Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The Post Insurrection. Part IX. The waiting upon justice edition.

 

March 15, 2024

March 19, 2024

Trump, who represents that his assets are vast, is not able to post a bond covering the full amount of a $454 million civil fraud judgment against him during appeal and has related the same in a filing in court.  He's seeking not to have to post bond.

If the Court does not grant him relief, execution on the judgment could start immediately.

Last prior edition:

The Post Insurrection. Part VIII. The tangled web edition.

Monday, March 18, 2024

Thursday, March 18, 1909. Tragedies.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 18:  1909.  Guernsey hotel keeper John "Posey" Ryan murdered his estranged wife, and her daughter, in the Palmer Restaurant in Cheyenne.  From WyoHistory.org. 

In other horrifying Cheyenne news:



In Denmark, Einar Dessau spoke over the radio to a government post six miles distant, becoming the first person to speak over the radio.

I can, on good days, speak well over three times that distance on my GMRS radio, or on bad ones, about half that.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., the fourth child of Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt, was born.  He died eight months later on November 8, 1909.  Five years later the Roosevelt's would name their fifth child the same name.  He would live until 1988.  His son also named Franklin remains with us to this day.

Tampa waterfront, March 18, 1909.
Tampa, March 18, 1909.




Savanah, Georgia, March 18, 1909.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Monday, March 17, 1924 Telephones and grim news.

The first around the world flight attempt was commenced by the United States Army Air Service.  The aircraft consisted of four Douglas World Cruisers.


The initial leg of the trip was from Santa Monica, California, to Seattle, which was the actual departure point.




Today In Wyoming's History: March 17: St. Patrick's Day1924  Work began on a dial telephone system at Guernsey. 

If Guernsey was getting good news, there was grim news on this St. Patrick's Day for central Wyoming residents.



Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 17, 1874. John Younger shot and killed

 


John Younger of the James Gang was paid with the wages of sin when he went down in  a gun battle when he and Jim Younger ambushed Pinkerton detectives who had asked them for directions.  After detaining them, detective Louis Lull drew a hidden pistol and shot John in the neck, Jim killed Deputy Sheriff Edward Daniels, John pursued Lull into the woods and shot him.  John Younger then died of his wounds, Lull died three days later.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, March 15, 1874. The Second Treaty of Saigon.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

The 2024 Election, Part XIV. Wishful Thinking.


February 27, 2024

Just yesterday, I posted this item by Robert Reich:
I'm seeing a lot less of this sort of commentary than I did for a while. At first Democrats would post the "I hope the GOP nominates Trump" as we'll beat him for sure, followed by, next "everyone is ignoring how well Joe Biden is really doing."  

Over the last month Trump has cemented his nomination.  He will be the GOP nominee.  He is ahead in the polls for the Fall.

What Reich notes is correct.  There's a very larger number of independents who will not vote for Trump under any circumstances whatsoever. And, added to that, there are an appreciable number of Republicans who feel the same way.

But are there enough of both in swing states?

I really doubt it.

A second Trump Presidency is going to be, at best, a very unpleasant and bad thing for the United States.  It doesn't speak well for the country right now that somebody like Trump can even pull down a sizable number of votes, let alone be a serious contender for the Oval Office.  Whether it's a sign of American decline or will be remembered as a tragic, ignorant era for the US is yet to be seen, but it's not good anyway you look at it.

Of course, I could be wrong. And odd things are now happening.  Republicans are being forced to deal with the real meanings of social conservatism for the first time since the early 1970s, and are proving uncomfortable with it.  The behind the scene hopeful backing Trump hope to go a lot, lot further yet, even though the MAGA crowd appears perfectly comfortable with its own vices that real social conservatives would address.  Mike Johnson, who saw himself as a would be Moses in this effort, looks instead to be pathetically weak. The abandonment of Ukraine by the MAGA GOP over Donald Trump's bizarre love for Putin is looking pretty bad. There are a lot of things left to occur, but anyway you look at it, we're in the strangest American election to have every occured.

February 28, 2024

Biden and Trump won their respective primaries advancing the two tickets Americans want the least for the Fall, assuming that Americans continue to believe the absurdity that both parties shove on them, that nobody can vote for a third party.

About 13.5% of Democrats joined in a childish protest against Biden over support for Israel in the Middle East, somehow believing that throwing the election to Trump, who can be guaranteed to be a bigger supporter of Israel than Biden, serves their interest.  This also is evidence of the strong progressive wing in the party, whose influence drives away moderate Democrats.  This shows Biden to be in real trouble, but then, as the song says, the Democrats have decided to "knock on wood".
Marianne Williamson has unsuspended her campaign, and is back in the Democratic race, where nobody noticed she was running in the first place.

Get a clue, Marianne.

March 1, 2024

On the US Mexico border yesterday, Donald Trump complained about:
People who don't speak languages. We have languages coming in to our country, nobody that speaks those languages. They're truly foreign languages. Nobody speaks them

What?

I think I know what he means, but this is completely nonsensical. People don't speak the languages?  Nobody speaks them? How are they coming here then.

Something isn't right with Trump.

March 3, 2024

Trump won the Idaho Caucus and Missouri Caucus and took the delegates from the Michigan Convention.

At a rally within the last few days, Trump stated:

"And Putin has so little respect for Obama that he's starting to throw around the nuclear word."

On this occasion, the crowd actually fell into silence.  But here we are again.  Trump not being able to recall who he is running against is significant.

March 4, 2024

Hinging its decision on the idea that the 14th Amendment is not self enacting, the Supreme Court reversed a Colorado Supreme Court decision barring Trump from running.

And so the disaster continues.

Trump won North Dakota yesterday.

He will win Super Tuesday today.

Haley won Washington, D.C. over the weekend.

Democrats are now pinning their hopes on the 40% of GOP voters who are opposing Trump in the primaries.  That's a forlorn hope.

March 5, 2024

Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, in her announcement that she is not running for reelection, took Americans to task, stating:

Americans still choose to retreat farther to their partisan corners... The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic, attacking your opponents on cable news or social media. Compromise is a dirty word.

She's right. 

March 6, 2024

Trump won every Super Tuesday primary except for Vermont, which was won by Haley.

Biden won all the Democratic Super Tuesday states.

March 6, 2024

Nikki Haley had dropped out of the race.

Dean Phillips dropped out of the race.

And so the Republican Party will present with an ancient, strange narcissist who attacked the democratic institutions of the country but who is loved by his right wing base like a bobbysoxer at an Elvis concern, and the Democrats will present with an ancient nice man who has been willing to compromise his beliefs to satiate the left in his party. 

It's the race that most of America doesn't want.

Assuming both men are alive by the election, which given their ages is not a certainty, it's very unlikely that either will survive the next term of office, making the VP choice more important than ever.  We don't know who Trump's VP will be, but that person will have to at least appear as a fawning sycophant. Biden's is, of course, the unliked Kamala Harris.

And so the nation continues to endure the tragedy of inadequacy that is propelling it to destruction.

March 7, 2024

Mitch McConnell has endorsed Trump, although in a very lukewarm fashion.

Nonetheless, it's a disgusting end to his role as the leader of the GOP in the Senate.

John Barrasso, who has already endorsed Trump, and who is running for reelection, has put his hat in the ring to be McConnell's successor as head of the party in the Senate.

March 8, 2024

George Santos showed up at the State of the Union Address and is indicating he's running for Congress again.

March 12, 2024

North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley was chosen by the RNC to serve as the party's new Trump sycophantic head, and Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair in unanimous votes.

The Republican Party has died, which makes up my mind in my earlier "shall I stay or shall I go" question I posed here.

Positions with the RNC are being slashed as the party merges with the Trump campaign organization so that it can more effectively apply the Führerprinzip.

March 13, 2024

Both ancient candidates now have enough delegates from an ancient and outdated electoral system to make them their party's nominees.

Which doesn't mean they have to be the choices, even though they will be.

An ABC News/Ipsos survey found that 59% of Americans view Trump unfavorably while 29% rate him favorably.

A weird sideshow occured on This Week last weekend when the host repeatedly asked Nancy Mace, who had revealed that she was a rape victim some time ago, why she supports Donald Trump, who has been convicted by a civil jury of having committed rape, although not directly.  She never could really answer the question, essentially conceding that she's supporting somebody icky for political expediency, while trying to accuse the questioner of shaming her for being a rape victim.

She looked like a complete political hack.

She actually had a point, however, and never really made it.  Trump wasn't convicted by a civil jury of rape, but rather sexual abuse.  What Carroll claimed Trump did was to force himself on her as he shoved his mouth on hers, yanked her tights down, and penetrated her with his hand and then his penis. That would definitely be rape.  The verdict, however, would indicate that the jury thought Trump did something unwelcome, but not necessarily the penetration aspects.

That leaves enough room for those who support Trump to state that in actuality he wasn't found liable in a civil trial for rape itself, as commonly understood.  Mace stumbled into trying to say it, but saying "he didn't rape her he instead forced himself upon her and conducted force groping or something, according to a New York jury" is a pretty poor defense.

So, in the end, Mace did the very thing she supposedly spoke against, excused a man of a type of sexual violation of a woman and shamed her, at least vicariously, for which she should be ashamed.

March 14, 2024

No Labels Co-Chairman former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, region from that position, using the classic "more time with his family" excuse.

Colorado Republican Ken Buck is resigning his office this month, which means that Colorado will have to hold a special election to replace him.  He was from the Freedom Caucus right but took shots at the expired GOP for conducting unconstitutional impeachment efforts and made it clear that his resignation is due to discuss.

Lauren Boebert had moved into his district in hopes of keeping her political carpetbaggery going and is upset about the whole thing.

March 15, 2024

Donald Trump endorsed Barrasso for GOP Senate whip.

Boebert's problems may be much more complicated than originally thought, according to a Colorado newspaper.  She's an incumbent but carpetbagging her way to a new district, Ken Buck's, in hopes of retaining a seat. Colorado's law provides that an election has to be held to fill Buck's seat, which is now scheduled for the same day as Colorado's primary.  The party has to pick the candidate and there's rumors that Boebert might not be it.

Moreover, if she is it, she'll have to resign her current seat in Congress as Colorado's law doesn't allow a person to run for one seat while holding another, apparently.

Or so some say.

In the Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Führer category, Nancy Mace, running for a seat from South Carolina, who last week couldn't explain why a woman who is a rape victim is supportering somebody found liable for sexual abuse, took the positio that her primary rival Catherine Templeton should drop out of race now that Trump has endorsed Mace's re-election.

"To do otherwise would be to oppose the direction our party leader, Donald Trump, has set for us,” Campaign Manager John Mason Long stated.

An interesting article was published in the Cowboy State Daily by former Wyoming Speaker of the House Tom Lubnau:

Tom Lubnau: Analyzing The Anonymous Mailers Attacking Chuck Gray

The dollar figure aspect of this is a little shocking.

March 16, 2024.

Mike Pence will not endorse Donald Trump, which is to Pence's credit.  He's one of the few Republicans whith a backbone.

The WEA is mounting a campaign against far right Casper Republican Jeanette Ward.

March 13, 2024

Ward was the subject of a second major ad in the Trib.


Ward also drew a lengthy letter to the Editor in the Trib.  Usually I don't post those, but I will here as this is interesting.

Ward wasting time with culture wars

Representative Jeanette Ward,

House District 57, has been doing a poor job of representing her constituents and listening to their needs. She has voted against numerous bills that would have helped Wyoming citizens and instead wasted valuable time during the legislative session touting culture war issues. House Bill 50, the “What is a Woman” act, is a prime example of this. During a budget session the legislature has 20 days to pass a budget. That is literally the only job that legislators have during the budget session. It takes a 2/3 majority to get a non-budget bill to the floor for debate. Knowing this, Representative Ward introduced a bill that wasted time and resources and was completely unnecessary. That bill rightly died because it failed introduction.

This session, she also voted against bills that committees had spent many hours considering during the interim period, which was disrespectful to their work and slowed down the legislative process. She voted against funding the 988 suicide hotline even though Wyoming has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, literally voting against saving lives. Last session she voted against most of the bills that would have helped families and disadvantaged Wyoming citizens, including Medicare for Moms, which helps low-income women provide for their babies. Fortunately, other legislators understood the issue and the bill passed. Representative Ward is not interested in helping Wyoming’s most vulnerable citizens, she would rather propose bills that are solutions looking for problems.

This is not acceptable. House District 57 deserves a legislator who listens to constituents, focuses her time on the budget during a budget session, and understands what genuine issues matter to Wyoming. She is not it. We need someone who has solutions to Wyoming problems, not someone who fans the flames of culture wars. Voters need to remember this on election day.

Judy Trohkimoinen,

Casper

This would suggest that perhaps there's a rising effort against Ward, who was endorsed by her predecessor, now Secretary of State Gray, because of her far right views, even though she had next to no connection with the state when she arrived, or people are getting tired of her.  

In some ways, this reflects a rising feature of Wyoming's politics in which the old Party is beginning to react more strongly to the Trump Party.


March 16, 2024

After a break of one day, the WEA resumbed its advertisements on Jeanette Ward.

I don'tt know of anyone running against Ward, but given the persistence of the campaign, somebody must be lined up that the WEA, the largest union in the state, supports.

Columnsit Rod Miller of the extremely conservative Cowboy State Daily, even though he's a traditional Wyoming Republican, wrote on the invasion of out of state carpetbagging Republicans.


Miller isn't the only one concerned:


Schuler expressed concern that this was in part due to the recent arrivals.

Last edition:

Monday, March 4, 2024

Saturday, March 4, 1944. The resisting defeated.

The USCGC Makinaw was commissioned on this date in 1944. She'd serve as an ice breaker until 2006.

The German military, evil cause notwithstanding, was proving itself to be as amazing in defeat as it had been in victory.  Never as well-equipped or modern as its propaganda would have it, it was nonetheless a potent fighting force, both in defeat as well as victory.  On this day, the Second Narva Offensive resulted in a German victory.

Outnumbered, the Germans took thousands of casualties, but not as many as the Red Army. Both armies had a disregard for life.  The Germans were, frankly quite surprisingly, aided by the presence of able Estonian recruits who had only recently entered service.

The latter was a portent of what was to come. As 1944 marched on, the German frontiers contracted, and as they did, the bloodletting, in part due to increased German resistance, meant that 1945, not 1944, was to be the bloodiest year of the war.

The Red Army launched a new series of offensive actions in Ukraine.  Stalwart German resistance notwithstanding, and the frankly primitive state of much of the Red Army, the tide had irrevocably turned.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—March 4, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Mar. 4, 1944: Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch assumes command of US Seventh Army in Algiers, to prepare for landings in southern France.

Germany's battlefield performance on the Baltic coast and in Italy notwithstanding, the direction the war was headed in was obvious and the Allies were preparing not only for Operation Overlord, but Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.  Patch was placed in command of that operation.


Patch had already seen combat command in the war in the Pacific, and more specifically Guadalcanal, making him one of a handful of U.S. generals who served against the Germans and Japanese. His health in the Pacific had been very poor, and he suffered from pneumonia while serving there.

Patch was born into an Army family and had originally wanted to be a cavalryman, but foresaw its obsolesce so he instead chose the infantry when he graduated from West Point in 1913  He saw action in the Punitive Expedition and in World War One.  He never recovered from his respiratory ailments and died on November 21, 1945, just after the end of the war.  He was 55.

Other things were also occurring in Algiers.

French industrialist, and fascist, Piere Firmin Pucheu went on trial in Algiers in spite of conditions that probably should have led to his safe presence in Algeria, Vichy role notwithstanding.  He had been the Vichy minister of the interior.  He was the first person tried under the French Committee of National Liberation's September 1943 edict charging all Vichy ministers with treason, something that was frankly political and extralegal.  He would be found guilty and executed on March 20, 1944, going to his death after shaking hands with his own firing squad and giving the order to fire himself.

Pucheau is an uncomfortable example as to how some examples of Allied justice were not just. Pucheau was largely not admirable. He was a fascist, and he had a hatred of Jews.  His execution, however, can be viewed for his being on the losing side of the war.

The 8th Air Force targeted Berlin, but only 29 bombers made it through due to weather.

Fighting was going on at Los Negros, where Troy McGill performed an act of heroism that would result in his receiving a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy at Los Negros Island, Admiralty Group, on 4 March 1944. In the early morning hours Sgt. McGill, with a squad of eight men, occupied a revetment which bore the brunt of a furious attack by approximately 200 drink-crazed enemy troops. Although covered by crossfire from machine guns on the right and left flank he could receive no support from the remainder of our troops stationed at his rear. All members of the squad were killed or wounded except Sgt. McGill and another man, whom he ordered to return to the next revetment. Courageously resolved to hold his position at all costs, he fired his weapon until it ceased to function. Then, with the enemy only five yards away, he charged from his foxhole in the face of certain death and clubbed the enemy with his rifle in hand-to-hand combat until he was killed. At dawn 105 enemy dead were found around his position. Sgt. McGill's intrepid stand was an inspiration to his comrades and a decisive factor in the defeat of a fanatical enemy.

Chinese and American troops who have just received first aid treatment are seen in a 2½ ton truck for transfer to the rear.  March 4, 1944.  Note the tanker's helmet and the M1917 helmets

The U-472 was sunk in the Barents Sea.  She never sank a single ship.

China and Afghanistan entered into a pointless treaty of friendship.

Mobster Louie Lepke, birth name Louis Buchalter and also known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, was executed.

Louis Capone met the same fate on this day, for the same reason.

The Phillies attempted to introduce a blue jay logo.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Monday, March 3, 1924. End of the Caliphate.

The Turkish National Assembly ended the Ottoman Caliphate.  It had been in existence for 407 years and claimed religious sovereignty over Islam.  The Assembly also ordered that Abdulmejid II and his harem were to be deported by March 15.  The official deposing of Abdulmejid would come at 2:00 a.m. on March 4.

He did not welcome the news and warned that the ending of the caliphate would cause the rise of extremism in Islam, which his role as the religion's leader of Muslims tempered.  He proved to be correct.  He lived the rest of his life in Europe, at first in Switzerland, and then in Paris, where he died in 1944.  His exile was not an easy one at first, and he was disappointed that Muslims did not demand the restoration of his office.

The Teapot Dome investigation continued.


And the local Piggly Wiggly was robbed.  That location is now a tattoo parlor.

Last prior:

Saturday, March 1, 1924. The Nixon Nitration Works Disaster.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 59th. Babble and Horse Theives.

Eh?

I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me.

Donald Trump to a reporter at CPAC.

Seriously, does anyone think that Trump is well? 

American immigration laws are a mess, to be sure, but what the crap was this about?

By the way, the British NHS publishes this as symptoms of fronto temporal dementia:

Many people with frontotemporal dementia develop a number of unusual behaviours they're not aware of.

These can include:

being insensitive or rude

acting impulsively or rashly 

loss of inhibitions

seeming subdued

losing interest in people and things

losing drive and motivation

inability to empathise with others, seeming cold and selfish

repetitive behaviours, such as humming, hand-rubbing and foot-tapping, or routines such as walking exactly the same route repetitively

a change in food preferences, such as suddenly liking sweet foods, and poor table manners

compulsive eating, alcohol drinking and/or smoking

neglecting personal hygiene

As the condition progresses, people with frontotemporal dementia may become socially isolated and withdrawn.

I'm not a mental health professional, but Trump isn't right. 

There's something oddly charming about this.

CASPER, Wyo. — Ronald Ostrom, 54, of Powell, Wyoming, was convicted on Dec. 8 by a federal jury on six felony charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Monday said Ostrom’s charges included two counts of making a false writing, two counts of making false statements, one count of concealing and retaining government property and one count of conversion of government property.

Ostrom is a retired U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer. According to evidence presented at trial, and the jury’s verdict, when Ostrom retired he failed to return, and then kept for his own use and gain, a government-owned horse named “Reo.” Ostrom also lied on forms about two horses he returned in place of government-owned horses.

Theft is wrong, but stealing your service horse is oddly really Western, and somewhat charming.

I hope Reo is okay. 

Last prior edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 58th Edition.Counting Chickens

Monday, February 26, 2024

The 2024 Election, Part XIII. The storms of never satisfied greed edition.

 

[An elected official] should never put holding his office above keeping straight with his conscience…he should be prepared to go out of office rather than surrender on a matter of vital principle.

Theodore Roosevelt, 1911

If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn't dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.

Diocletian

February 6, 2024

Presidential Race.

Trump has been advancing towards prison, albeit slowly given the current glacial pace of American criminal justice, as he's also been advancing in the polls.

February 6, 2024

No immunity.

Of course, who really thought there was?

Unfortunately, the delay in issuing the opinion has resulted in the postponement of the trial originally scheduled for March.

Cont:

Matt Gaetz and Elise Stephanik have co-sponsored a resolution that Donald Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States on January 6, something that clear is an attempt to address the 14th Amendment in that insurrection may be excused under it.

Having said that, a resolution that it didn't occur will not excuse it, and this will not get through the Senate.

Trump, who has avoided debating his Republican challengers, stated on Monday:

I’d like to debate him (Biden) now because we should debate. We should debate for the good of the country,

Biden responded:

 Immediately? Well, if I were him, I’d want to debate me, too. He’s got nothing else to do,

Biden won the Nevada Primary.  In the GOP Primary, which doesn't decide anything as their caucus does (much like Wyoming in this regard) "None of the above" won, an embarrassing defeat for second place finisher Nikki Haley.

State Races

Republican (yes, I know that this is blue, we're going with the international color standards, not the moronic US ones)

Harriet Hageman.  Only Hageman has announced, and she'll win in the primary and general absent something massively bizarre happening.

No Democrats have announced.

U.S. Senate

Republican.

John Barasso.  He's the incumbent and will win.

Reid Rasner. Ranser is a challenger from the far right whose campaign will go nowhere.

No Democrats have announced.

Some information:

Candidate Filing Period ……………………………………………………………………. May 16-May 31, 2024

Minor and Provisional Party Candidate Deadline ………………………………………… August 19, 2024

Independent Candidate Deadline ……………………………………………………………….. August 26, 2024

3,891 Signatures Required for Statewide Races 

February 8, 2024

While almost nobody cares, Marianne Williamson dropped out of the Democratic race for the Oval Office.

February 9, 2024

Trump won the GOP Nevada Caucus.

Biden will not be charged for retaining classified documents, but the report that was released regarding it calls his mental status into question.

Biden probably does have some cognitive decline.  Trump, I'm guessing (without a medical license) may be showing the early signs of some species of dementia, which is why he forgets, is childish, and mean.  Two candidates in their 80s, effectively, is absurd. And to keep the grip of American power in such an aged group (McConnell and Schumer aren't youngster, nor was Pelosi), seems to be based on the assumption that nobody under 60 years of age is qualified to do anything, which is insulting really (and I'm 60).

The one thing both parties agree on is that, in spite of their pathetic performance, that no voter may ever look at a third part, and that the election is, and must be, binary. No matter what else is the case, the voters must never ever look at any choice other than the Democrats or the Republicans.  Effectively, Democrats would rather have voters look at Trump than a third party, like the American Solidarity Party The GOP holds the same, and would rather have voters look at the Democrats than a third ticket made up of something like Manchin/Cheney, or Christie/Manchin.  Pathetic.

February 10, 2024

In spite of the fact that it's well demonstrated that machines are more reliable than hand counted ballots:

Park County Citizens Push To Ditch Voting Machines In Favor Of Hand-Count Ballots

The angst that's been falsely introduced into elections has to stop. This would be unreliable, result in multiple hand counted recounts, and be slow.

February 11, 2024

Trump is attacking Biden's cognitive status, Biden is defending his, and Haley is attacking both of theirs, even using a "Grump Old Men" theme in a major way.

Trump spoke at an NRA Presidential Forum at the Great American Outdoors Show in Pennsylvania.

Biden has declined a pre Super Bowl interview for the second time in a year, something that has caused political functionary and sometimes advisor James Carville to comment that Biden's administration doesn't have enough confidence in him to allow him to do an interview.\

February 12, 2024

Trump made a comment late last week that if President, he'd cause the US to dishonor its NATO commitments and refuse to defend any country that was delinquent in its defense contributions.

This provoked a reaction from NATO's Secretary General.

He also in a rally asked where Haley's husband, who is a deployed National Guardsman, was, an odd question for a man whose "wife" is often not present.

In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed that Taylor Swift voting for him would be disloyal, in light of his actions as President having resulted in her making a lot of money.

This may all be an interesting look into a portion of Trump's mind, as it seems that money is central to it, which given his life, from birth to his now, given his age, near death, has been central to it.

Cont:

Nikki Haley's husband posted a reply to Donald Trump's childish "where's her husband" comment with the following:


February 13, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s Super Bowl advertisement strongly recalling JFK's television ad made members of the Kennedy family and some members of the general public angry.

Kennedy apologized to the family.

Frankly, in an election cycle when the leading GOP candidate says something insulting, and often outright stupid, on a constant basis, this is a bit over the top.  Kennedy stands little chance, but the controversy probably aids him.

February 15, 2024

V. Putin oddly announced that he prefers Biden to Trump as he's "more predictable" but that Russia will work with anyone the US chooses.

The Kremlin is likely concerned that Putin's recent interview with Lord Haw Haw is having negative impacts in the U.S.

February 16, 2024

Donald Trump is attempting to replace Rona McDaniel, who had been a loyal laky, with Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law as Republican National Committee chair.  McDaniel is accused of suddenly showing a spine and no longer being as supportive of Trump as she once was.

McDaniel will likely step down this month.

If this all occurs, one of the interesting things is that McDaniel, a political insider, was an earlier post insurrection supporter of Trump who read the winds correctly.  If she's doing that again, it may mean that Trump's fortunes are flagging according to insiders.

If Trump does cause his daughter-in-law to become the RNC head it's likely that some remaining real Republicans will abandon ship at that point.

Cont:

Manchin bows at, but condemns both parties:

February 18, 2024

From the AP:

PHILADELPHIA -- As he closes in on the Republican presidential nomination, former President Donald Trump made a highly unusual stop Saturday, hawking new Trump-branded sneakers at “Sneaker Con,” a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show on Earth.”

Trump was met with loud boos as well as cheers at the Philadelphia Convention Center as he introduced what he called the first official Trump footwear.

What the crud.

A thought from here:

Why isn't anyone suggesting that Tammy Duckworth replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket?



I worry about their safety too. These people, everyone in this room is in great danger. We have a nuclear weapon that if you hit New York, South Carolina is gone

FWIW, and Trump is receiving criticism on this, the yield of a nuclear weapon is sufficient by a long measure to destroy South Carolina from a strike in New York.  Prevailing wind patters, also, would not carry the fallout there.

Anyhow, I'm noting this here as a recent item on NPR's Politics discussed Trump's fear of nuclear war, which apparently is very pronounced. 

I don't give Trump credit for deep thought s on very much.   The Internet has allowed a lot of those in the shallow end of the pool to have voice as if they know what they're talking about, and frankly I'd include Trump in those in the shallow end of the pool.  But apparently nuclear war is one thing he actually thinks about and has opinions on, and he's afraid of it.

That doesn't really surprise me too much.

Trump came of age in in the 1960s which was at a time that the fear of nuclear war was quite pronounced.  It remained that way in the 1970s, and by the early 1980s I recall being forced to read  A Republic Of Grass. which urged that we surrender to the Soviet Union, essentially, right then and there rather than face the prospect of nuclear war, which lefties were certain Ronald Reagan was going to get us into.  I recall some on the right saying "there are worse things than death" in response to such things, which is harsh, but true.

But if your values end at yourself, maybe there aren't.

February 23, 2024

Trump's daughter-in-law who is campaigning for appointment to the RNC declared that Republican voters would likely welcome using RNC funds to support his legal battles.

I'd strongly question if this was legal, and frankly it likely opens the RNC up, in my view, to a Rico charge.

February 25, 2024

Trump took South Carolina yesterday, as he was expected to do.  Absent the intervention of an exterior force, such as the Court (unlikely), perhaps criminal conviction, a really shocking revelation, or old age mortality, he will be the GOP nominee.

NPR ran an interesting pre-election edition of its Politics podcast, in which it was revealed that many South Carolina Republican voters felt Trump was "the only person who can save the Republic". "From What" might be the logical followup.  He seems ill-suited to take on any of the really serious problems of the day, and there are many really serious problems.

What that reveals is the extent to which rank and file Republicans feel that leftward social drift is destroying the Republic, something that's been going on since at least the Civil War, if not the founding of the Republic itself.  Of interest, I read a comment by one of Trump's backers and former staffers who now works at the Heritage Foundation to the effect that governmental developments dating back to Woodrow Wilson need to be more or less fully reversed.

Woodrow Wilson, President from 1913 to 1921.

Of course, Wilson wasn't nearly as left wing as Republican daring, Theodore Roosevelt.

Interestingly, Lindsey Graham was booed by a crowed after being introduced by Trump at a victory rally.

February 26, 2024

The Kochs have ceased funding Haley.

Sen. John Thune, the GOP number two in the Senate, has fallen in line and endorsed Trump.

Authoritarian El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele received a standing ovataion at CPAC.

Related Threads:

Lex Anteinternet: Why isn't anyone suggesting that Tammy Duckworth r...


Why isn't anyone suggesting that Tammy Duckworth replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket?


Last edition:

The 2024 Election, Part XII. The March To Moscow

Friday, February 23, 2024

Saturday, February 23, 1924. Electric Trucks.

The Saturday magazines hit the stands, including this issue of Colliers:
The issue had some good articles on it, including one that would still be considered timely.

Politics and oil were a topic.

On oil, the issue had an Autocar Truck advertisement advertising gas and electric trucks. . . the latter being something that locals now insist just can't happen.


And Colt had an advertisement on handguns in a national magazine, something that wouldn't happen now.  While the government is referenced, it's really home protection, a theme we still see, that is being suggested.

The Royal Navy intervened in the ongoing dockworkers strike to move 4,500 bags of mail from the United States.

Albanian Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu was shot twice by an anarchist would be assassin, but survived.

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Legislatures. Back to the future and other diversions?

A scene from the early 1970s Wyoming legislatures at the Hitching Post?  See below.

Former Wyoming Legislator Tom Lubnau, who was truly one of the great ones in the old school Wyoming way, has taken up writing columns for The Cowboy State Daily. That's to the CSD's credit and shows its effort to become a real electronic journal, something that's impressive considering it was set up as a right wing organ.  Lubnau is a conservative Wyoming Republican, but a conservative Wyoming Republican, something that's becoming increasingly rare.  

Or maybe not.

He's not afraid of poking at the wolverine.

He recently wrote this interesting item:

Tom Lubnau: Legislating Private Parts Is Popular This Legislative Session

This op ed is written from the point of view that virtually defined Wyoming Republicans for my whole adult life, up until the Obama/Trump Era, when things began to get really radical in the legislature.

His article is illuminating and I'm linking it in for several reasons.

One of those is that Lubnau give a really nice discussion of the law as it used to be, on some of the same topics that I addressed here:

Until Death Do Us Part. Divorce and Related Domestic Law. Late 19th/Early 20th Century, Mid 20th Century, Late 20th/Early 21st Century. An example of the old law, and the old customs, being infinately superior to the current ones and a call to return to them.


I note this, in particular, from his article:

I guess in thinking about it, I came of age in the Disco Era and that's the law I'm familiar with.  Lubnau is right, the GOP in this state, from the 70s on, really didn't care what you were doing, with whom, behind closed doors, as long as you kept your business to yourself, and it also didn't really care if your marriages broke up, etc., as a result of it, or anything else.  I'd assumed it had long been that way, but as Lubnau's quote from the Wyoming Compiled Statutes, 1910, shows, that's not the case.

I looked it up in the actual 1910 Code, and Lubnau was a little off.  He must have been reading the 1970s vintage codification, or miscited it.  The provison, and those otherwise cited in this thread, were still there in 1957, the last version of the by then much expanded Wyoming statutes I had handy, and they were almost certainly there up until the early 1970s.  In 1910, it was a different statutory section that the cited number (and the number was different in 1957), but here, right from the 1910 book, is what it states.


This is in a section of the statutes on offenses to public morality, and in looking at it, I found that something else I had thought to be illegal, but couldn't later fine, was in fact illegal, that being cohabitation without being married.


So, in my earlier statement that I had thought it was illegal, was in fact correct.  It was illegal.

Seduction of minors, keeping in mind that the age of majority, was a crime, but not quite in the fashion modern statutes provide for it, which would now be a species of rape. At the time, seduction of underage women, at least "older" ones, was a misdemeanor, although this raises interesting questions given that women could clearly marry at 18, or younger, at the time. This relates back to the earlier discussion we had, in the threat noted above, regarding Seduction at law.


At the same time, however, Section 5803 of the 1910 Code provide that rape, conventionally defined, was a felony, as well as having carnal knowledge of a female under age 18.  The dual age of majority, long a feature of Wyoming's law, was apparently already there.  Particularly notable, however, is that the law didn't distinguish between rape and statutory rape, they were the same.

It did distinguish between male and female.  A man could not be a victim of rape under the statute, although that would have constituted assault in any event.

Lubnau goes on in his article to comment:
It seems, now, there is a trend to sponsor legislation to invite the State of Wyoming back into the bedroom.

One has to wonder if regulating bedroom conduct is the pressing issue of the day, or if there is some other motive such as creating a campaign issue for the election season, that is driving the legislation.  In other words, how many people do you meet every day whose biggest concern is lack of regulation of private parts? 
Following that, he takes a look at HB 50 (What is a Woman Act) HB 68 repealing the obscenity exception for school, college, university, museum or public library activities or in the course of employment of such an organization, HB 88 making it illegal to “publicly communicate” obscene material, Democratic HB 76, making it illegal to interfere with a woman’s right to an abortion if the fetus is not viable*, or in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother., HB 137 requiring a pregnant mother to receive an ultrasound prior to receiving a chemical abortion “in order to provide the pregnant woman the opportunity to view the active ultrasound of the unborn child and hear the heartbeat of the unborn child if the heartbeat is audible.”

And that's probably not all of these.

They all did fail, fwiw, most failing to secure introduction.  The reasons vary, including procedural, but it might actually show that more of the old style, post mid 1970s Republicans remain in the legislature than might be supposed.  For that matter, however, it might also show that a lot of the populist legislators everywhere, at the state and Federal level, aren't hugely familiar with the legislative process.  In Wyoming trying to advance a bunch of these bills in a budget session, after declaring that you had the strength to advance them, was likely a mistake.

The obscenity one is interesting, as the 1910 Code had a section on that, providing:


The failed proposed statues state:
HOUSE BILL NO. HB0068

Obscenity-impartial conformance.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Hornok, Angelos, Bear, Neiman, Ottman, Pendergraft, Penn, Rodriguez-Williams, Strock, Trujillo and Ward and Senator(s) Ide

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to crimes and offenses; repealing an exception to the crime of promoting obscenity regarding possessing obscene materials for specified bona fide educational purposes; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 6-4-302(c)(ii) is repealed.

Section 2.  This act is effective July 1, 2025.

And:

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0088

Public display of obscene material.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Ottman, Davis, Hornok, Penn and Strock

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to crimes and offenses; prohibiting public communication of obscene material; providing a definition; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 6‑4‑301(a) by creating a new paragraph (vi) and 6‑4‑302(a)(iii) are amended to read:

6‑4‑301.  Definitions.

(a)  As used in this article:

(vi)  "Publicly communicate" means to display, post, exhibit, give away or vocalize material in such a way that the material may be readily and distinctly perceived by the public at large by normal unaided vision or hearing.

6‑4‑302.  Promoting obscenity; penalties.

(a)  A person commits the crime of promoting obscenity if he:

(iii)  Knowingly disseminates or publicly communicates obscene material.

Section 2.  This act is effective July 1, 2024.

The abortion bills, of which we have now had a variety, are interesting too, as I ran across the original 1910 statutes on that, which may well have been modified before 1973 (I don't know). Abortion was still illegal in 1973, I just don't know if the exact same text remained until then. In 1910, the law provided:
§ 5808. Attempted miscarriage. 
Whoever prescribes or administers to any pregnant woman, or to any woman whom he supposes to be preg- nant , any drug , medicine , or substance whatever, with intent thereby to procure a miscarriage of such woman ; or with like intent uses any instrument or means whatever, unless such miscarriage is necessary to preserve her life, shall if the woman miscarries or dies in consequence thereof , be imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than fourteen years .
§ 5809. Woman soliciting miscarriage . Every woman who shall so- licit of any person any medicine , drug or substance or thing whatever , and shall take the same , or shall submit to any operation or other means whatever , with intent thereby to procure a miscarriage (except when necessary for the purpose of saving the life of the mother or child), shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars and imprisoned in the county jail not more than six months ; and any person who , in any manner whatever, unlawfully aids or assists any such woman to a violation of this section , shall be liable to the same penalty.
I'm not going to comment on any of these, but I'm only noting that this provides a really interesting example of the evolution of the Legislature, and for that matter a Western legislature that's been Republican controlled the entire time. Republicans of the 70s and 80s would have a hard time recognizing the party today if they hadn't been there for the evolution.  I suppose that's true of the Democrats then and now as well.

I'm also noting it as I earlier quixotically argued that the heart balm statutes and accompanying provisions ought to be restored.  Lubnau has gotten into the weeks and found one of the statutes of that era that I didn't address, §7206 of the 1910 code.

Going back to that code, a fair amount of it would be unconstitutional today, as the United States Supreme Court had found that the sodomy provisions are contrary to some vague unwritten stuff in the penumbra of the Constitution having to do with privacy.  "Privacy" doesn't actually appear in the text of the Constitution.  The last crime noted, and the one about animals, is probably still capable of being illegal, and actually the last one, which would have to do with adults in relation to minors is probably actually still illegal elsewhere.  To some degree, with this statute, you have to read between the lines, but to some extent you do not.  The law basically criminalized anything contrary to nature, and it was pretty clear that there was an accepted concept of what nature, in this context, meant.  Frankly there still really is, although now, save for minors and "beasts" we license it societally.

The provisions on rape and abortion could probably have just been left alone, keeping in mind that abortion was legalized under Roe, and then taken back to the state under Dodd's.  Had that been all left untouched, the law would arguably have been clearer now than it is.  Interestingly, the statute drafters of that era tended to use an economy of words which tended to make their intent quite clear.

What about the statutes pertaining to "heart balm" and, well, sex?

Today's legislature of the Freedom Caucus variety, all over the country, clearly looks backwards to restoring society to what they imagine it was. This actually shows what it was.  And not just that, but the statutes regarding divorce as well.

Let's look once more.


"Shacking up" was illegal.  Given the present state of Constitutional Law, I doubt it could be made illegal (I'm quite certain it couldn't be).  Would the social warriors be game for trying?

This concept, quite frankly, underpins everyone other one regarding marriage.  It was designed to prevent what the 1910 statues called "bastardy" and the burden it created on society, and it grasped what marriage really was.  For that reason, quite frankly, I'd be for its return (although as stated, I don't think it can be under the current interpretation of the Constitution.  Those populist right-wingers who would not go that far, probably ought to reconsider their positions on things

Those who would be horrified by such a proposal, and frankly that's probably most people now, ought to reconsider their support for populism, if they are populists.

And then there is this:


Would the legislature of today go that far?  Again, this is clearly unconstitutional under the current law, and it would in fact outlaw homosexual conduct, as well as a bunch of non-homosexual conduct.  Presumably no modern legislature would be comfortable with what the pre 1970s Wyoming legislature, and pre 1970s Wyoming society, was in this era.  Probably nobody ought to be, as this is really invasive.

What about divorce, the subject that the other thread was sort of on, and this one sort of is on as well, and which again gets to the heart of the topic.

Ealier in the state's history, the legislature barred remarriage within a year, which is signficant if we consider that cohabitation without being married was flat out illegal.  The 1910 statutes provide:
§ 3951. Remarriage prohibited within one year . 
During the period of one year from the granting of a decree of divorce , neither party thereto shall be permitted to remarry to any other person . Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a mis- demeanor , and shall be fined in any sum not less than twenty - five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars , or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding three months , in the discretion of the court.
Frankly, I'd think this a worthwhile provision and it likewise, like the staute on cohabitation, ought to be restored.

Going from there, I'd note that in 1910 the statutes on dissolving marriages started off iwth annullement, which is now an afterthough in the statutes.  It wasn't theen, and was relatively extenisvely addressed, indicaditng that hte drafteres thought that a more likely event, potentially, then divorce.

Divorce required cause, those being:
§ 3924. Causes for divorce . 

A divorce from the bonds of matrimony may be decreed by the district court of the county where the parties , or one of them reside , on the application of the aggrieved party by petition , in either of the following.cases : 
First - When adultery has been committed by any husband or wife . 
Second - When one of the parties was physically incompetent at the time of the marriage , and the same has continued to the time of the divorce . 
Third - When one of the parties has been convicted of a felony and sentenced to imprisonment therefor in any prison , and no pardon granted , after a divorce for that cause, shall restore such party to his or her conjugal rights . 
Fourth - When either party has wilfully deserted the other for the term of one year . 
Fifth - When the husband or wife shall have become an habitual drunkard . 
Sixth - When one of the parties has been guilty of extreme cruelty to the other . 
Seventh - When the husband for the period of one year , has negected to provide the common necessaries of life , when such neglect is not the result of poverty, on the part of the husband, which he could not avoid by ordinary industry . 
Eighth - When either party shall offer such indignities to the other , as shall render his or her condition intolerable . 
Ninth - When the husband shall be guilty of such conduct as to constitute him a vagrant within the meaning of the law respecting vag- rancy . 
Tenth - When prior to the contract of marriage or the solemnization thereof, either party shall have been convicted of a felony or infamous crime in any state , territory or county without knowledge on the part of the other party of such fact at the time of such marriage . Eleventh - When the intended wife at the time of contracting mariage, or at the time of the solemnization thereof shall have been pregnant by any other man than her intended husband and without his knowledge at the time of such solemnization . [ R. S. 1887 , § 1571 ; R. S. 1899 , § 2988. ] 

 Evidence was required:

§ 3947. Corroborating evidence required . 

No decree of divorce, and of the nullity of a marriage, shall be made solely on the declara- tions , confessions or admissions of the parties , but the court shall in all cases require other evidence in its nature corroborative of such declarations , concessions or admissions . [ R. S. 1887 , § 1597 ; R. S. 1899 , § 3011. ] 

§ 3948. Proof of adultery insufficient when . 

In any action brought for divorce on the ground of adultery , although the fact of adultery be established , the court may deny a divorce in the following cases: 

First - When the offense shall appear to have been committed by the procurement , or with the connivance of the plaintiff . 

Second - When the offense charged shall have been forgiven by the injured party and such forgiveness shall be proved by express proof , or by the voluntary cohabitation of the parties with the knowledge of the offense . 

Third - When there shall have been no express forgiveness and no voluntary cohabitation of the parties but the action shall not have been brought within three years after discovery by the plaintiff of the of fense charged . [ R. S. 1887 , § 1598 ; R. S. 1899 , § 3012. ] 

Provisions were provided for to restrain and examine the husband during divorce proceedings, but not the wives.

Again, the old law here would work, or at least it would with modification. Would anyone be bold enough to suggest it be restored.

I doubt it, and therein lies an element of built in hypocrisy of the modern populist social warrior.  To really get at the core of this, you have to get to the core of it.  But hardly anyone is willing to even contemplate what that means.

Lubnau has pointed out that, at one time, the laws were much more restrictive in conservative Wyoming.  In the 1970s, the Republican Party, not the Democrats, radically liberalized them.  But not only did the US become much more liberal, all society did as well, for good or ill (probably mostly for ill).  Many of those who carry the banner for a return to what they regard as having been great aren't prepared to go back to what that really meant, but like Dr. Zhivago states in the novel, an operation cutting out corruption, if that's what you are really doing, is a deep operation.  

Put another way, you can't really address these social issues unless you are prepared to go to the very core of them, and that would mean addressing male/female, male/male, female/female "adult" relationships at their core.  The only thing that the populist far right is really willing to do is to address homosexuality in its various expressions. But that's relatively rare, and if you aren't willing to go further, and say that those relationships outside of marriage are wrong, and that you marry once and for life, well then, you really are just pointing fingers.

Our perfunctory favorite couples again.

Footnotes:

* This bill provides an example of  why the Wyoming Democrats go nowhere.  There's no reason for the Democratics here to be the party of death, like they insist on being elsewhere, and bills like this keep moderate Republicans who would cross over from doing so.  This is particularly the case as this bill stands less than 0 chance of being introduced.