Would A Chainsaw-Wielding President Be So Bad?
One thinks not
Links are at the end.
Politifact is perhaps the second or third most annoying fact checking outfit. This episode, in which they determine that no one has proved Joe Biden is wearing a skin mask in the manner of Leatherface from the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, is good, though.1
Going after miscreants or irritants with a chainsaw might actually lead to a Senate conviction in an impeachment process but, as is so often the case, my constitutional amendment mandating a five year post-presidency prison term could insure that justice was served even if, as could happen, Chainsaw Joe (or whomever) skated on impeachment or managed to convince a court that the chainsaw activities were related to his duties as president.
Call your elected representatives today.
We’ve mentioned on several occasions the issue of sparse maternity care in large rural swaths of our great country—which is in part due to another favorite topic here, the looting of hospitals and other medical practices by pirate equity firms—and the hardships it imposes on women and babies.
The Associated Press has an Oregon-centric story on the subject, although the writers ignore the pirate equity angle and don’t touch on how anti-abortion laws can intimidate practitioners in states where women are chattel.2
There is a watercraft competition featuring high-speed docking, and the New York Times is on it (no paywall).3
Fossil fuel production here is generously subsidized,4 and the industry is not about to miss a bet on new subsidies for technologies that can putatively mitigate some of the damage they plan on continuing to do for decades into the future.5 The plan is to build scrubbers to remove carbon directly from the air, something that a lot of environmentalists say will at the very best offset a fraction of the greenhouse gasses for which fossil fuel companies are responsible.
One oil company executive told The Guardian that the technology “gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.” One environmentalist responded that subsidizing companies “to pump crap out of the ground and then pay them to put some back in” is probably not what one could describe as a best practice.
Also in The Guardian is press critic Margaret Sullivan, who was probably the best of the New York Times public editors, and went on to raise hackles among the Washington Post’s editors and reporters. She’s bowing out of her column at The Guardian with a Democracy Day broadside on the continuing failure of our benighted and often spineless press to get past both-sides, process related reporting that avoids a reckoning with actual truths.6
Sullivan is applauded and expanded upon by press critic and one-time admirer of yr. editor, Dan Froomkin.7
Neal Katyal, the beloved former Obaman, champion of child slavery,8 and indomitable Burning Man survivor,9 is working to outlaw the possibility of a wealth tax on billionaires.10
“The planetary boundaries are the limits of key global systems – such as climate, water and wildlife diversity – beyond which their ability to maintain a healthy planet is in danger of failing,” and we’ve blown through two thirds of them. We’re good on ozone, though.
A climate scientist who was not part of the research group which established and tracks the boundaries described the new report as “a strikingly gloomy update on an already alarming picture. The planet is entering a new and much less stable state – it couldn’t be a more stark warning of the need for deep structural changes to how we treat the environment.”11
On the lighter side, a handful of Proud Boys nixed plea deals that would have halved their eventual sentences.12
And finally, the Laramie County sheriff is seeking volunteers to form a regular posse. Volunteers have to be 18 years old or older, with a high school diploma or GED. Wyoming is a permitless open carry and on-demand concealed carry state, so nothing could possibly go wrong here.13
Alexandria Savior, “Belladonna of Sadness;14” Tamar Aphek, “All Bets Are Off;15” Imelda May, “Mayhem.16”
That, comrades, is all I got. Share if you like it, consider subscribing if you’ve not—it’s free unless you want to pay.
A comment on Katyal. You seem to be arguing that a lawyer representing interests you disagree with is somehow required, ethically, to only represent clients who are "good guys". If that were the test, then lawyers would not be able to make a living since the "good guys" typically have no money. That they try to make up for it by doing pro bono work for "good guys" is apparently inadequate to expiate their sin of working for money. In the real world, everyone who works has to focus on customers or clients who can afford to pay for their services. Joseph Welch of Hale and Dorr in Boston was a hero of the politically liberal for his resistance of McCarthyism. Most of the time, he was a corporate lawyer who used his considerable skills on behalf of corporate clients. He was one of my heroes. He was also rather fortunate in being able to represent good guys who could pay. Most are not so fortunate.