Tuesday: Trauma

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A little neo soul, something to ease the day. If you like this bit by 20-year-old Doja Cat, check out more of her work at her YouTube channel.

FOUR DAYS
That’s all that’s left of in-session days in U.S. House this month, and nothing done yesterday to help Flint. Yet another report on Flint water crisis, this one featuring VA-Tech’s Dr. Marc Edwards on the lack of trust in water quality, governance and water science since the city’s transition back to Detroit’s water supply. But the necessity of filters means tap water is suspect; Flint residents never needed filters before the switch to Flint river water, and now much regularly take additional steps to check their filters and water quality. Just replace the damned lead pipes so they can take the filters off and they’ll trust the water system. They need assistance with speeding up pipe replacement, stat.

Oh, and deal with the collapse of property values in Flint. Who wants to buy a house there, let alone offer financing as long as the water system remains under suspicion?

Oh no, Pokémon GO
My kid has been playing this augmented reality game with his friends, driving around after dark to different ‘gyms’. We’ve had a few discussions about the application’s privacy problems as well as the game’s requirements for collecting points. This is NOT a game for kids to play by themselves without parent or guardian engagement if they aren’t old enough to drive. My son told me about running into creepy guys parked for hours late into the evening at key locations where Pokémon are found. Recipe for trouble, that.

Brexit means broken

TL;BRTLA (too long, but read this later anyhow)
Especially today — now that Bernie Sanders has endorsed Hillary Clinton — read how women were included in the Civil Rights Act as a joke. Hah. Funny. But very sad that 51% of the population is still not accorded their creator-endowed equal rights in spite of shrewd, dogged work by Michigan’s Rep. Martha Griffiths, and folks like Ida Phillips and attorney Reese Marshall.

Didn’t have enough time to cover China. Guess you now what I’ll tackle tomorrow, see you then.

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17 replies
  1. bloopie2 says:

    Your linked article states “[The HSBC report] went on to say that the US Justice Department had stated it routinely sought the views of domestic and foreign regulators about the potential impact of a prosecution – and accused senior officials in the department of over-ruling recommendations to prosecute HSBC.” It may be true that as a one-off prosecution this could well have been quite bad. But if—if—it had at the time been the regular practice to prosecute, then any one individual prosecution would not have had a significant destabilizing effect. This is because the markets like stability more than almost anything else. Now, the markets are accustomed to the stability of “no prosecutions”. They can, in the future, get accustomed to the (new normal) stability of “yes prosecutions”. Time to change—for the better.

  2. bloopie2 says:

    Some info on the courthouse shooting in St. Joseph, Michigan.
    .
    It’s unacceptable that a prisoner was able to grab an officer’s gun and shoot several people. Technology that makes it hard for a bad guy to pull an officer’s gun from a holster has been around for at least twenty years—the user must consciously manipulate a specific part of the holster (a lever, for example), in a specific manner, for the gun to be released so it can be drawn from the holster. (Google “thumb break” for examples). Such holsters are not that expensive. So, what on earth happened here? Was he not wearing the right type of holster? If so, that is pure and simple departmental negligence.

  3. rugger9 says:

    The Brexit vote will be re-done, for a couple of reasons:

    1. The Scots will not permit the exit of Scotland and have said so. If that means they detach themselves from the UK, so be it. I suspect that May will use this as an excuse to re-do the vote since it is actually a significant change in the political landscape for the UK.
    2. Since Nigel Farago helpfully observed that the Brexit campaign points were complete hokum the day after the vote, it is clear that what was being sold was intentionally not what the policy would be. So, to avoid no-confidence votes and other unpleasantness, I would guess May uses item 1 to justify calling for a re-vote. A snap election probably turfs the Tories, so I expect May to find a way to avoid having to call one (until after a re-vote) even though Cameron said it would happen. I think everyone in the UK knows that the EU price to leave will be very high indeed, because I can’t see France or Germany passing up a chance to settle some scores old and new (such as the Eurozone snub).

    As has also been noted before, this first Brexit election was an advisory vote based on a campaign promise, and if 1000 UK lawyers think there’s no “there” there until Article 50 is invoked formally in Brussels who are we to argue with that position? That notification event starts the two-year clock for separation and as with many other things the devil is very much in the details.

  5. rugger9 says:

    When will the lawsuits targeting Snyder, et al., start moving for Flint’s situation? Even if one believes this is all a coincidence (nope) the fact that there is STILL no action should make it abundantly clear, intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that the GOP from Trump on down are willing to engage in what could be termed genocide if done elsewhere in the world by, say, ISIS or China or the DPRK. The Republicans in MI haven’t held hearings on how to fix this or to undo the damage. Someone that decided this (“mistakes were made” is a BS excuse, someone signed the contracts) and their handlers need to go to jail for the long-term damage to the people including murder if/when there are deaths from this.

  6. rugger9 says:

    Flint is what happens when Republicans run things, like West, TX happened and the coal ash in NC happened. There are many, many more examples, and unfortunately Flint is not the only area with water quality problems.
    *
    This is also one of the key reasons Keystone XL cannot be approved, since pipelines leak and the Oglalla aquifer is irreplaceable (most of the Great Plains draws from it) and is already suffering settling from net loss of water. Unlike a battery, once the soil settles the underground geometry shifts and pumping in replacement water is not effective to restore the aquifer.

  8. bloopie2 says:

    “Drones to unleash vaccine-laced M&Ms in bid to save endangered ferrets. US Fish and Wildlife Service to target diseased prairie dogs, food for the ferrets, via specially designed drones that shoot the candies in three directions at once.” Well, I guess that’s one good thing you can say about drones? Using them to keep prairie dogs from dying from the plague, so the prairie dogs can be eaten by endangered ferrets? The biologist says, “This is what the Endangered Species Act is all about – saving species, particularly those affected by human actions.” Sounds good to me.

    Of course, reverse it and you’ve got a bad guy spraying disease-laced M&Ms hither and yon. Who needs those old-fashioned No. 10 envelopes filled with anthrax spores any more?
    .
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/12/us-government-black-footed-ferret-mandm-vaccines

  9. bloopie2 says:

    “But very sad that 51% of the population is still not accorded their creator-endowed equal rights in spite of shrewd, dogged work by Michigan’s Rep. Martha Griffiths, and folks like Ida Phillips and attorney Reese Marshall.” Why does Britain have so many female leaders?

  10. greengiant says:

    Saw 6 or 8 folks playing pokemon go last night at 11PM, crossing unlit, 30 MPH road. They should just can the App before too many people are hurt.
    Don’t believe anything on the internet.
    Someone else owns your virtual reality and they will do whatever they want with it.

  12. P J Evans says:

    Aaaannnnd: Larry Klayman filed a suit against Obama:
    http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/joe-arpaios-birther-lawyer-sues-obama-over-dallas-hate-crime-against-whites-and-white-cops/

    Right Wing Watch reported that Klayman, a former prosecutor who has previously blamed Obama when he was trounced in a CNN interview, said in the suit that the president was “endangering not just [his] life, as a white law enforcement person of Jewish origin, but also for all Americans, white, black, yellow or brown, no matter what their race or religion.”

    The lawsuit, filed in Dallas, also says that Obama is “soul brothers” with both Farrakhan and former MSNBC host Al Sharpton.

    “When the leader of the United States and supposedly the Western world, who was born to a Muslim father, schooled in Muslim schools, and has close ties to black-Muslim leaders like Farrakhan seeks to incite violence by virtue of his running interference for Muslims and blacks who are not even representative of African-Americans generally, it’s no wonder Obama-inspired massacres like Dallas happen,” it states.

    I hope it’s laughed out of court, and he gets sanctioned. I suspect that lack of standing is going to come up, also.

  13. Denis says:

    “. . . very sad that 51% of the population is still not accorded their
    creator-endowed equal rights”
    .
    While agreeing with the sentiment, for the sake of historical accuracy
    we have to ask the painful question: Who said anything about
    creator-endowed equal rights for women?
    .
    This is going to come as a shock to all of us but I have reviewed the
    founding documents and the truth of the matter is that the reference
    to creator-endowed rights in the Declaration is restricted to “all men.”
    The Constitution is, on its face, more inclusive, referring to “the people”
    or “persons,” but the early interpretations of the Constitution excluded
    women, and black men and women. Chief Justice Taney went so far as
    to define “persons” to exclude blacks — which tends to prove that there
    is no such thing as an inalienable (or unalienable) right, never was, never
    will be. No where, no place, no time. We need to get past that Jeffersonian
    BS and deal with reality.
    .
    Even post-Civil War I have never heard of a USSCt decision establishing
    creator-endowed rights for women. I mean, so far as I am aware, not
    even Kiki Ginsburg, who has now joined the political circus as a painted
    clown, has explicitly endorsed creator-endowed rights for women.
    The 14th Amendment grants to all persons born or neutralized in the
    US all the rights as citizens and the 15th gives them all the right to vote,
    but those amendments did not include women as “persons” or “citizens.”
    It took another freaking 30 years for white males in power to be
    brow-beaten into doing the right thing as to women’s rights and another
    freaking 65 years after that to fully bring blacks into the fold, on paper at least.
    .
    Let’s just thank that Creator that we got this all sorted out in time so
    that everybody now has a chance to choose between Hillary and Donald.
    .
    “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One
    path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction.
    Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Woody Allen
    .
    When you look at American History with a little objectivity, it’s no
    mystery that the country is so fucked up today.
    .
    The Constitution: more patches than ship, and sinking like a rock. ™

  14. Rayne says:

    Denis (11:29) — The word ‘man’ doesn’t necessarily mean human male. Its origin meant all humankind, but like so much of the rest of western/Eurocentric culture, the word has been colonized to benefit white human males.

    Ask those same language squatters if their God made women as well as men, and they’d say yes. Ask them when God gave them separate, lesser rights and they’ll point to a male-written document which again benefited them — in this case, they’ll point to Eve as a subordinate of Adam made from his rib, forever owned.

    Well fuck that with a stick, buddy, because their religion’s origin story first said Adam ditched his first wife who was his equal. The metaphoric Adam then erased her role as his wife and called her a demon and rewrote the origin story through his sons’ occupation of language. And then modeled Christianity’s inception on a virgin birth requiring a woman’s submission — how convenient. Poor Mary, the trophy wife, forever stuck on a pedestal.

    None of that for us. This is the First Wives’ Club come back and demanding their creator-endowed due as equals.

    Thomas Jefferson felt the Constitution should be revisited every 19 years. We are long, LONG overdue for a conversation about the rights women were and are denied in spite of the fact we are equals. No man exists on this planet without a woman’s procreative contribution relying on her risk of maternal death. Men could acknowledge their lesser contribution and thank their maternal creators’ investment in them at great personal expense, but we’ll settle for equality.

  15. Denis says:

    Rayne: “The word ‘man’ doesn’t necessarily mean human male. Its
    origin meant all humankind”

    Take my word for it, when Jefferson said “all men are endowed by
    their creator with certain unalienable rights,” he wasn’t talking about
    women and he wasn’t talking about blacks. He was talking about him
    and his buddies: white, male land-owners.

    But I totally agree with your larger point. I’ve said before that you need
    to take Gretchen Carlson’s place on FOX. You could kick some ass! Like
    Doocy’s sexist ass, to begin with.
    .
    I did not know all of that fascinating Adam/Eve history, but then I don’t
    have TV so I don’t see the History Channel. So like, if Adam divorced her,
    I presume he got custody of Cain & Abel, which probably explains why
    Cain turned out so bad. I never really understood that first family. I mean,
    what with Eve being the only female, and now you tell me Adam booted
    her out, where did the next generation come from? Was Cain, the only
    surviving son, doing the naughty with his mom? I mean, who was on Tinder?
    Just him and his mom? OK, that’s cool — whatever greases your skids.
    .
    Basically, whenever I see “God” or “Creator” etc. in a sentence, that’s a
    signal to me that the rest of the sentence is bull spit. I just ignore all that
    whole Adam/Eve-Noah-Abraham line of crap — at least until the iJews use
    it to justify wiping out the Palestinians, and then it really gets up my nose.
    “Fuck that w/ a stick, buddy” as you put it.
    .
    As for the feminism, I’m right with you all the way. For instance, I am so
    glad American women are finally going to the front lines. They have proved
    they can do it! Hoo-rah! And now let them get their hands all bloody, too,
    and come back all twisted by what they saw and did, and become alcoholics
    and drug heads. Let them stand in lines at the VA hospitals for months and
    live in cardboard boxes in downtown LA for years at a time because they
    can’t function in society any longer after blowing women and children to
    bits. Let them commit suicide at a rate of 20/day. Why should it always be
    only the guys who go through that shit?
    .
    I’m with you 100%. In fact, having proven that they are equals in combat,
    I think we should turn the entire military over to The First Wives’ Club for
    the next 200 years and give the guys a well-deserved break. Now wouldn’t
    that piss off Adam . . . and Jefferson . . . and the iJews?
    .
    By the latter I am referring to the fact that on buses in Jerusalem women
    are forced to ride at the back. And I’m referring to today’s report
    that the IDF has appointed Rabbi Colonel Eyal Karim as Chief Rabbi. Karim
    is the prick rabbi who famously said that it is perfectly OK according to
    the Talmud for IDF soldiers to rape the enemy’s women (meaning, of
    course, Palestinian women) because soldiers need food and sex to function
    and fight for Yisrael. Now this prick is the Chief Rabbi, whatever the
    hell that is.
    .
    It is the hardest thing of all to believe that US taxpayers (men and women!!)
    are so stupid that they silently acquiesce to the USG sending these violent,
    sexist iJews $3Bn of taxpayer money every year, and now Bibi is demanding
    $4Bn. You want Detroit’s water problems solved? Would $4Bn help?
    .
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-army-appoints-chief-rabbi-accused-of-condoning-rape-by-soldiers-a7133931.html

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