Today's Must-Read: Are We Great Yet?

I fan across this article by Robin Wright late yesterday. It's rather sobering. Wright starts off with a history of the Statue of Liberty -- not what you may have learned in school. Farther along, this struck me:

On the eve of America’s anniversary—our two hundred and forty-fourth—much of the world believes that the country is racist, battered and bruised. “Europe has long been suspicious—even jealous—of the way America has been able to pursue national wealth and power despite its deep social inequities,” Robin Niblett, the director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, in London, told me. “When you take the Acela and pass through the poorest areas of Baltimore, you can’t believe you’re looking at part of the United States. There’s always been this sense of an underlying flaw in the U.S. system that it was getting away with—that somehow America was keeping just one step ahead of the grim reaper.”

The flaw, he said, is reflected in the American obsession with the stock market as the barometer of national health—economically, politically, socially. The reaction to Floyd’s murder exposed the deep injustices in the American economic model, as well as in the police and judicial systems, Niblett said. Europeans, he added, are no longer so envious.

The Trump Administration’s ineptitude in handling the covid-19 crisis, as well as the President’s disdain for longstanding allies and international treaties, have compounded the damage to America’s image. A second poll, released last week by the European Council on Foreign Relations, reported that public perceptions of the United States are increasingly negative in virtually all of the European nations surveyed. In France, the country that backed the American Revolution and later donated the Statue of Liberty, forty-six per cent of the people polled said that their opinion of the U.S. has “worsened a lot.” The proportion of respondents who still view America as a key ally is “vanishingly small”—as low as six per cent in Italy.

As I was reading this I kept hearing echoes of Trump's slogan, "Make America Great Again". It occurred to me that greatness is not a quality one assumes for oneself -- it is a quality that is recognized by others. In that context, Trump and his enablers have taken what was once America's greatness and flushed it down the toilet. It will take a massive, sustained effort to regain that -- if we can.

Read the whole thing. Wright also notes the role of capitalism in the current state of affairs, which is itself an eye-opener.

Via Digby.

Snowflake du Jour

None other than former governor and current trumpanzee Mike Huckabee, whose knickers are twisted because someone said mean things about him:

When a persistent critic, a lawyer on the public side of the beach access battle, tweeted back with sarcasm and humor, Huckabee tried to silence him by filing a formal complaint with the Florida Bar. The complaint should be tossed out as a sham and an abuse of the system of disciplining lawyers.

In his Bar complaint, Huckabee accuses lawyer Daniel Uhlfelder of “vile and unprofessional attacks” and “repeatedly posting disparaging information about me,” which Huckabee claims violate Bar rules on integrity of the legal profession. Huckabee argues that the Bar is the right forum because the lawyer’s Twitter profile mentions his law practice.

The one that really got Huckabee's goat:

In his bar complaint, Huckabee accuses Uhlfelder, who has a mere 422 Twitter followers, of disparagement. The complaint points to a tweet in which Uhlfelder joked that Huckabee’s Secret Service code name should be “beach thief.” “He accused me of theft, a crime of moral turpitude,” Huckabee’s complaint reads.

Well, if anyone should know "moral turpitude," it's Mike Huckabee, whose son tortures animals for fun and whose daughter is a professional liar.

This is just another variation on a relatively new tactic of "convervatives": use the courts (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) to harass people you disagree with. And interestingly enough, although the "offensive" tweets happened months ago, Huckabee filed his complaint shortly after Uhlfelder retweeted photographs showing him in the company of two of Rudy Giuliani's pals, currently under indictment, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. Of course, I'm sure that has nothing to do with the timing of the complaint. Yeah, right.

And here's the capper (turn off your irony meter):

As for Huckabee, he’s on Twitter promoting a new documentary entitled No Safe Spaces, which features two conservative radio talk show personalities in an examination of restrictions on free speech on college campuses. Without a hint of irony, Huckabee tweeted: “The 1st Amendment right of Free Speech is precious, but it hangs by a thread.”

Via Joe.My.God., who has these articles and more, including some very pointed editorial cartoons and a link to a delightfully snarky opinion piece. I do recommend reading the whole thing and following the links. If nothing else, it will give you a good take on just how petty and vindictive "conservatives" are these days.

Today in Christian Love

You may or may not have been following the Chick-fil-A story, but here's a short summary: Earlier this month, Chick-fil-A, which had gained more than a little notoriety for donating heavily to anti-gay groups, announced a change in its charitable giving priorities:

Starting in 2020, the Chick-fil-A Foundation is introducing a more focused giving approach to provide additional clarity and impact with the causes it supports. Staying true to its mission of nourishing the potential in every child, the Chick-fil-A Foundation will deepen its giving to a smaller number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger.

(Emphasis in original.)

The outrage in "Christian" circles is way up on the Richter scale, with such luminaries as Tony Perkins, the group that Joe Jervis calls the "red-caped Catholic loons" (for the life of me, I can't remember the organization's real name), Charlie Kirk (whoever he is), and Bryan Fischer calling for a boycott. It seems that not only was the company to cease giving to bigoted groups such as the Salvation Army (remember when during the Bush administration, the SA tried to get an exemption from non-discrimination laws?), but actually donated to the "god-hating" SPLC (one of the oldest and most respected civil rights organizations, which has the temerity to call out hate groups -- so designated as a result of their own words and actions). (Interestingly enough, all the stories I can find on that donation are at right-wing sources; I'm not going to link to any of them, because they have very little contact with reality -- the only thing they seem to have reported accurately is the fact of the donation and the amount -- a very modest $2500.)

And we all know how effective boycotts by the "Christian" right have been.

Anyway, according to Snopes, that's not exactly the case.

What's True

The Chick-fil-A Foundation's November 2019 announcement of a new charitable-donations strategy meant the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, both high-profile groups that have been criticized in the past as anti-LGBT, would no longer receive funding in 2020.

What's False

However, the new donations strategy also meant several dozen other groups — with no anti-LGBT record — would not receive funding in 2020 either, and so the strategy does not appear to have been targeted specifically at the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Further, Chick-fil-A has repeatedly declined to specify that the cut to the controversial groups' funding was linked to their LGBT-rights records, and a company spokesperson would not rule out the possibility that the groups could receive funding again in the future.

So once again, there's a lot of manufactured outrage over something that didn't actually happen. I guess someone's not been getting enough attention lately.

And do notice how these "Christians" are reacting to a donation policy focusing on education, homelessness, and hunger. True followers of Jesus, right?

Antidote

I don't need to comment on this one. Just enjoy.

He is the wind. He stalks his prey like the wolf and delivers swift, cold justice. pic.twitter.com/eCTV4vNdGO

— Paul Bronks (@BoringEnormous) October 4, 2018

Thanks to commenter KCMC at Joe.My.God.

Something of the Week

I was going to call this "Image of the Week," but it's more a message. At any rate, I found it apropos to one of the latest controversies:

 

Thanks to commenter NowAnAgnostic at Joe.My.God.

(Note: This was supposed to be posted a couple of days ago, but somehow Blogger blew it.)

Today's Must-Read: On Nancy Pelosi

I happen to regard Nancy Pelosi as the gods' blessing on the Democrats, and can hardly wait until she's Speaker again. This article takes a good look at the reality (as opposed to the right-wing hate campaign):

The 78-year-old former House Speaker knows what her critics say about her: that she’s too old, too “toxic,” too polarizing; that after three decades in Congress and 15 years leading her party’s caucus, she has had her turn and needs to get out of the way. But there’s a reason she sticks around. Had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election, she says, “we’d have a woman at the head of the table.” When that didn’t happen, Pelosi realized that without her, there might not be a woman in the room at all.

Pelosi is one of the most consequential political figures of her generation. It was her creativity, stamina and willpower that drove the defining Democratic accomplishments of the past decade, from universal access to health coverage to saving the U.S. economy from collapse, from reforming Wall Street to allowing gay people to serve openly in the military. Her Republican successors’ ineptitude has thrown her skills into sharp relief. It’s not a stretch to say Pelosi is one of very few legislators in Washington who actually know what they’re doing.

This, I think, nails they key issue:

“If I weren’t effective, I wouldn’t be a target,” she says. . . . The only part that bothers her, she says, is when women who are thinking of running for office tell her they couldn’t withstand the abuse. “I say, ‘Forget what they’re doing to me, because you won’t be that much of a target. But you will be a target, because this is about power. And if you look like you’re making headway they will come after you. And it won’t be a pretty sight.'”

Read it.

Via Balloon Juice.

PC Amok: The "N-Word"

Just to show how off the rails some people can get, see this story:

The leader of the nonprofit arm of the Human Rights Campaign (the HRC Foundation) has resigned after an investigation found she’d used the n-word twice.

Mary Beth Maxwell, who is white, previously worked for Barack Obama’s administration.

Maxwell was exposed in an email sent to staff by HRC President Chad Griffin which was obtained by Politico.

The email said an investigation was launched after an employee had complained about Maxwell’s use of the term.

No, Maxwell didn't use the word as an insult to anyone; she was relating a couple of incidents in which the word was used.

The President of HRC also wrote that Maxwell did not use the term with intent to insult someone else at HRC, and said that in the first incident she “recounted an upsetting personal story in which the term was used.”

“In the second instance she repeated the word in describing an external situation that they found horrifying, in which racial and homophobic slurs were used,’ Griffin wrote.

What kicks the whole thing up into the realm of face palm is this:

“I share this context because the lesson learned here is that not having bad intent in using the word does not make it acceptable,” Griffin added. “I want to be clear: intent does not matter. It is the impact of the word that matters.”

In other words, Big Brother is watching you.

Let me point out that, Griffin's comment notwithstanding, intent is everything. When it gets to the point where you can't even quote someone else's use of a particular word for fear of offending someone, then we're headed down a steep, nasty slope. This is really nothing more than a few snowflakes setting themselves up as thought police.

The irony here is that this is the position of an organization that regularly uses the word "queer". From HRC's website: "The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality." Some of us remember when being called "queer" was an insult.

I had hopes when Griffin became head of HRC that he would whip the organization into line -- historically, it's one of the least effective civil rights groups ever. Instead, it looks like HRC has whipped Griffin into submission.

Today's Must-Read: Corporations as Responsible Citizens

I'm not alone in thinking that Citizens United was one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court, on a level with Dredd Scott and Bowers v. Hardwick.* Well, Elizabeth Warren is taking the first steps toward bringing some sort of accountability to corporate "persons". From Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts this week offered a game-changing plan for leveling the playing field for the little guys. As a senator in the minority, she may not have the leverage to bring corporate criminals to justice. But Warren has instead drafted a plan for rewriting the DNA of large corporations and bringing them to heel. That is long overdue. A former legislator I heard from called the plan transformational.

In a press release announcing her Accountable Capitalism Act, Warren makes her move against the system as it stands:

"There's a fundamental problem with our economy. For decades, American workers have helped create record corporate profits but have seen their wages hardly budge. To fix this problem we need to end the harmful corporate obsession with maximizing shareholder returns at all costs, which has sucked trillions of dollars away from workers and necessary long-term investments," said Senator Warren. "My bill will help the American economy return to the era when American companies and American workers did well together."

Sullivan goes into a lot of detail on this one. Read it.

* The idea that a legal fiction, which is what corporate "personhood" is, has all the rights of natural persons is ludicrous. What makes Citizens United (aside from its bastard offspring, such as Hobby Lobby) so egregious is that it granted all the privileges of personhood with none of the responsibilities.

Today's Must-Read: The G7 Debacle

There's a lot of commentary on how Trump's behavior at the G7 summit shows his ignorance of the mechanisms of international trade. Take this, via Digby:

From the Economist:

On trade, at one point it seemed as though Mr Trump was in search of some sort of grand bargain, as he called for the end of all subsidies, tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade. But this was more an indication of how poorly Mr Trump understands the global trading system than a serious summons to the negotiating table. Even so, combing through the joint communiqué, signs of genuine co-operation were to be found, including a commitment to agree on new rules regarding “market-distorting subsidies” and state-owned enterprises.

Of course, Trump repudiated the communiqué, but then, he'd never intended to support it anyway -- it smacks too much of cooperation with other countries. o (I'm not the only one who thinks so -- Rachel Maddow has the same take.) He's not stupid. He's not as smart as he claims, by any stretch. I wouldn't call him intelligent -- that implies the ability to learn from new evidence, and in that regard he displays the same characteristics as his more ardent worshippers: he, and they, reject anything that doesn't support what they "know" to be true. (It's no coincidence that he has such strong support among evangelicals.)

It is perhaps more surprising that Mr Trump still faces people who think he can be persuaded by facts. The Cirque du Soleil performers who entertained the G7 leaders on Friday evening were not the only ones tying themselves in knots. At the meeting, Mr Trump’s counterparts brought binders of figures to the session devoted to trade in an attempt to persuade him that his belief that the rest of the world was unfair to America was mistaken. Tellingly, the desk in front of Mr Trump was bare. He later told reporters the others had been smiling at him as if they could not believe they had got away with using America as a “piggy bank” for so long. “The gig is up,” he said.

Read the whole thing -- it's a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at what was going on.

Digby has another piece that ties into this directly, in which she underscores what I just said about Trump's lack of good faith going in:

If you wanted a president who would tell his friends to go pound sand, then Donald Trump fulfilled your every wish. He went to Quebec for the G7 summit meeting with the intention of putting American allies in their place. They were to understand who was in charge and who makes the rules: The Trump States of America. On the White House lawn prior to taking off in Marine One for the Canadian summit he made it clear:

We’re going to deal with the unfair trade practices. If you look at what Canada, Mexico, the European Union, all of them have been doing to us for many, many decades, we have to change it. And they understand it’s going to happen . . . European Union treats us very unfairly. Canada, very unfairly. Mexico, very unfairly.

(If you don't understand why this is nonsense, read this from Paul Krugman, who won his Nobel Prize for his work on international trade.)

Then this got published, and Trump lost it:

I've already mentioned the attacks on Trudeau by Kudlow and Navarro. Digby offers more on Kudlow's performance:

Kudlow, who should know better but seemed somewhat "under the weather," didn't recognize the total absurdity of such pearl-clutching in light of the thuggish threats his boss has been issuing for months. But somewhere in the middle of his bleary tantrum he opened a new front, indicating to Jake Tapper that the G7 countries had been expected to kowtow to Trump and allow him to dominate their industry and trade, as a way to impress North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with Trump's manly superiority. He portrayed their unwillingness to sacrifice their own voters to make Trump look like a Real Man as a betrayal of world peace.

Kim may have led a cloistered life, but he's not that dumb. He has already shown that he largely has Trump's number, and what he didn't know before, Chinese President Xi Jinping has surely shared with him in their meetings leading up to this summit. All Trump has done is degrade the alliances between the U.S. and its closest allies for reasons that only he knows.

The reason is that the whole G7 performance was meant to show Kim Jong-Un that Trump is the alpha male, so he'd better watch his step and give Trump what he wants.

We've already seen that Kim can play Trump like a fiddle. I'm half expecting the Singapore summit to end up with a declaration of war.

Read both pieces -- the details are fascinating.

Antidote: Zoo Baby

Via Digby, there's a new baby crowned lemur at NaturZoo Reine in Germany on May 7.

Crowned Lemurs (Eulemur coronatus) are listed as “Endangered” by the IUCN. In Madagascar they are threatened by habitat destruction and hunting. European Zoos are cooperating within a coordinated breeding-programme (EEP) to maintain an “insurance population” of these lemurs, which in future might provide animals for re-stocking or release in their native range.

There are currently some 80 Crowned Lemurs in European zoos. The baby born at NaturZoo Rheine will contribute to this hopefully growing population.

Lincoln Park Zoo has, I believe, five crowned lemurs (they're hard to count -- they keep moving around when they're not all sleeping in a big clump) and had a birth last year.

Digby links to a site called "ZooBorns" which does have a somewhat spotty page for Lincoln Park Zoo. Just off the top of my head, what's missing from ZooBorn's LPZ pages are: four snowy owl chicks last year, four Japanese macaques born two (three females) and three (one male) years ago, a Grevy's Zebra born either last year or the year before, ditto for a Bactrian camel, and a litter of red wolves born two or three years ago. Oh, and there's a new black-and-white colobus born this year, a couple of white-cheeked gibbons born last year and a Hoffman's two-toed sloth born last year.

I should also mention that LPZ has the largest nesting colony of black-crowned night herons in Illinois; they are endangered in the state. They've pretty much taken over the Children's Zoo (although for some reason they avoid the bear habitat -- wrong kind of trees, I think). Zoo staff has blocked off parts of the path because guano.

There -- isn't that better than Trump?

Today in Disgusting People: Usurper Edition

Memorial Day tweet from Fearless Leader:

Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2018

Somehow, it's all about him.

I can hardly wait to see what he comes up with for Independence Day.

Via Joe.My.God., who has some of the reactions. (Hint: They're not real supportive.)

Words Fail Me

If you think Trump is an egomaniac, get this:

The Interior Department took estimates for setting up four flag poles outside its main building in Washington, D.C., to fly personal flags for Secretary Ryan Zinke at a cost as high as $200,000, according to internal emails released Monday by the agency.

The department ultimately decided against installing the new poles, the documents show, choosing instead in March 2017 to use three smaller, existing poles on top of its building.

Personal flags.

Zinke has received media attention for his desire to fly specialized flags above the department that would signify his presence. Zinke is a former Navy SEAL. An Interior spokeswoman said he wanted to fly the flag as a way of restoring honor and tradition to the department.

"Secretary Zinke has a deep respect for tradition. Since his confirmation, the Secretary has made a concerted effort to uphold, and in this case, revive long-held traditions at Interior," Spokeswoman Heather Swift told the Hill.

What traditions do you suppose he wants to revive? Certainly not maintaining the public lands the government holds in trust for the people of the United States.

If he really wants to restore the honor of the Department of the Interior, he should resign.

(Via Joe.My.God.)

But wait -- it gets better:

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tried to justify his decision to decrease Bears Ear National Monument by claiming that he is a scientist and thus he knows better.

According to CNN, Zinke told lawmakers, “I’m a geologist. I can assure you that oil and gas in Bears Ears was not part of my decision matrix. A geologist will tell you there is little, if any, oil and gas.”

This marks at least the 40th time Zinke has made the claim, including the times he was under oath before Congress. While Zinke has a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the University of Oregon, the degree does not equate the position, no more than having a Bachelors in pre-med makes someone a doctor.

I have a bachelor's degree in psychology. I don't call myself a psychologist.

In his autobiography, Zinke confessed that he went to the University of Oregon on a football scholarship and picked his major at random.

“I studied geology as a result of closing my eyes and randomly pointing to a major from the academic catalog, and I never looked back. I am just glad I did not find electronics,” he wrote.

After graduating, Zinke went into the Navy to become a SEAL. After, he went into business and politics, never once worked as a geologist.

At least I deliberately decided on psychology as my major.

Well, just remember -- Trump hires the best people.

Some People Get It

This seems appropriate for the morning after than nasty little man in the White House lied his way through the State of the Union address. Apparently, there's this thing called "Broadway Roulette" -- you pay a fee and they pick a show for you at random. Here's a letter one mother sent to the cast of Kinky Boots about her experience with her daughter:

Orchestrator Stephen Oremus, who won a Tony Award for his work on the hit musical Kinky Boots, shared a letter the cast received from a grateful mother and it is truly inspiring. Oremus posted the letter on his Instagram account.

The mom tells the cast about her cautious trip to see the musical with her 10 year-old daughter and her worries about whether or not it was appropriate for her age. As she quickly found out, the show is quite suitable – and needed – for audiences of all ages.

“For the next few hours my child was mesmerized,” the mother wrote. “As the cast sang the final number I had tears streaming down my face. Not only was this an appropriate show for my daughter, it was the BEST show for my daughter to see.”

“In a world where kids are bullied every day, the message of your show is to celebrate what makes us different and unique. I cannot imagine a better message to send to my daughter than one of acceptance and tolerance.”

Click through to read the whole letter -- it funny and heartwarming.

It's (Finally) 2018

Everywhere, I think -- I'm not sure how far behind Chicago Honolulu is, but I'll assume the new year has struck there. (It has -- according to this site, Honolulu is only four hours behind Chicago. It seems like it should be more -- it's so far away! -- but it's not.)

So, Happy New Year, World!

Last night I did what I always do on New Year's Eve -- went to bed early. I figure the new year is going to show up whether I'm there to greet it or not. Besides, it's freakin' cold out -- right now it's minus 8, and the high's only supposed to be 8 above today. It wasn't much better last night.

No New Year's resolutions, either -- I get too bummed out when I fail to keep them.

I am, however, determined to make some changes -- the rut has gotten so deep I'm having trouble seeing over it.

So, welcome 2018.

(The image is via Pinterest. I'm sure I have similar images of my own, but they're not in my computer, so we make do.)

Best Christmas Story Ever

If you want to know how NORAD started tracking Santa, here it is:

Courtesy NORAD

This Christmas Eve people all over the world will log on to the official Santa Tracker to follow his progress through U.S. military radar. This all started in 1955, with a misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup's secret hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command, now known as NORAD. . . .

Terri remembers her dad had two phones on his desk, including a red one. "Only a four-star general at the Pentagon and my dad had the number," she says.

"This was the '50s, this was the Cold War, and he would have been the first one to know if there was an attack on the United States," Rick says.

The red phone rang one day in December 1955, and Shoup answered it, Pam says. "And then there was a small voice that just asked, 'Is this Santa Claus?' "

His children remember Shoup as straight-laced and disciplined, and he was annoyed and upset by the call and thought it was a joke — but then, Terri says, the little voice started crying.

"And Dad realized that it wasn't a joke," her sister says. "So he talked to him, ho-ho-ho'd and asked if he had been a good boy and, 'May I talk to your mother?' And the mother got on and said, 'You haven't seen the paper yet? There's a phone number to call Santa. It's in the Sears ad.' Dad looked it up, and there it was, his red phone number. And they had children calling one after another, so he put a couple of airmen on the phones to act like Santa Claus."

And thus are traditions born.

Via Balloon Juice.

Can You Say "Tacky"?

This is of a piece with everything this "president" does:

President Donald Trump has changed the presidential challenge coin in significant and wholly personal and partisan ways, raising eyebrows – and concerns – of ethics experts. He literally has replaced the national motto, "E Pluribus Unum," with his campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."

The coins are considered mementos and are often given by the Commander-in-Chief to members of the military. They have a long history, and are considered to have historic as well as great personal – and market – value. But rather than honor the nation's history, Donald Trump has personally redesigned the coins to honor Donald Trump.

Read the article to see the changes Trump has made in the coin. By way of comparison, here's Obama's coin:

Each of the other 29 soliders returning from Iraq is greeted by Pres Obama & gets a presidential challenge coin. pic.twitter.com/Yfnm6UQ9

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 20, 2011

Here's Trump's:

He literally replaced "E pluribus unum" with "Make America Great Again" https://t.co/a2wBe6APZx

— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) December 22, 2017

Someone should clue him in that covering something in gold doesn't make it classy.

Antidote: New Zealand Cops

Been under the weather for a few days, but this lightened up my morning:

All the Little Dictators

are coming out from under their rocks:

A photo posted on social media showing a truck sticker with an expletive directed toward President Donald Trump is going viral and prompting local law enforcement to search for the driver.

Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls posted a photo of the back of a white pickup truck with a tinted back window and a large sticker that reads, "F*** Trump, and f*** you for voting for him."

The sheriff's response:

app-facebook

Sheriff Troy E. Nehls

19 hours ago

I have received numerous calls regarding the offensive display on this truck as it is often seen along FM 359. If you know who owns this truck or it is yours, I would like to discuss it with you. Our Prosecutor has informed us she would accept Disorderly Conduct charges regarding it, but I feel we could come to an agreement regarding a modification to it.

Note: When interviewed for the storly, he actually sounds fairly reasonable -- but he did start off by threatening criminal charges -- which wouldn't stick:

KPRC 2 legal analyst Brian Wice said this was a free speech issue and referred to the 1971 case of Cohen v. California. According to the case, the Supreme Court "overturned a man's conviction for the crime of disturbing the peace for wearing a jacket in the public corridors of a courthouse that displayed the phrase, 'F*** the draft.'"

(Link added.)

It's bullying, no more, no less, as typified by our regrettable president -- and every other dictator or wannabe who ever lived.

Via RawStory.

Louis XIV

might have thought this was classy:

But he died 300 years ago.

Today in Disgusting People

I'm not sure which is worse, the sheriff or the spokesbot:

As Hurricane Irma churns towards Florida, the Polk County Sheriff’s Department sent out a series of tweets Wednesday telling those with outstanding warrants that they will be sent to jail if they turn up at a storm shelter. The tweets used cheeky language—“we’ll gladly escort you”—as a guise for a policy that will likely risk lives. Floridians who stand to be jailed may simply choose not to seek shelter in the midst of a Category 5 storm. If that happens, Carrie Horstman, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s office said, the fault won’t lie with authorities. “I don’t know at this point what this storm will do,” she told The Daily Beast. “We are trying to give people a heads up as many days in advance as possible to prepare of this storm.” In an interview, Horstman further explained that it was policy to check IDs at the shelter doors to prevent sex offenders from getting to close to children. “While we are checking, if we see someone with an active warrant we have to place them under arrest,” she added. She didn’t seem persuaded by the criticism that this would discourage people from showing up in the first place. “That is a risk a person would run,” Horstman said. “I think it is much safer to be in our jail than to expose yourself to a Category 5 storm. You are using the phrase, ‘people who are scared to go to jail.’ If you have a warrant, legally you should be in jail. You should turn yourself in and be safe in our jail rather than risk your life waiting out a storm.”

What is it with sheriffs in this country? Penis envy?

Via Digby.