May 24, 2024

Sunrise on what became a very rainy day — 5:06, 5:14, 5:23, 5:29.

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18 comments:

Humperdink said...

Apparently the UK has water/ sewer issues. As a result, the Labour government proposes to create five (5) new ministries. What follows is probably one of the most humorous paragraphs I've read in a while. Not sure if it satire or news.

"Proposed actions include the establishment of five new Ministries: for Rain, Drought, Wind, Drizzle and Sewage. Sir Keir Starmer believes the issues to be so important that he plans to appoint his best brains to lead the new Ministries. Ed Miliband will supervise Rain, David Lammy will be the mastermind for Drought, Lisa Nandy will control Wind, Nadia Whittome will sprinkle her wisdom on Drizzle and Angela Rayner will be the face of Sewage."

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/angela-rayner-the-face-of-sewage/

imTay said...

Most beautiful sunset here, the clarity of the sky was amazing, the colors dazzling. I would put it in the top 3% of sunsets, maybe better.

MadTownGuy said...

Democratic senators request meeting with Chief Justice Roberts over flags flown at Alito’s homes (AP)

"Two Democratic senators are requesting a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts after reports that two separate flags carried by rioters at the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol had flown outside of houses owned by Justice Samuel Alito.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a member of the Judiciary panel, wrote Roberts on Thursday asking him for a meeting to discuss Supreme Court ethics and to take steps to ensure that Alito recuses himself from any cases before the court concerning the Jan. 6 attack or former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

“We request a meeting with you as soon as possible, in your capacity as Chief Justice and as presiding officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States, to discuss additional steps to address the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis,” Durbin and Whitehouse wrote to Roberts in a letter released Friday by both offices.

The senators’ letter comes as another conservative justice, Clarence Thomas, has ignored calls to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election over his wife, Ginni Thomas’, support for Trump and as public trust in the Supreme Court is at its lowest point in at least 50 years.

The court is considering two major cases related to the Capitol attack, including charges faced by the rioters and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges. Alito is participating in both cases and has rejected calls from Democrats in the past to recuse in on other issues.

The New York Times reported last week that an inverted American flag was seen at Alito’s home outside Washington less than two weeks after the attack on the Capitol. This week the paper reported that an “ Appeal to Heaven ” flag was flown outside of the justice’s beach home in New Jersey last summer. Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021 echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Alito has said the inverted American flag was flown by his wife amid a dispute with neighbors, and he had no part in it. He and the court declined to respond to requests for comment on how the “Appeal to Heaven” flag came to be flying and what it was intended to express.

Judicial ethics codes focus on the need for judges to be independent, avoiding political statements or opinions on matters they could be called on to decide. The Supreme Court had long gone without its own code of ethics, but it adopted one in November 2023 in the face of sustained criticism over undisclosed trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some justices.

The code lacks a means of enforcement, though, and the Judiciary panel approved legislation last year that would set stricter standards. But Republicans have been staunchly opposed to any efforts to tell the court what to do.

Durbin and Whitehouse said they will continue to pressure the court. But the appeal for a meeting is a new approach after Roberts declined to testify at a hearing on Supreme Court ethics last year.

“Until the Court and the Judicial Conference take meaningful action to address this ongoing ethical crisis, we will continue our efforts to enact legislation to resolve this crisis,” they wrote.
"

By going directly to Chief Justice Roberts, is this a separation of powers issue, where members of the legislative branch are trying to influence decisions to be made by the judiciary?

MadTownGuy said...

From a previous post:

"Writes Kimberley A. Strassel, in "A Flagging Campaign Against Justice Alito/The ‘ethics’ attack having failed, the left turns to flag etiquette" (Wall Street Journal)."

Etiquette having failed, the left resorts to intimidation.

MadTownGuy said...

I think the 'periscope' on the lake is just a buoy. But who knows what a buoy is, these days.

Old and slow said...

Donald Trump is Zaphod Beeblebrox: See these these two quotes from Hitchhiker's Guide:


“I freewheel a lot. I get an idea to do something, and, hey, why not, I do it. I reckon I’ll become President of the Galaxy, and it just happens, it’s easy. I decide to steal this ship. I decide to look for Magrathea, and it all just happens. Yeah, I work out how it can best be done, right, but it always works out. It’s like having a Galacticredit card which keeps on working though you never send off the cheques.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy



“Zaphod Beeblebrox, adventurer, ex-hippie, good-timer (crook? quite possibly), manic self-publicist, terribly bad at personal relationships, often thought to be completely out to lunch.”


HistoryDoc said...

I think most of the press is missing the most important reason for Trump's Bronx rally. All those jurors from his trial were sent home for a week to await returning next Tuesday for instructions. So what did Trump do? He had a massive rally in their backyard, where regular New Yorkers came out to praise and support Trump.

May not ultimately change how they vote, but it certainly breaks down the invisible wall that purports to say all New Yorkers hate Trump. I think it was a smart plan to influence the jurors in a subtle (for him) way.

Joe Smith said...

'By going directly to Chief Justice Roberts, is this a separation of powers issue, where members of the legislative branch are trying to influence decisions to be made by the judiciary?'

How do you say 'Fuck off' in Latin?

wildswan said...

Trump gives Biden a Bronx cheer.

Big Mike said...

How do you say 'Fuck off' in Latin?

Why not say it in plain English? Oh! Legal system. Never mind.

wildswan said...

Thinking about that Bronx rally. It showed that Dem support among minorities is caving. I always thought that would happen someday but I thought the day was far off. I never would have thought it was coming on so close. It's when people see that other people like themselves are supporting Trump for the same reasons as they themselves are that the cave-in can happen. And that's what people saw at the Bronx rally. Oh, I think the Dems may curse the day they brought a case against Trump in New York City and ordered him to stay in the city so he was there with his pent-up energy. And someone says "let's have a rally in the Bronx, I think it could work." Do you think that person who knew what the Bronx is really like right now, that that person could ever have made themselves heard if Trump weren't cut-off from campaigning in other states. But that Bronx rally happened and it can't be unseen. It even helps pull the country together. We're all still Americans, we still know what is going on, we're just not being act on what we know, we aren't allowed to say and do things the way we want to. And we don't like it, we all don't like it, however much we are coerced into silence by threats of cancellation.

gadfly said...

Old and slow said...
Donald Trump is Zaphod Beeblebrox:

Douglas Adams was a brilliant humorist and his five-book, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" was fun to read. The books included: The Hitchhikers Guide; Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe, and Everything; Goodbye, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Mostly Harmless.

But these books predated Trump's fame and there was a whole ocean and an imaginary universe between The Donald and The Englishman who died in 2001. And if you asked Trump about Zaphod, he wouldn't know what you are talking about.

As for the character Beeblebrox, he suffered from amnesiac dissonance wherein Zaphod had to remove parts of both brains that contained a plan to become President of the Galaxy and steal the Infinite Improbability Drive starship. He did this so that scans of his mind wouldn't reveal his plan when he needed them to become president.

Stealing to become president sounds right for Trump as well.

Breezy said...

Well, I don’t know about you, but whenever I need help in understanding what’s ethical or not ethical, I look to Durbin and Whitehouse to show the way.

Humperdink said...

NH Governor Sununu:

"Almost all the governors get along," he continued. "In my eight years [as governor] I can honestly tell you there's only been two, maybe a third, but two real governors that really nobody likes, nobody cares for at all."

"Would you say who they are?" the interviewer asked.

"Do you really want me to? Yeah! [New York Gov.] Andrew Cuomo," Sununu said with a knowing shake of his head, "complete jacka**. No one likes him."

But Cuomo is a disgraced former governor. C'mon, Gov. Sununu, give us the real dirt.

"And I gotta be honest, no one cares for [Calif. Gov.] Gavin [Newsom]. Gavin's just a pr**k,"

But even Democrats — they won't tell you out loud — but behind closed doors, they're like, 'Oh, God, look who's coming.' And they all roll their eyes."


https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/05/24/this-gop-governor-revealed-the-truth-about-newsom-cuomo-and-i-cant-stop-laughing-n4929305

BUMBLE BEE said...

Beautiful orange sky at morning. Glad you caught it.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Then there's this...

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/implausible-denial-morens-outdoes

MadTownGuy said...

Denali National Park Bridge Construction Crew Ordered to Stop Flying American Flags

"Tfoot-long bridge in Alaska’s Denali National Park was recently told that they could no longer fly the American flag from their trucks or heavy equipment, which are being used in the $207 million Federal Highway Administration project.

The bridge is being built by Granite Construction after a 2021 rockslide took out a portion of the popular Denali Park Road that is used by visitors and tour buses to access more remote areas of the national park.

Since 2023, construction has been underway to repair the road at mile 45. This spring two mobile trucks and one piece of heavy equipment had been flying standard-sized U.S. flags.

One of the contractors working on the bridge reached out to the Alaska Watchman regarding the recent order that the flags be removed. He asked that his name not be used, given that he is actively working on the project.

According to the contractor, Denali National Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell contacted the man overseeing the federal highways project, claiming there had been complaints about the U.S. flags, and notifying him that bridge workers must stop flying the stars and strips from their vehicles because it detracts from the “park experience.”

"The trucks are flying these American flags, about a foot atop the trucks, about three-foot by four-foot flags, and they said they don’t want this,” the contractor explained. “They’re saying it isn’t conducive and it doesn’t fit the park experience.”

Up until this week, however, the flags were displayed without incident. It was only when the park began running tour buses that the order was given to take down the flags, he added.

“Here I am in a national park, and we’re being told we can’t fly the American flag,” the contractor continued. “I understand there are rules for contractors working in the national parks, but you wouldn’t think flying the American flag would be part of those rules.”

He blamed Superintendent Merrell, who took control of the park in 2022. At the time, she was celebrated as the first-ever female to serve as superintendent in 105-year-old park.

Merrell moved to Alaska in 2009 as a transportation planner and environmental coordinator. A Pennsylvania native, she received a master’s degree in urban planning. Prior to moving to Alaska, she worked for the City of Portland and the Gulf Islands National Seashore, along with left-leaning environmentalist and social justice groups such as DNA People’s Legal Services and Columbia Riverkeeper.

“When these liberals get in charge of these parks, that’s how it is,” the crewman said.

The Watchman reached out to Denali National Park for comment as to why workers were told to remove their flags, and to get clarification on whether the park has any policy against visitors flying American flags from their personal vehicles. There was no comment as of this publication.

The park does, however, fly the U.S. flag from several stations inside the park, and at the visitors’ center.

Additionally, the National Park Service actively promotes the flying of other flags, which many would consider controversial. In fact, the official website of the National Park Service has an entire page dedicated to honoring a whole host of LGBTQ+ flags, including pictures of them on display at national parks in the Lower-48.

TAKING ACTION

— Click here to contact Denali National Park with your thoughts or concerns.
"

Old and slow said...

St. George's cross flag (the English, not British flag) is similarly looked down upon in the UK.