DL Open Thread: Friday, August 26, 2022

Don’t Intellectuals Have Anything Better To Do?  ‘Some’ argue against using the term ‘progressive’:

But a backlash has been brewing. Some thinkers on the left question whether embracing “progressive” implies a certain level of comfort with the idea that history is guided by a hidden hand and somehow moves in a way that makes each year better than the last.

Perhaps the more apt question: Don’t I have anything better to do?  Hmmm, let’s find out.

Billionaire Rethug ‘Gives Away The Game’.  Is anybody shocked by this?  Distortion and ‘alternate facts’ have been the GOP’s coin of the realm for decades:

You’ve probably heard that Republicans are dissembling madly about new tax policies in the law President Biden signed this month. The Inflation Reduction Act will boost IRS funding to better target wealthy tax avoiders, and Republicans are pretending this will unleash an army of tens of thousands of IRS agents exclusively on working- and middle-class taxpayers.

That’s par for the course. But now, a billionaire GOP donor has reportedly been caught on a recording advising Republicans to amplify distortions exactly like this.

Steve Wynn, the casino mogul, if you must know.

Don’t I have anything better to do?

Remember That ‘Teenager Is Not Mature Enough To Have An Abortion’ Judge?  Well, he lost his bid for reelection. To a, wait for it, Jew. Thereby hangs a tale:

Smith did not respond to request for comment, but in a video sent to CL, his wife Suzette said that Jacobs needs to be saved by God while speaking to members of a Christian church.

https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxgtuR2k3kZ6grjFmc80V7jgSpRLa2eC6W

“We pray for her, she needs Jesus,” she said to a church crowd. “To deny God and to deny the Bible is a person that the heart is very hard toward God.”

There are two problems with this statement. One is that Jacobs does not share the same religion as the Smiths, she practices Judaism, and the second is that as she explained, a person’s religion should not take precedence in a race for judge.

Looks like God sided with the Jews on this one.

GOP Outrage Over Loan Forgiveness A Little Selective.  WH Twitter names some names.  Betcha there are a lot more to follow…

Insider Hiring Of Police Chiefs Challenged. Good.  Massachusetts goes after the ‘circling the wagons’ mentality, especially in departments with ‘toxic working environments’:

The top federal law enforcement official in Massachusetts, along with a U.S. senator, have criticized local bans on hiring outsiders as police chiefs, saying that the restrictions may violate civil rights law.

U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said that requiring police chiefs to be hired from within their departments is “problematic” and “ridiculous.” Such rules may limit the diversity of the candidate pool, she said. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged state and local officials to “address these pressing civil rights concerns” and lift “harmful policies that have only made it more difficult for women and people of color to take on leadership roles.”

Rollins and Markey were reacting to a recent WBUR and ProPublica investigation of the police chief in the Boston suburb of Revere and the circumstances that led to his selection. Revere and another suburb, Waltham, have had ordinances for more than two decades that ban hiring an outside candidate as chief.

While declining to speak specifically about Revere, Rollins said, “If there were an ordinance that somebody told me directly precluded a city or a town from hiring qualified members of law enforcement that have language capacity, that are representative of certain communities, I’d want to work as hard as I could to remove that hurdle.”

Rollins recently led an investigation into patterns of police misconduct in another Massachusetts city, Springfield, where officers in the narcotics bureau failed to report instances of excessive force. Under a consent decree announced in April, the Springfield police agreed to improve internal investigations, as well as policies to prevent excessive use of force.

Yorklyn And Pa. Upper-Crust To Brewery: We Hate Music. Shut It Off!:

A five-hour public hearing over Dew Point Brewing Co.’s outdoor music events became a lesson in sound travel and acoustics as the Yorklyn microbrewery’s neighbors sought the state alcoholic beverage commissioner to limit the number of outdoor events and prevent the business from using amplifiers.

“We are not opposed to having a brewery or having live music inside their brewery,” Stover said. “What we are asking is that the commissioner confirm that amplifiers and speakers are not part of their variance.”

The petition provided did not include any signatures, which the state office said was withheld due to “privacy issues.”  (You know, the Great Unwashed might seek retribution or something. Assholes.)

I guess listening and enjoying isn’t an option for these self-selected superior citizens.  Don’t they have anything better to do?

What do you want to talk about?