DL Open Thread: Saturday, March 26, 2022
Rethug Congressman Found Guilty Of Lying About Illegal Campaign Contributions. Poor guy, after his conviction, he read a letter from his daughter saying how much she loves him anyway:
Foreign nationals are prohibited from donating to candidates running for federal office in the United States. It is also illegal to disguise a donor’s identity through third-party contributions.
My question? There’s so much legal dirty money sloshing around politics, he had to rely on this?
You Know Putin’s Losing His War When He Speechifies Against Cancel Culture, And Doesn’t Address Ukraine. Hmmm, Bannon contracting out his services again? Or was it Tucker?:
Beyond Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin is also fighting cultural battles.
In a speech on Friday from the nondescript, beige-walled office in which he has been conducting much of his public business this month, Mr. Putin made no mention of Ukraine. Instead, he expanded upon a personal obsession: “cancel culture.”
Western elites “canceled” the author J.K. Rowling because she “did not please fans of so-called gender freedoms,” Mr. Putin said in his nationally televised remarks, flanked by two Russian flags. Ms. Rowling was widely criticized in 2020 after voicing support for a researcher whose views on transgender people had been condemned by a court.
Japan, he claimed, “cynically decided to ‘cancel’” the fact that it was the United States that dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. And now, he said, the West is busy “canceling” Russia, “an entire thousand-year-old country, our people.”
That the Russian president delivered a disquisition on Western public discourse on Friday may seem odd at a time when Russia is fighting what some analysts believe to be its bloodiest war since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. But it underscores how Mr. Putin tries to channel cultural grievances and common stereotypes for political gain — while using language that also allows him to speak directly to possible allies in the West.
Especially since the language is almost certainly crafted by his Allies in the West.
Truckers’ Lament. Man, this ‘People’s Convoy’ around the Capitol (didn’t know it was still going on) is sad. Some guy (Ricky Bobby, or so he says) tried to hijack it by promising ‘indoor bathrooms’. I demand more coverage of this. Listen to that ‘Ricky Bobby’ clip. You’ll thank me.
‘The Performance Of Governance’: Ted Cruz frantically searching for Twitter replies to his disgusting broadsides against future Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson:
Jackson was often a bit character in someone else’s TV show. For politicos like Cruz and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, these hearings were less about advise-and-consent and more about performing—an opportunity to juice fundraising and drive engagement by play-acting as inquisitors. Cruz and Hawley, both of whom were recently on Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist, may never get the chance to sit in Jackson’s seat, but they still found a way to make a confirmation hearing about themselves. The Cruz photo is revealing not because it’s an aberration, but because it reflects the true nature of this work. Cruz, by searching for people talking about him talking about Jackson, was caught in the incriminating position of a Republican senator doing his job.
Turns Out I Wasn’t The Only One Who Didn’t Like ‘The Power Of The Dog’. Which is not to deny the brilliance of the elements that went into the making of the picture. But it didn’t come close to resonating with me. What do y’all think?
Yet More Bullshit From Delaware Cops. I can’t even muster a quote from this. The cops and cop legislators/groupies wrote LEOBOR, giving cops almost unfettered ability to kill, maim, and threaten the citizens of this state without any prohibitions. Now, even after the General Assembly cut the legs off of its own bill, that’s not enough for the cops? Legislators must come to them, hats in hand, begging for crumbs of civil liberties? No. What must happen is that cop enablers in the General Assembly must be challenged and defeated. My message to legislators: You can’t be halfway in on this, you’ll get run over. Just as you were.
What do you want to talk about?
A valuable summary of where the Ukraine War stands from a Ukrainian journalist/analyst on the ground:
https://kyivindependent.com/national/%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8Bukraine-reaches-breaking-point-in-russias-war
Are we sure this guy actually took money from a Nigerian billionaire or is he the only person to actually respond to the email from a Nigerian billionaire?
Looks like he not only took the money, but he asked him to organize another fundraiser for him.