DL Open Thread: Thursday, June 2, 2022

Drink Coffee. Don’t Die.  My kind of scientific study:

That morning cup of coffee may be linked to a lower risk of dying, researchers from a study published Monday in The Annals of Internal Medicine concluded. Those who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee per day, even with a teaspoon of sugar, were up to 30 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who didn’t drink coffee. Those who drank unsweetened coffee were 16 to 21 percent less likely to die during the study period, with those drinking about three cups per day having the lowest risk of death when compared with noncoffee drinkers.

Spoilsports may wish to question the study’s methodology.  I, for one, trust it implicitly.  Don’t tell me otherwise.

John Feinstein:  NCAA Should Move All Championships Out Of Texas:

This is a moment to put the usual excuse-making aside and do something that affects more than the wallets of NCAA members. Decisive action — demanding legislation that might help prevent tragedies like the one in Uvalde — could get the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott (R), the state legislature and the corporations (notably hotels) that would stand to lose millions of dollars if the Final Fours were taken away. At the least, it would send a message about what the organization stands for.

There is precedent and evidence that the NCAA can leverage the impact of its events to protest political action — or inaction — and play a role in bringing about meaningful change. In 2001, when lawmakers in South Carolina refused to remove the Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds, the NCAA announced it would not place any pre-scheduled events in the state until the flag was removed. In 2015, the flag was finally taken down and the NCAA began scheduling events there again.

The NCAA President fittingly was unavailable for comment.  “I’m sorry. He’s in the ‘unavailable for comment’ room”.  Where are all these people who are chronically unavailable for comment?  Curious minds want to know.

Bill Barr/John Durham Succeed In Exposing–Trump’s Russia Lies.  Gotta love all those Rethugs’ crocodile tears over the attorney who Durham targeted being acquitted. Here’s Lawfare’s take (must-reading):

The experience of the trial left me with three main impressions: First, that the case against Sussmann was not just weak but was frankly beneath the standards of reasonable federal prosecution; second, that the case was only glancingly about Sussmann and his supposed lie at all; rather, third, the case was fundamentally about displacing the conventional worldview associated with the Trump scandals and establishing the respectability of the insurgent Trumpist counter-narrative. In that effort, as with the effort to convict Sussmann, Durham has failed.

Casinos Won. Atlantic City Lost.  Guess who got the huge undeserved tax breaks that came entirely out of school and city funding?  $55 mill in all.  Not that casinos crying poor-mouth is an alien concept to us.

DOJ Indicts Nine People As Part Of Gun Straw Purchase Criminal Enterprise.  Which reminds me:  The House has buried one gun control bill and eviscerated another.  Word on the street is that the Senate will be bringing forth another assault weapons bill.  Assuming it passes the Senate (it will), will the Kop Kabal roust its mindless minions to kill this one too?  After all these mass shootings?  Which brings me to another point:  The Kop Kabal doesn’t merely represent the three members of leadership. Its enablers, including, but not limited to, Lumpy Carson, Deb Heffernan, Stephanie Bolden, Bill Bush, Franklin Cooke, and Andria Bennett, have gifted the Kabal their votes for leadership in exchange for plum committee assignments, some with added income as part of their perks. Meaning, whether they support gun reform and/or other progressive legislation or not, their support is meaningless when Speaker Pete stacks committees and buries good bills in them.

What do you want to talk about?