xi Flu is not particularly deadly but may be relatively infectious.
Royal ass Inga supports corporatist fascism.
News at 11.
I celebrated my freedoms by not letting others tell me how to celebrate my freedoms.
Lovely thanksgiving day, thankful for this place.
Re Lurker21 said...
Johns Hopkins University has just reported the following:
“Surprisingly, the deaths of older people stayed the same before and after COVID-19. Since COVID-19 mainly affects the elderly, experts expected an increase in the percentage of deaths in older age groups. However, this increase is not seen from the CDC data. In fact, the percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same.”
The Johns Hopkins News Letter has taken down the post https://twitter.com/JHUNewsLetter/status/1332100155986882562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Ajhunewsletter%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jhunewsletter.com%2F
-- "JHU News-Letter @JHUNewsLetter · 3h Though making clear the need for further research, the article was being used to support false and dangerous inaccuracies about the impact of the pandemic. We regret that this article may have contributed to the spread of misinformation about COVID-19."
but it is archived at
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jg06Kqj1tvsJ:https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
Heaven forbid the truth leak out past the narrative!
“I celebrated my freedoms by not letting others tell me how to celebrate my freedoms.”
Oh and I’m thankful not to be Birkel.
tcrosse said...The National Dog Show is on TV, and they got right into it without the obligatory bow to BLM.
--
Hard to get them to take a knee.
"Yeah, the excess deaths are, statistically speaking, zero.
Winnie Xi Flu is not particularly deadly but may be relatively infectious."
Sort of like the common cold, then?
I am thankful that Chuck and Inga are no longer allowed to post their dishonest bullshit here.
"@Jupiter804pm doesn't even approach sniffy counterfactuality, it's just inane: yes, it appears that Jup has the notion that Jimmy Stewart and the Mighty Eighth should be blamed for putting German workers out of work. I want to be charitable, especially to a registered D, so I invite His Gasbagginess to clarify for those with an interest in WWII."
OK, Narr, my mistake. German industry went from one triumph to another under the nurturing gaze and helpful explosive assistance of the Allied Air Forces. By the middle of 1945, German manufacturing bestrode the World like a colossus. Whatevs.
Francisco D,
You and I are on the same team.
But I must object to the phrase "dishonest bullshit" because that implies there is some honest bullshit that Chuck or Royal ass Inga might offer.
That is not true.
I object.
The oft forgotten casualties WWII were those of the United States Merchant Marine. About 1 in 25 died during the war, a higher percentage than the Army, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard. USMA cadets and USNA/USCGA midshipmen were kept away from combat until commissioned. USMMA cadets were in the thick of it. 143 died during WWII, 119 in direct action against the enemy.
A lot of mariners spent significant time in life rafts. One of my distant cousins 5 days before being picked up. One of my uncles went to sea in January 1942 after rejection by all other services due to his vision. He managed to get through the war unscathed. The cargo on one of his ships was redirected from Murmansk to England. My grandfather and his 3 brothers were merchant mariners during WWI. All 4 were drafted and commissioned in the Navy. One of those great-uncles was sunk by torpedoes thrice during WWI. He continued sailing as a merchant through WWII. And was sunk twice. You’d think this would be something the family talked about. Nope. Found newspaper articles on it doing ancestry research covering sinkings 4 and 5. Made me wonder what the world record is for number of torpedo sinkings survived.
Everyone in a combat zone faced death. Groundpounder, zoomie, bubblehead skimmer, whatever their service, they all had risky jobs. I’ve talked to numerous combat veterans who would never ever even consider serving on submarines. I’ve got 5 SSBN deterrent patrols and 3 specops under my belt. Mutual admiration society- I wouldn’t want to do what they did.
Although they would not publicly admit it, the leaders of the American bombing effort were well aware of the fact that their "precision bombers" were lucky to put a bomb within a half mile of the target. They therefore adopted a policy of "dehousing" German workers, meaning that they set out to destroy the houses the German workers lived in. They were fairly succesful in this regard, since those houses were serendipitously located within a mile or so of the factories. They also managed to destroy the German women and children who lived in those houses, although you won't see that in the movies. My Lai was an atrocity, right? Why, exactly?
SR-71 pilot Brian Shul on being grateful.
Francisco D is already drunk, lol.
Worse than last year, better than the next. So average. As the Russians say.
Does anyone know the mechanics of how a pardon works? Suppose you're in prison, and the President gives you an absolute and complete pardon. Can you just walk up to the exit door and tell the guard to open up? Or do you have to wait for the prison administration to do the paperwork, and then they tell you when you can leave? And until then you're a prisoner? Or suppose you're Gen. Flynn, and Judge Sullivan schedules a hearing and says you must attend. Can you direct your attorneys to tell him you aren't going to be there, but they'll be there to hear him announce the judgment of dismissal?
A judge could hold Flynn in contempt which would be a post-pardon offense.
So I believe Flynn's counsel will advise Flynn to comply with all judicial directives, even if they are outrageous, illegal, unconstitutional, or just damned stupid.
The jailers have protocols that a pardon does not countermand.
Procedures would still be followed w/rt release, paperwork, return of possessions, etc.
In both cases, jail and courts, undue delays would create potential criminality and liability for the judges/jailers.
That your questions must be asked is a sign of the times.
Democraticals are awful people!
Next Jeopardy host? Trivia savant equals genius.
.............................................................
Legal Insurrection Retweeted
Ken Jennings
@KenJennings
·
Aug 30
My main concern about “Joe Biden’s America” is that Donald Trump is president of it and he’s trying to start a race war.
FullMoon,
Isn't it amazing that Trump has started no wars in his first four years, but his critics who cheered the wars in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Kurdistan, Ukraine, and Crimea worry that Trump will start a war?
Hell, Trump is the least likely warmonger as president in living memory.
And for me that goes back to 1874 with direct relatives I have personally known.
Isn't it amazing that Trump has started no wars in his first four years, but his critics who cheered the wars in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Kurdistan, Ukraine, and Crimea worry that Trump will start a war?
More amazing is that many critics are actually ignorant of things that are common knowledge to many. Jennings may actually believe Trump is trying to start a race war.
Birkel said...
A judge could hold Flynn in contempt which would be a post-pardon offense.
So I believe Flynn's counsel will advise Flynn to comply with all judicial directives, even if they are outrageous, illegal, unconstitutional, or just damned stupid.
The jailers have protocols that a pardon does not countermand.
*******************
Just wtf are you talking about?
Hold Flynn in contempt *for* what?
Hold Flynn contempt *of* what or whom?
What are these "judicial directives" you speak of that can order a pardoned Flynn to comply with?
WHAT "protocols" do "jailers" have that a "pardon does not countermand"? Flynn is not in jail!
Jupiter said:
My Lai was an atrocity, right? Why, exactly?
**************
You own example of WWII bombings says why. The bombs dropped were aimed at the factories, and the civilians living nearby, many working in those factories, were collateral damage.
With My Lai the peasant civilians were killed at close range, on purpose, and for no reason related to the MILITARY conflict going on around them. Those civilians were not making tanks, rockets, planes and other weapons of war, unlike the German civilians.
Using your "logic", Americans should have killed every German they encountered once they crossed the Rhine, as the must have played some part in the war.
They didn't. THAT's why My Lai was an atrocity.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
Wow, I haven't been back since this drivel: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-mamlish-mementoa-less-mamlish-memento.html
Not missing much.
Been buying stuff on Amazon though. Not here obvi.
Birkel said...
Former federal prosecutors are suggesting Judge Sullivan ignore the pardon of General Flynn.
They want Judge Sullivan to investigate the motives of the pardon.
They're fucking around the bend.
Way around the bend.
************************
It is a Constitutional PLENARY POWER of the POTUS, except in cases of impeachment.
IOW a POTUS can't pardon either himself or any other federal official who has been impeached. (Not sure whether a lower federal official who survives impeachment can be pardoned...does anyone know?)
In any event Trump's motives for pardoning Flynn are beyond congressional and judicial review.
"former federal prosecutors", all lawyers conversant with the Constitution, know this.
I call bullshit.
Rex with a nice thread https://social.quodverum.com/@REX
"The Pretend President & his cronies aren't denying the allegations. Nor to my knowledge have any of the defendants.
Because they CAN'T.
No one is taking defamation actions in outrage.
Because they CAN'T.
The Pretend President looks feeble and small when he speaks. As if he is being punched in the guts 24/7.
Which he is.
His apparatchiks look haggard. Jake Sullivan looked like a ghost the other day.
These are not people who have won an election, are they?
No.No they are not.
They look like people who have committed a crime and who know they're caught.
And who are trying to gaslight their way to Jan 20, 2021.
Because that's they're only choice."
The Godfather said...
Does anyone know the mechanics of how a pardon works?
Federal pardons in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_pardons_in_the_United_States
Acceptance by the recipient
A pardon can be rejected by the intended recipient and must be affirmatively accepted to be officially recognized by the courts. George Wilson was convicted of robbing the US Mail in Pennsylvania and sentenced to death. Due to his friends' influence, Wilson was pardoned by President Andrew Jackson. Wilson refused the pardon and in 1833, the United States Supreme Court held in United States v. Wilson that his rejection—and consequently the pardon not being introduced to the court by "plea, motion, or otherwise" as a point of fact and evidence—was valid and the court could not force a pardon upon him.[5]
Whether accepting a pardon is inherently an admission of guilt is still debated by many law historians.[22] According to Associate Justice Joseph McKenna, writing the majority opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States, a pardon "carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it."[23] Also, the federal courts have yet to make it clear how this logic applies to persons who are deceased (such as Henry Ossian Flipper, who was pardoned by Bill Clinton), those who are relieved from penalties as a result of general amnesties, and those whose punishments are relieved via a commutation of sentence (which cannot be rejected in any sense of the language).[24]
Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University, notes that presidents sometimes (albeit rarely) grant a pardon to someone on the basis that the person is innocent. If a president thinks an individual is innocent and issues a pardon, then accepting a pardon would not mean the individual is guilty.[22]
22: Kalt, Brian. "Five myths about presidential pardons". The Washington Post. Washington Post. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
Birkel said...
“A judge could hold Flynn in contempt which would be a post-pardon offense.”
“So I believe Flynn's counsel will advise Flynn to comply with all judicial directives, even if they are outrageous, illegal, unconstitutional, or just damned stupid.”
The statements that Sullivan’s buddy Gleeson was looking at for contempt were when Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI, knowing that he hadn’t been. Note that the contempt, if there had been any, would have occurred back in 2017/18, and not 2020/21.
Finding Flynn in contempt for withdrawing his plea deal, after it had been violated by the rabidly partisan Mueller prosecutors, was never going anywhere. That would be a green light on prosecutorial abuse of plea agreements, which would make it correspondingly harder to get defendants to enter into them, when their counsel knew that the agreements were only binding on the defendants, and not the prosecutors. If Flynn is held in contempt, it isn’t going to survive appellate review for that reason - because the contempt would be to cover for egregious, well publicized, prosecutorial abuse. Normally trial courts are given a lot of deference in terms of their finding of contempt. The appellate standard is abuse of discretion. Because the public policy considerations, a finding of contempt would be a gross abuse of discretion.
Gleeson was pushing Sullivan to do something that would make it harder for hundreds of district court judges, across the country, to do their jobs, since fewer plea deals, would mean larger dockets, because there would be fewer settlements before trial, since prosecutors wouldn’t be held to them. Also, more dismissals under the Federal Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161–3174. And, abuse of discretion because the court should have found the rabidly partisan Mueller prosecutors to have been the ones in contempt instead, for having brought a case that they knew was fraudulent, and then by lying to the judge that it wasn’t part of the larger deal that got Flynn’s son and attorneys out of legal jeopardy.
"They're fucking around the bend.
Way around the bend."
You mean like the guy holding a press conference at the WH today?
Take another shot of courage
Wonder why the right words never come
You just get numb
It's another Tequila Sunrise*, this old world
Still looks the same
Another frame, mmm
*(Orange juice, tequila, grenadine syrup)
Yet another Eagles Thanksgiving!
I'm grateful for the fighter at the tiller of the U.S.A. He's shown us a lot about us, the trolls and the heroes.
@readering said...
"They're fucking around the bend.
Way around the bend."
You mean like the guy holding a press conference at the WH today?
And now, he has done it again. He snapped at a reporter during a press briefing at the White House and reiterated that he is the president of America and that there was a massive fraud in the voting process. "You're just a lightweight. Don't talk to me that way. I'm the President of the United States. Don't ever talk to the President that way,"
DJT certainly doesn't qualify to fight lightweights - Unlimited Heavyweight is the only division that works for him.
"George McGovern was Jimmy Stewart on steroids.”
George McGovern, Senator from a wheat state, oversaw the committee that pushed through the “food pyramid” which is the founding document of the obesity crisis in the US. How may Americans did he kill? Way more than he did enemy as a bomber pilot.
FullMoon,
"Isn't it amazing that Trump has started no wars in his first four years, but his critics who cheered the wars in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Kurdistan, Ukraine, and Crimea worry that Trump will start a war?"
I keep trying to tell my leftist friends that Trump isn't a conservative. He's a New York liberal who got beat up one too many times by the system. He's filled out a lot of boxes on the lefty scorecard. Immigration? He just did what Obama was doing. Ending wars/ Who's against that? ISIS in crisis. That's good, right. Some kind of peace in the middle east. That's good right? Although you can hear Jimmy Carter grinding what's left of his molars from where I'm sitting. He drove a wedge between N.Korea and China. Fuckin vaccine for the fucking Cove in like ten months.
Nothin' more liberal than all that shit.
You dumb fucks got some serious mental problems.
Hmperdink@ 5:55AM/
Whafo you delete your comment, my man? I thought it was dead, dead on..
Is everybody happy there are no excess deaths in 2020 across any age group?
Or have those who got invested in a conclusion ignored the study?
Your argument is not with me.
It's with Johns Hopkins.
wholelottasplainin':
There were two separate questions asked.
One was what happens after a pardon for 1) a person in jail, and 2) for Flynn.
A person getting out of jail will have to go through the process of being released.
Paperwork.
Flynn - a completely free man, not in jail - could be lawfully ordered to appear, for example.
That order, if ignored, could create a contempt charge that could not have been pardoned yet.
Pardons look back, not forward.
That's why Flynn's attorneys would tell him to comply with nearly any fool thing Judge Sullivan ordered pending higher court judges telling Sullivan to knock it off (OR) they sue Sullivan in her personal and professional capacities (which I would really enjoy watching).
wholelottasplainin':
Yes, of course it is bull shit.
I did not relay their stupid claims for their accuracy, but for their extraordinariness.
As an aside, do you think you are explaining these things to me?
Or were you three sheets to the wind?
"Coding Covid-19 for $$$$$$$" has thoroughly screwed up the stats. We may never know the truth.
I read that article on Johns Hopkins Newsletter and it made zero sense. If somebody could explain io me clearly, how it made the number of excess deaths this year disappear, I would love to hear it. Yeah there were charts and graphs, but as you read it, there was never any “aha” moment where you could see the point that the writer was making.
It looked to me like the writer’s point was 2+3 = 4 arrived at through some kind of legerdemain. But like I said, if you can clearly explain it, we would all love to hear such good news.
"It’s really nice to think it’s true" is not an arguement.
Natural variation.
We both know you won't be honest as the evidence comes to light.
""Coding Covid-19 for $$$$$$$" has thoroughly screwed up the stats. We may never know the truth.”
Except in almost every month this year since the pandemic started, thousand to tens of thousands more people died in the United States, all causes, then in the previous five years. It’s kind of unambiguous.
But if you can explain how that article made that simple fact go away, please, go right ahead, I am all ears. If you just liked the headline and so you believed it without understanding it, well we have certainly seen plenty of that, especially from our resident moron. Maybe this time is different. I would love to hear.
"Natural variation.”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! OK. So it’s denialism.
Why not give us then the possible range of “natural variation” in the numbers that is statistically within the bounds of probability? Because when you go to the excess deaths graph and the CDC you will see that they don’t simply count any number of deaths above the average as “excess deaths” but there is an extra line above that line which represents some number of standard deviations above the mean, and deaths above that are called excess deaths.
Could you explain “standard deviation” and “normal distribution” in your own words, i wonder.
Explain how this “natural variability” in the number of deaths has remained out of the normal range of probability for so many months beginning when the virus first got a foothold in NYC, or are you maintaining that there was never any virus there?
If anything “excess deaths’ likely undercount COVID deaths in order to allow for the possibility of natural variability in the number.
"Your argument is not with me.
It's with Johns Hopkins.”
Which deleted the article as soon as the first person with any rudimentary knowledge of statistics saw it.
"Briand also noted that 50,000 to 70,000 deaths are seen both before and after COVID-19, indicating that this number of deaths was normal long before COVID-19 emerged. Therefore, according to Briand, not only has COVID-19 had no effect on the percentage of deaths of older people, but it has also not increased the total number of deaths."
which seems directly in contradiction with data presented in Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19, which shows total deaths exceeding expected deaths by 5% to 25% for every week since March 28th. This new "paper" (which is a student journalist's report on an underlying seminar presentation) does not address this disparity. That's something I'd definitely want cleared up before I'd know what to do with this information.
This Thanksgiving both quarterbacks for the Detroit Lions and Houston Texans kneeled for the US anthem. They hate their country — even on Thanksgiving.
I miss football, but I am not going back to see this kind of shit. I miss it less every week.
" student journalist”
Adjust IQ down one SD for the title of “journalist."
Unambiguous, except for the one study from Johns Hopkins that you promptly ignored.
Natural variability is a thing.
#sad
Yes, they deleted it as soon as it was noticed by people who saw it did not fit the narrative.
Narrative = Lies
That makes you the dupe.
I'm thankful that, according to CDC death stats at presented at Johns-Hopkins, apparently covid-19 hardly killed anyone at all.
"Bombshell assertion by Johns Hopkins Econ and stat experts: “These data analyses suggest that in contrast to most people’s assumptions, the number of deaths by COVID-19 is not alarming. In fact, it has relatively no effect on deaths in the United States.”"
https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
"They pulled the article from the JH website because - of course. I’m guessing the medical folks on Team Apocalypse didn’t like it. [No reason was given - Ed.]
Thankfully the Internet lives forever."
https://web.archive.org/web/20201126163323/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
Link to the first part of the post above:
https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1331973192865312769
The actual webinar appears to be here (at least for now). It's over an hour long, haven't waded through it yet – and may not bother.
Both threads this morning are dull with hate and anger.
It's the tryptophan.
Briand also noted that 50,000 to 70,000 deaths are seen both before and after COVID-19,
Here is a graph of all causes deaths over the past several years. There is a peak of excess deaths at the beginning of 2018, but the highest it gets for one month is 67,000 deaths, then quickly drops back towards the average. Deaths never exceed 70,000 until COVID. The orange line is the range of expected natural variability, which is why they don’t count numbers below that as “excess deaths."
https://public.tableau.com/profile/dataviz8737#!/vizhome/COVID_excess_mort_withcauses_11252020/WeeklyExcessDeaths
Et tu, Fernandinande. Do you guys ever even try to understand anything beyond the headline of some friendly COVID denier media outlet like Instapundit before you post?
Michael K said...Both threads this morning are dull with hate and anger.
Leftists are angry and unhappy people who desperately want everyone else to be as angry and unhappy.
Just for fun, I dug a little deeper into the excess deaths data.
For each jurisdiction, a model is used to generate a set of expected counts, and an upper bound threshold based on a one-sided 95% prediction interval of these expected counts is used to determine whether a significant increase in deaths has occurred.
So basically there is a 5% chance that the number of deaths exceeded the threshold by random chance
The odds that it would randomly exceed it by two weeks in a row are .05*.05 or .0025 or .25%. The odds that it would exceed that threshold by random chance for 20 weeks? .05^20 or 0.00000000000000000000000095367431640625%
That’s your take then? “random variability”?
I know, Mike (Wolf) is going to criticize me for looking at the “minutia,” well the devil is details as often as not.
Iran’s top nuclear scientist, who American and Israeli intelligence have long charged was behind secret programs to design an atomic warhead, was shot and killed on Friday as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran, Iranian state media reported. The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, believed to be 59, has been considered the driving force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program for two decades, and continued to work after the main part of the effort was quietly disbanded in the early 2000s
I was assured by the Obama Administration that the Iran deal ended all efforts towards nuclear weapons.
Preamble
The goal for these negotiations is to reach a mutually-agreed long-term comprehensive solution that would ensure Iranˈs nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful. Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek or develop any nuclear weapons.
Trump ended the Iran deal.
Typical Jup pattern:
1. Make stupid comment about history in response to a sensible observation by another.
2. Get nailed.
3. Throw out somewhat related factoid and pretend the real subject was something else.
Funfact: The highly successful CBO had one ironic effect: by 1945 German machine tool design was probably the most advanced in the world. The old plants had been bombed to smithereens or looted, so what arose was the newest plant, filled with the most hi-tech machines for building machines in the world.
The Wirtschaftswunder had many sources, and one of them was this clean slate for peaceful development; the victors were saddled with purpose-built wartime plant that had been focused on mass production of heavy weapons, and unemployment and conversion issues that
the Krauts didn't have, largely thanks to the CBO.
Narr
To quote the late great John Lukacs, "the Germans had it coming."
"Trump ended the Iran deal.”
Because they were still working on nukes.
I see the “Thinking Man’s Birkel” Ed Driscoll is now pushing that ridiculous “study."
You'll fight on as long as a Japanese soldier abandoned on an island.
I think you're precious.
Death has strange effects on the survivors.
Because Obama derangement syndrome.
"The odds that it would randomly exceed it by two weeks in a row are .05*.05 or .0025 or .25%. The odds that it would exceed that threshold by random chance for 20 weeks? .05^20 or 0.000000000000000000000001%”
Birkel thinks that that is a “lie” because he doesn’t know squat about probabilities or statistics. What it amounts to Birkel, is that you would not see a “random” fluctuation like that if you kept records for a trillion years. I am sorry that your education is so limited Birks, but you really don’t have any idea what you are talking about. You can’t figure stuff out like this by referring to your ideology.
The last two years had lower than the CDC expectation for deaths, tim in vermont.
What do you think happened to those folks?
Ha!
tim in vermont thinks he can multiply the probabilities as if they are not correlated.
But I don't know stats?
Meanwhile, you're still wrong about deaths being lower in years past.
And the five year horizon is ridiculous.
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