Cop Killer

 

So, who or what would you guess is the leading cause of police deaths, 2020-21?  Antifa?  Black Lives Matter?  Critical Race Theory?  Nope:

COVID is the #1 killer of LEOs in 2020 and 2021 with more than 300 confirmed/presumed cases, and 170+ under review. Please get vaccinated. Share in roll call and on your dept's social media @ODMP pic.twitter.com/g8iRsNwbto

— ODMP.org (@ODMP) August 31, 2021

 

Why, then, are there so many jamokes like these resisting something that could save their members' lives and the lives of those in the communities they're ostensibly there to "protect and serve":

Hours after the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made an emphatic declaration: "City employees are absolutely going to be required to be vaccinated." [snip]

The same day, John Catanzara, the president of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police, which represents the city's rank-and-file officers, made it clear that he did not intend to comply.

"It cannot be mandated," he told the Chicago Sun Times. "It's that simple." [Ed.: correction, you're that simple.]

"Our members don't want to be mandated to do anything like that," said Catanzara, who did not return multiple phone and email requests for an interview this week.

The battle brewing in Chicago is playing out in cities and towns across the country. Police unions in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Seattle; and Syracuse, New York, have pushed back against vaccination requirements, as has the union representing state police in Massachusetts.

You would think a police union would be interested in the well- being of their members, and you would be right -- if it meant a blue wall of denial that any police officer ever did anything wrong, illegal or even slightly untoward.  But, when it comes to toeing the right- wing Republican line, all bets are off, because many of these police unions/ associations are effectively Republican front organizations. It's easy to imagine that, had the call for mandating vaccinations for police and other public sector employees been issued by a Republican, those same unions would see it as their patriotic duty to have their members get the shot.  But, you can't do anything that might redound to the benefit of a Democrat, even if it means 300- plus of your members die just to own the libs!

Protecting and serving (Republicans)!

Did Radical Republican Dogs Finally Catch The Car?

 

Here's a sampling of opinion this morning on the Texas law effectively ending abortion rights in that state:

 

"The court’s order is stunning. Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand.

"Last night, the court silently acquiesced in a state’s enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents. Today, the court belatedly explains that it declined to grant relief because of procedural complexities of the state’s own invention. Because the court’s failure to act rewards tactics designed to avoid judicial review and inflicts significant harm on the applicants and on women seeking abortions in Texas, I dissent." -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent to the SCOTUS acquiescence in letting the Texas law stand.

 __________

"...It’s not just that the majority of the Supreme Court functionally ended abortion rights for most women in Texas last night merely because they could. And it’s not just that they did so because—as is so often the case with impressionistic, frayed shadow docket reasoning—their personal feelings about the constitutional right to abortion are quite robust. It’s almost impossible to not go one further and declare that the court opted to end virtually all abortion rights in Texas, in the full knowledge that they were blessing an unconstitutional and brutal piece of lawless vigilantism, because it’s only about women." -- Dahlia Lithwick, Slate.

__________

"Today, accountability has suddenly arrived. Texas Republicans have just elevated abortion rights to perhaps the state’s supreme ballot issue in 2022. Perhaps they have calculated correctly. Perhaps a Texas voting majority really wants to see the reproductive lives of Texas women restrained by random passersby. If that’s the case, that’s an important political fact, and one that will reshape the politics of the country in 2024.

"But it’s also possible that Texas Republicans have miscalculated. Instead of narrowly failing again and again, feeding the rage of their supporters against shadowy and far-away cultural enemies, abortion restricters have finally, actually, and radically got their way. They have all but outlawed abortion in the nation’s second-largest state, and voted to subject women to an intrusive and intimate regime of supervision and control not imposed on men. At last, a Republican legislative majority has enacted its declared beliefs in almost their fullest form—and won permission from the courts to impose its will on the women of its state." -- conservative David Frum, The Atlantic.

__________

"Joshua Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Denver, said Republicans have had a “safe space” for years, because their vow to outlaw abortion was seen as an empty promise by both the left and the right as a result of the support for legal abortion during the previous Supreme Court regime.

"Now, that safe space is gone.

“'Under Trump, the Supreme Court context changed dramatically. So suddenly you’re in this context where the court might roll back abortion rights,'” Wilson said. “'That makes the politics more dangerous for Republicans.'” -- Alex Seitz-Wald and Sahil Kapur, NBC News.

__________

"This is not the end of the legal road, even in the federal courts. The underlying legal dispute can proceed through the lower courts and back up to the justices. There is litigation in state courts in Texas as well, state courts that are also bound to respect the Constitution.

"In the interim, though, the impact is clear. In Texas, women’s constitutional rights are being violated every day — as those sworn to uphold and enforce the Constitution stand by, approving." -- Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.

__________

Can't shake the sense that the GOP is about to become the dog that caught the car.

— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) September 2, 2021

 

Let's all make sure that this war on women, which will now be waged in every Republican- controlled state in the Union, will end in the annihilation of Trumpist, Christo-fascist Republicanism.  Rise up and stay risen!

Republican "Freedumb"

 

(click on image to enlarge)

 (via democraticunderground.com)

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)

(Maarten Wolterink, Leiden, Netherlands)

(Michael de Adder, Toronto Star)

(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

(David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star)

(Nick Anderson, gocomics.com)

(Walt Handelsman, The Times Picayune, New Orleans)

(Paul Noth, @AirMailWeekly)

QOTD -- Rise Up

 

"Texas this week showed us what a post-democracy America would look like.

"Thanks to a series of actions by the Texas legislature and governor, we now see exactly what the Trumpified Republican Party wants: to take us to an America where women cannot get abortions, even in cases of rape and incest; an America where almost everybody can openly carry a gun in public, without license, without permit, without safety training and without fingerprinting; and an America where law-abiding Black and Latino citizens are disproportionately denied the right to vote.

"This is where Texas and other red states are going, or have already gone. It is where the rest of America will go, unless those targeted by these new laws — women, people of color and all small “d” democrats — rise up." -- Dana Milbank in the Washington Post today.  That rising up must begin now and carry through the off- year elections in Virginia and New Jersey, the recall election in California, the mid- term elections in 2022, the general election in 2024, and in every state and local election from school board to county clerk.  These Christo-fascist Republicans must be hammered down again and again if we're to keep our fragile democracy.  They must not be allowed anywhere near the levers of power in this country.

Tweets Of The Day

 

Choice --

 

Okay well the only way of doing so is Court reform or eliminating the filibuster and passing federal legislation. Take your pick. https://t.co/CW2pQHbMZi

— Jordan Meehan (@JordanMeehan) September 1, 2021

 

Five justices effectively ended the constitutional right to abortion in the most cowardly manner imaginable—through an unsigned, one-paragraph 5–4 decision released at midnight. Sotomayor called it "stunning," but that is an understatement. It is shameful.https://t.co/02GHCoQqb3

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) September 2, 2021

 

Expand the Court. Do it tomorrow. Jesus Christ, a 5-4 majority said that the Texas law should stand because the three-card monte legal con at its heart was too clever for precedent to obtain. The whole bagjob of a decision reeks of corruption.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 2, 2021

 

Somebody page @SenatorCollins https://t.co/eZLG7PjZq8

— Stephen White (@sgw94) September 2, 2021

 

But, but, climate change is a hoax! --

 

Boathouse Row Philly this AM. Screen shot from Fox 29 helicopter vid. Expected to crest at 17.2 ft at about now. 17.0 ft is record. pic.twitter.com/te2k8ptpEr

— Tony Juliano (@TJules21) September 2, 2021

 

This is 145th st on 1 line. This not a low lying area. One of the highest elevations in Manhattan.

Literally nowhere is immune to climate change.pic.twitter.com/FfBjJDHW2h

— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) September 2, 2021

 

NYC subway has fallen. 🌊 pic.twitter.com/SDB7f4l6I8

— 🅰🅻🅴🆁🆃 🅲🅷🅰🅽🅽🅴🅻 (@AlertChannel) September 2, 2021

 

Firefighters have reported progress in the battle to save communities on the south end of Lake Tahoe from the Caldor Fire. But the damage already done to the area is extensive. https://t.co/HTVfpsxUFo pic.twitter.com/WHm89iSHwh

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 1, 2021

 

WOW! Time-Lapse of #HurricaneIda courtesy of @HurricaneTrack at the Frenier Landing Restaurant in LaPlace... #LAwx pic.twitter.com/rOhvfWdyXj

— Rob Perillo (@robperillo) August 30, 2021

 

 

Media Malpractice: The Texas Anti-Abortion Law

 

Our broken media was fixated for two weeks on the ultimately successful evacuation of 124,000 Afghan allies and U.S. citizens. They portrayed it -- without context -- as a shameful Biden failure, presumably because we couldn't airlift millions more for months to come, suggesting that our military should have stayed (e.g., "mainstream media" commandos Peter Baker, Richard Engel, Clarissa Ward, Ian Pannell, and Martha Raddatz). Meanwhile, they virtually ignored the horror of Texas' cruel, restrictive abortion law which was given a pass by the right-wing Supreme Court under their noses. Media Matters tallied up the number of times that cable news covered the Texas story since August 25, and discovered that it was covered just three times, all at the last moment before the law went into effect on September 1:

"The most restrictive abortion law in the country went into effect in Texas today, effectively banning abortion in the state after efforts to halt the move in court were unsuccessful. Since August 25, the law has been covered in just three cable news segments, all of which aired last night. [snip]

According to a Media Matters review, CNN and MSNBC did not devote a single segment to the story between August 25 and last night, when Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and Don Lemon on CNN had lengthy segments about it. Fox News did not cover the law in the period studied."

As we noted yesterday, the Texas law will almost certainly be the template for other Republican-controlled states to pass draconian laws that essentially ban abortion, even in cases of rape and incest as the Texas law does, impacting tens of millions of women's reproductive choices. Texas' law bans abortions at six weeks, when most women aren't aware they're pregnant, and authorizes Christofascist zealots to sue people who help women get abortions (like parents, friends, clinic workers, perhaps even taxi companies, etc.).

Republican-wired media malpractice has been common since the days of Ronald Reagan, and isn't limited to social issues. It was very rare when coverage of Hurricane Ida noted climate change / greenhouse gasses as the cause of more and more frequent monster hurricanes, not to mention years-long droughts and wildfires. The Washington Post uses the slogan "democracy dies in darkness." It's long past time that our broken media shed far more light on actions that affect the daily lives of millions of women and families, as well as our planet.

Hurricane Ida Relief Resources

 

If you can and want to help victims of Hurricane Ida, here are some resources you should consider (via the Obama Foundation):

DisasterAssistance.gov

The Disaster Assistance Improvement Program’s (DAIP) mission is to provide disaster survivors with information, support, services, and a means to access and apply for disaster assistance through joint data-sharing efforts between federal, tribal, state, local, and private sector partners. You can dial 800-621-3362 for assistance, or visit their website.

Imagine Waterworks

Imagine Water Works is reimagining the future through art, science, and connection, with a focus on water, climate justice, and disaster response.

Another Gulf

Another Gulf is taking mutual fund donations, and also provides a way to find mutual aid resources.

Louisiana SPCA

Furry companions need support right now, too. Check out the Louisiana SPCA to support their response.

The Red Cross

The Red Cross provides a tool to help victims and their loved ones find an open shelter.

Culture Aid NOLA

Culture Aid NOLA provides twice-weekly distributions of fresh food to everyone in need. They believe in “serving our community with dignity, hospitality and grace and aim to create a welcoming environment for all.”

Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee

Gifts made to the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund will provide help to those impacted by the severe storms and flooding.

United Way of South Mississippi

The United Way of South Mississippi works with “local organizations to thoughtfully build strategies to create resilient communities.”

 

Thank you!

Statements By President Biden And VP Harris On Texas Abortion Law (UPDATED)

 

President Biden:

"Today, Texas law SB8 went into effect. This extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v. Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century.

"The Texas law will significantly impair women’s access to the health care they need, particularly for communities of color and individuals with low incomes. And, outrageously, it deputizes private citizens to bring lawsuits against anyone who they believe has helped another person get an abortion, which might even include family members, health care workers, front desk staff at a health care clinic, or strangers with no connection to the individual.

"My administration is deeply committed to the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade nearly five decades ago and will protect and defend that right."

 

Vice President Harris:

"Today, a new law takes effect in Texas that directly violates the precedent established in the landmark case of Roe v. Wade. This all-out assault on reproductive health effectively bans abortion for the nearly 7 million Texans of reproductive age. Patients in Texas will now be forced to travel out-of-state or carry their pregnancy to term against their will. This law will dramatically reduce access to reproductive care for women in Texas, particularly for women with low incomes and women of color. It also includes a disturbing provision that incentivizes private citizens to sue anyone who assists another person in receiving an abortion.  

"The Biden-Harris Administration will always fight to protect access to healthcare and defend a woman’s right to make decisions about her body and determine her future."

 

Let's be perfectly clear:  this is a Republican assault on reproductive freedom for women. It will be copied in other Republican states, and the Republican Supreme Court won't act because it fulfills their warped ideological agenda while not directly embroiling them in overturning a nearly 50 year old precedent.

The extremists in Texas' rotted out Republican party (a.k.a., the "party of life") are perfectly fine with restricting their access to a legal abortion or to family planning services, while at the same time allowing ammosexuals to open carry firearms without a license.  Rigging future elections will ensure they're likely to get away with outrages like this in the foreseeable future.

UPDATE:  

A sharply divided Supreme Court early Thursday said it will not block a new Texas law that deputizes any Texan to enforce a six-week ban on abortions. Five justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — explained in a brief, unsigned majority opinion that the abortion advocates asking for an emergency stay "raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue," but they were unable to untangle the "complex and novel antecedent procedural questions" raised by the law.

The four dissenters — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — argued in separate rebuttals that their five colleagues, without any real debate, were rewarding Texas lawmakers for inventing a novel scheme to stomp on decades of Supreme Court precedent.

"It was hard to figure out what the law the Texas Republicans enacted does, so we'll just let it stand" is a helluva skeevy excuse.  But consider the sources.

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Kevin Kallaugher, Counterpoint)

 

(Peter Kuper, @PKuperArt)

(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)

(Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal, FL)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)

(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com)

(John Buss, @repeat1968)

Tweets Of The Day

 

Our broken, Republican- wired media --

 

Repeated theme in post-speech analysis: How dare the president defend his policies in ways that do not suit the narrative I have been peddling for the past few weeks? How dare he make his case on his terms and not on mine?

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) August 31, 2021

 

The “strange” part is that yet again the news media and Washington insiders don’t have a clue what people outside of their bubble care about. https://t.co/SVHDkpK9ht

— Tom Brennan (@Brennanator) August 31, 2021

 

Your bodies, our choice (elections have consequences) --

 

It is now after midnight central time and there has been no ruling from the Supreme Court on the Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That means the law has officially taken effect. An emergency request to block the law remains pending at SCOTUS.

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) September 1, 2021

 

Texas Republicans really just created a taxpayer-funded bounty hunter system for snitching on abortions. And the Supreme Court has nothing to say.

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 1, 2021

 

It’s worth noting that many of the same people attacking the Biden Administration for leaving women’s rights behind in Afghanistan are eager to control women’s bodies and choices in the United States.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) September 1, 2021

 

A special fuck you tonight to people who said Hillary and Trump were the same. #RoeVWade

— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) September 1, 2021

 

Covidiot population shrinking? --

 

Percentage of Americans who say they won't get vaccinated drops to record low in new poll https://t.co/IiXO75cK5I pic.twitter.com/niJf7UDjqV

— The Hill (@thehill) August 31, 2021

 

Why would they be so worried (rhetorical question)? --

 

tell me you're terrified without saying you're terrified https://t.co/LMNRGbBL8C

— shauna (@goldengateblond) September 1, 2021

 

Tucker Carlson actually said: "They should be afraid of you."

Nobody in Congress has less power than this perverse collection of evil yet astonishingly doltish atoms. https://t.co/MYh2KYRTjD

— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) September 1, 2021

 

 

Warrant Out For Man Who Assaulted MSNBC Reporter

You may have watched the live broadcast from MSNBC reporter Shaquille Brewster covering Hurricane Ida in Gulfport, MS when a raging white clown assaulted him. Now, Gulfport police have issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Eugene Dagley of Wooster, OH, accusing him of two counts of simple assault, disturbing the peace, and violating the emergency curfew.  

Also, Dagley may have also violated his probation, which includes travel restrictions, for vandalism, inducing panic and attempted assault in Cuyahoga County, OH in 2017:

"Court documents in Ohio showed the 54-year-old pleaded guilty to vandalism, inducing panic and attempted assault, stemming from a 2017 commercial break-in. He was sentenced to five years probation and 30 days in jail to go along with a $5,000 fine and $10,000 restitution to Cleveland Plating."

Dagley was apparently triggered by seeing a black reporter with a MSNBC camera crew. When the police catch up with him, they might want to check on his whereabouts on January 6, since he fits the mold of a violent, white supremacist jailbird looking for trouble. 

Mid-Week Song: Day One

 

We've featured jazz group Jeff Lorber Fusion several times before. They have a newly-released album, "Space-Time," and we have a track from that album for our song today. "Day One" is a slower tempo, melodic jazz and pop mixture, with Jeff Lorber on piano. Enjoy.

Lindell Sells Plane To Cover Legal Costs

It's well known that crackpot Trumpist extraordinaire and the Big Lie peddler of My Mein Pillow, Mike "Pillow Guy" Lindell, is facing a $1.3 billion lawsuit for defaming Dominion Voting Systems over the 2020 election. His obsessive blathering about the company's "rigged" voting machines that stole the election from his Dear Leader has been aggressively over-the-top even now. His pillows and other bedding have been dropped from numerous large outlets as a result of his public lunacy, the most recent of which was his humiliating "cyber symposium" last month in Sioux Falls, SD, that, as expected, came up with no evidence of election fraud.

Salon reports that, based on FAA records, Lindell is selling off at least one of his private jets, perhaps to cover legal fees for the defamation suit. Of course, he's also "investigating" the Fox network for not peddling his conspiracy fantasies, so he's thrashing in all directions. The plane, a 1993 Dassault-Breguet Falcon 50, has an estimated market value of $2.5 million, and according to a former associate, he's using the money to put a legal defense together, according to Salon's reporting:

"Josh Merritt, a former member of Lindell's 'red team' at his August South Dakota event, told Salon the plane was sold to bankroll Lindell's legal defense in the Dominion suit.

The pillow king unloaded the aircraft 'because he's needing money,' Merritt said. 'He just started raising money for the lawsuit by Dominion.' 

Merritt also said that while he was working with Lindell's team earlier this summer, the Falcon 50 plane was apparently out of commission. An employee of Lindell's 'told me they quit using it,' he said.  (our emphasis)

Lindell is a dangerous, delusional buffoon who needs professional help. Once he's bled dry in court for his Big Lie crusade, he'll need one of his pillows to cry on. 

(photo: Lindell and his cult leader) 

Why Would They Be So Worried?

You may have noticed in recent weeks a rising chorus among certain seditionist Republicans seeking to enable and threaten violence, human detritus like Reps. Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn, Jim Jordan, Mo Brooks, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others who will be investigated for their roles in the January 6 insurrection. Capturing phone and social media messages is essential to determining what exactly their actions before and on January 6 can tell us about the level of treason they committed..  No wonder spineless shitweasel Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Sedition-CA) is issuing threats in a desperate attempt to keep the conspiracy hidden:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) issued a warning to telecom and tech companies on Tuesday, saying Republicans would “not forget” if they turn over phone records to lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

McCarthy made the comments a day after a House select committee, led by Democrats, requested that 35 phone and social media companies preserve the records of an unknown group of people related to the deadly insurrection, as well as those involved in the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House that precipitated the mob attack.

People with nothing to hide don't try to threaten and obstruct, and what McCarthy is attempting to brazenly do could very well be an obstruction of justice.  Well, that would certainly be in character, especially for this rotted- out Trump protector and enabler.

A spokesperson for the select committee had this response:

“The Select Committee is investigating the violent attack on the Capitol and attempt to overturn the results of last year’s election.  We’ve asked companies not to destroy records that may help answer questions for the American people. The committee’s efforts won’t be deterred by those who want to whitewash or cover up the events of January 6th, or obstruct our investigation.”

Expect the threats and strong-arm tactics to continue as the committee digs deeper into the actions of the seditionists who nearly put an end to American democracy (and are still at work to do so).

(Photo: from McCarthy's Twitter profile)