DL Open Thread: Friday, August 21, 2020
‘An Ally Of The Light, Not The Darkness’. That’s sure a more compelling theme than ‘America is great, we can make it even greater’. It’s also the stark choice we face. Trump’s base is the darkness. Which we’ll see next week. Biden’s best speech. Dare I say it, a great speech. The night’s other hero? Brayden Harrington. That kid has guts. I’m not sure that the Democrats could have gotten any more out of this convention.
Moscow Mitch And The ‘Proxy For The Kremlin’. United Co. Rusal, which has invested heavily in an aluminum mill in eastern Kentucky:
Rusal’s decision to invest in Braidy’s mill was announced in April 2019, a few months after the federal government lifted the sanctions against the Russian firm. Several Democrats in Congress quickly expressed concern about the planned investment.
The U.S. Senate voted down a measure opposing the plan to end the sanctions against Rusal and EN+ Group in January 2019. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Sen. Rand Paul, both Kentucky Republicans, voted against that attempt to keep the sanctions in place.
The Kentucky Democratic Party on Wednesday questioned McConnell’s decision to support lifting the sanctions on Rusal, in light of the Senate Intelligence Committee report’s identification of Rusal as a proxy for the Kremlin.
Louis DeJoy Made His Bones With Firm With Long Record Of Racism, Harassment And Abuse. No wonder Trump loves him. Wish I could watch that hearing today.
Wanna Know All About The ‘We Build The Wall’ Scandal? Read This. This fills in many of the blanks, including the rogues’ gallery behind this:
We Build the Wall is an influential conservative nonprofit whose board members include immigration hard-liners such as former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The group solicited donations to help Trump fulfill his campaign promise of building a wall along the southern border.
Scam artists all.
News-Journal Staffers Win Right To Unionize. A few decades too late.
What do you want to talk about?
Trump’s Cabinet Voted By A Show Of Hands To Separate Migrant Children From Parents. Breathtakingly inhumane. Stephen Miller should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-cabinet-officials-voted-2018-white-house-meeting-separate-migrant-n1237416
Pan to virtual rain-soaked streets with blue ticker-tape shreds and balloons wafting down from the just ended virtual DNC
…
DL : We found something. A chance – maybe…
Me : [voice breaking] Don’t.
DL : Don’t what?
Me : Don’t give me hope.
-Avengers, End-Trump-Game
Winning the right to unionize amounts to nothing; we voted to unionize back in the ’80s. That was followed by 10 years of negotiations without Gannett ever agreeing to a contract. And that was when the newsroom had four times as many employees as it does now.
Remember Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots? Kraft was filmed in a strip mall rub-and-tug joint, and faces misdemeanor charges of soliciting prostitution (and therefore possible sanctions from the NFL). Now a lower court has thrown out the video evidence on the grounds that it was overly broad and filmed many innocent clients who were also filmed (in a state of undress) for clearly non-criminal massages. Kraft will likely walk and avoid a richly deserved conviction.
Although the cretinous Kraft will probably avoid official sanction, the court decision is a win for the battered Fourth Amendment:
“… it appears the Kraft ruling may not only have his misdemeanor prostitution charges wiped out entirely, but end up protecting average citizens from boundless police surveillance in the process… The Kraft victories have likely strengthened future class-action suits in the [massage parlor] case, not to mention general precedent in similar cases.”
The whole massage parlor thing is gross, but the important part is “…general precedent in similar cases” – like searches of your home, your car, or your person, or general video of crowds at demonstrations.
The #metoo crowd will likely be rending their garments over Kraft walking. But this doesn’t strike me as the patriarchy covering for one of its own. It seems like an authentic and long overdue re-assertion of Fourth Amendment protections.
Tom Carper dropped a load of f-bombs on live TV during the Post Office hearings. Sadly, it wasn’t at Louis DeJoy. Carper was cursing at an aide because they were having trouble with the Zoom connection.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/frustrated-senator-fires-off-a-string-of-f-bombs-during-postmaster-dejoy-hearing/
On brand.
Carper cementing his legacy. The f-word for Tom Carper is “fossil.”