Sat - When Jesus Brought the Calendar Down From Mt. Sinai

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Well to Be Frank, I'd Have to Change My Name
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

My Nephew is an ER Doc at Encino Hospital.  He Was Supposed to Arrive At Work 3 Hours After the Attack.

"A man stabbed a doctor and two nurses at Encino Hospital Medical Center's emergency department in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and barricaded himself inside."
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He was heartsick about the people he worked with being in critical condition.  His wife and kids are terrified about him going to work.  He, and those he worked with, lived through the nightmare of treating COVID patients.  For 6 months, he came slept in a guest bedroom and had no direct contact with his family, so he wouldn't pass COVID on to them after working long nightmarish shifts.  And now this.

At least this guy didn't have an AK-47.  Will the next one?

Molasses Merrick Takes Forever to Make a Horrible Decision

The U.S. Justice Department has decided not to charge Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino, two former officials in ex-President Donald Trump's White House, for failing to cooperate with a House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper cited a letter from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves to House General Counsel Douglas Letter in which he said "my office will not be initiating prosecutions for criminal contempt" against Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, and Scavino, a former deputy chief of staff.

My Opinion:  Here's Why It is a Horrible Decision

DOJ has already got an insane policy that places the President above the law.  This puts severe limits on any oversight of what is going on or has gone on in the White House.

According to current policy, Presidential crimes can only be prosecuted after he has been impeached.  However, to impeach a President, Congress has to be able to investigate and compel White House cooperation with the investigation.  

These actions set up a system where the President can commit crimes with impunity.  Congress needs the right to compel disclosure by those in the Executive Branch.  It would be one thing to set up some limits on that disclosure.  It is another thing to say that some people who worked closely with a former President can just ignore Congress.

Another Opinion

So if I am reading this correctly, all I have to do is provide some documents to the committee then I can refuse a legal subpoena or to corporate with Congress going forward, which is against the law mind you, and I can get away with it?

No wait, "I" couldn't get away with that, and if a Republican appointed AG was leading the DOJ and this criminal referral came from a GOP controlled Congress I doubt a Democratic appointed Chief of Staff could either... Which is my point.

If anyone refuses a subpoena from Congress they are breaking the law, party affiliation should not matter. I would stand behind an charging document for anyone who willingly ignores a Congressional subpoena regardless of the underlying reason for Congress's investigation. The rule of law only matters if laws are enforced.

If any other American in this situation would have been charged for ignoring a Congressional subpoena, including a Democratic appointed Chief of Staff, why is Meadows being treated differently?

By not changing Meadows doesn't it at least appear that the DOJ is playing politics? By trying everything in their power to look non political aren't they just being political?

Isn't there any concern about how this greatly weakens Congress's ability to conduct oversight in the future?

We Can Thank the QOP for Inaction on Climate Change

Farmers are already feeling the pain. About 75% of the water from Lake Mead goes to agriculture.

Over a third of America's vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown in California. But tens of thousands of acres lie idle because farmers can't get enough water to grow crops.

The impact may be seen on grocery store shelves next year, Bill Diedrich, a Californian farmer, told BBC. This season's produce shows up at shops next season, he explained as he showed his bone-dry fallowed fields. Typically, he would plant tomatoes for canning on this field but he didn't have enough water.

Mr Dietrich said he hoped his children would have the opportunity to carry on farming in California in the future.

But, he said, "I don't know what the odds of that are".

For many living in California's agricultural heartland, the wells have already started to run dry and they can't afford to dig a deeper well. Charities deliver bottled water and large tanks of non-potable water for washing.

In the San Joaquin Valley, Fabian, a local resident who declined to share his surname, said he and his family of five rely on tanks of water outside his home to wash and flush their toilets. He regrets moving them to a rural area with such insecure access to water, he said.

"It's quite frightening because we don't know at this point what the situation will be within a month or two months of maybe not having water at all".

Many farmers argued that it's time for another massive infrastructure project like the Hoover Dam, which was built in the 1930s, so that more rainwater can be stored instead of being let to end up back in the ocean.

Dams are controversial and typically opposed by environmentalists - but with the drought now so severe, even California's Democratic leadership - largely aligned with environmental groups - have proposed rethinking some of the state's shelved dam projects.

We Can Thank the California Government for Not Fixing Our Water Use Policy

Before we turn to those projects, let’s float some basic water-use numbers. Around 50 percent of the state’s available water flows unimpeded to the Pacific Ocean. Agriculture uses 40 percent and urban users (commercial and residential) account for the final 10 percent. State officials fixate on eking out additional savings from residences, which use only 5.7 percent of available water resources.

“If all the savings from water rationing amounted to 20 percent of our residential water use, then that equals about 0.5 million acre-feet, which is about 10 percent of the water used to irrigate alfalfa,” wrote the pseudonymous Scott Alexander in his blog, Slate Star Codex. He argued that the state could buy out alfalfa farmers to achieve the gains it’s trying to get out of urban users, adding, “I realize that paying people subsidies to misuse water to grow unprofitable crops, and then offering them counter-subsidies to not take your first set of subsidies, is to say the least a very creative way to spend government money — but the point is it is better than what we’re doing now.” It’s a reminder of the incoherent mess that is modern California water policy.

Many agricultural subsidies are a vestige from the past, when the agricultural industry was more powerful than it is today. These days, the environmentalist lobby is in the driver’s seat — and it sees conservation and rationing as ends in themselves. The state hasn’t built significant water infrastructure since the 1970s, when the population was half its current 40 million.

More About California's Policies

He Had No Radio While the Shooter Was Active

The police chief in charge of the response to last week’s deadly attack at a Texas primary school was not carrying a radio as the massacre unfolded, a state senator has told The Associated Press, citing the state agency investigating the mass shooting.

Senator Roland Gutierrez told the news agency on Friday that a Texas Department of Public Safety official told him school district police Chief Pete Arredondo was without a radio during the May 24 attack.

Authorities have not said how other law enforcement officials were communicating with Arredondo on the scene. Arredondo heads the district’s small department and was in charge of the multi-agency response to the shooting.

Note to Kandiss:  Even If You Don't Concede, You Still Lose.

Kandiss Taylor was one of a slew of Republican gubernatorial candidates, most recently making the news for her “Jesus, Guns, Babies” platform that included a rally where she laid out her belief in an American theocracy where there is no separation of Church and State, saying, "The church runs the state of Georgia.”

On Tuesday, May 24, Taylor lost her bid to become the next GOP governor of Georgia. She did come in third! … with [checks notes] 3.4% of the vote. The decimal point is in the right place. Incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was able to withstand the MAGA-supported, insider trader David Perdue, winning the primary with nearly three-quarters of the votes. Perdue received a little less than 22 % of the votes and, once again, Taylor received [checks notes again] 3.4% of the vote.

Guess what? The anti-Constitutionalist candidate, Taylor isn’t buying this. The election was clearly rigged, according to Taylor.

Ms. Taylor went on her YouTube channel to live stream Tuesday evening. She opened by saying it was “a miracle I’m on YouTube live again. I haven’t been on here in months.” Why it was a miracle? Hard to say. Seems that the fact that she hadn’t gotten on her YouTube channel to do something “live” for months...and then she does do that, constitutes a “miracle” these days. Nope, according to Taylor, “they don’t like it when I come on here and talk about things that are illegal.”

What those “illegal” things are, we may never know. Taylor went on to explain that she’s taken a short vacation at the beach with her family, after campaigning all over Georgia, meeting with “Jewish patriots, Muslim patriots, Hindu patriots,” all over the Peach State. She wanted to check in and say that “we are nowhere near done,” though she isn’t running “for anything else.” But around the 1:55 mark, she says that while she cannot get into the details of things that are “in the works,” she wants her audience to know she’s serious: “I do not concede.” She also wants you to know that somebody “cheated,” and that she cannot concede because she represents 3.4% of the GOP voters in a primary.

QOP Candidate Promises to Break the Law

Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate for governor, is perhaps the state’s most prominent peddler of former President Donald Trump’s lie that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election.

A state senator and retired U.S. Army colonel, Mastriano says he wants to make everyone re-register if they want to vote again. The concept flatly violates federal law, legal scholars say, and may conflict with state law, not to mention constitutional protections. It is also a throwback to laws designed by white people in past eras to keep Black people or newer European immigrants from voting.

QOP Congressman Complains About Criminals Being Prosecuted.  Gohmert Used to Be the Dumbest Person in Congress.  He Has So Much Competition Now.



Are They Just Noticing This?



Will Pushing Unpopular Policies Ever Hurt the QOP?

'Pro-Choice' Identification Rises to Near Record High in U.S.

55% now identify as pro-choice, the highest percentage since 1995

For first time, majority of Americans say abortion is morally acceptable

Democrats drive most of the attitudinal shifts supporting abortion rights



I Don't Need to See Photos to Know Killing People is Horrible

Daughter Of Slain Sandy Hook Principal Would Like You To Stop Asking For Autopsy Photos

Some gun control advocates think showing graphic photos of mass shootings will sway lawmakers. Victims of those same shootings say to quit asking them.

“STOP ASKING ME FOR AUTOPSY PHOTOS,” Lafferty tweeted on Tuesday. “The audacity of those who are asking and demanding Sandy Hook crime scene photos to be released is unfathomable. I envy those who don’t and can’t understand the weight of this ask.”

My Parents Lived Through Kristallnacht.  They Would Not Have Agreed.  No Donors Have Been Beaten or Had Their Businesses Destroyed.

Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters complained about having to disclose donations under federal campaign finance law in a recent podcast interview, appearing to agree with the suggestion that it’s similar to Kristallnacht, the Nazi attack on Jews in 1938.

“If someone gives $100 to a political candidate, why are we exposing their name and their hometown and their employer to the public? That’s really crazy. Maybe if you cut a million-dollar check, people should know that,” Masters said on the May 25 episode of “The Greg Medford Show.”

“It’s for hit lists. And AOC said this, one of the first things she said after Joe Biden was inaugurated is, ‘We need to de-Trumpify this country.’ And she said, ‘We’re making lists,’” Masters added, appearing to refer to this tweet by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

In the Nov. 7, 2020, tweet, Ocasio-Cortez actually said, “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.”

Greg Medford, the host of the podcast, responded: “Right, that’s like Kristallnacht. That’s like Kristallnacht.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Masters said. “No, it’s absolutely wild.”

This Doesn't Qualify as Target Practice

An animal rescue outfit in Honolulu said people are shooting blow darts at stray cats around Schofield Army Barracks, suggesting the culprits are soldiers who allegedly purchased the weapons during recent training in Indonesia. The military says it’s on the case.

Multiple cats have been injured, KAT Charities wrote on Facebook Thursday. A local animal hospital confirmed to KHON that it had treated one of the cats.

KAT shared a photo of the feline, named Katniss, with the blow dart still embedded in the neck.

Remember Reagan's "Big Tent".  It Is Now a Small Handkerchief

A Republican congressman who came out in support of gun control after a mass shooting in his area dropped out of the race for his re-election on Friday upon coming under withering criticism from Republicans who saw his policy shift as a betrayal.

Chris Jacobs, a first-term U.S. representative from suburban Buffalo, New York, said he decided to withdraw to avoid "an incredibly divisive election" for the Republican Party.

Jacobs embraced a federal ban on assault weapons and other gun control measures a week ago in the wake of two massacres. Authorities say a white gunman killed 10 Black people inside a supermarket on May 14 in a racially motivated attack, and a gunman killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in another attack in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

Ohio Tackles School Safety in the Worst Possible Way

Ohio is set to enact a law that allows teachers and other staff to be armed with guns in schools once they have completed up to 24 hours of initial training.
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Ohio's House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban transgender girls from school sports and require verification from a doctor if a student's sex is called into question.

Fox News Tried to Show the "Liberal Media" Was Biased Against Durham.  Instead, They Showed How Biased They Are.

I can't figure out how to link the video directly. Watch it here

Newsweek Says Putin Had Cancer Treatment and Survived an Assassination Attempt.

Vladimir Putin's health is a subject of intense conversation inside the Biden administration after the intelligence community produced its fourth comprehensive assessment at the end of May. The classified U.S. report says Putin seems to have re-emerged after undergoing treatment in April for advanced cancer, three U.S. intelligence leaders who have read the reports tell Newsweek.

The assessments also confirm that there was an assassination attempt on Putin's life in March, the officials say.

The high-ranking officials, who represent three separate intelligence agencies, are concerned that Putin is increasingly paranoid about his hold on power, a status that makes for a rocky and unpredictable course in Ukraine. But it is one, they say, that also makes the prospects of nuclear war less likely.

"Putin's grip is strong but no longer absolute," says one of the senior intelligence officers with direct access to the reports. "The jockeying inside the Kremlin has never been more intense during his rule, everyone sensing that the end is near."

Is the end nigh?

Remember When Jesus Created the Gregorian Calendar?  Didn't He Bring it Down From Mount Sinai on Stone Tablets?

Take River Valley HS, Marion County, OH. An alumnus, Jim McGuire, a local businessman, decided that making the students the subject of their own graduation was not the point. Instead, he decided to share his opinions on God, calendars, and marriage.

He started his message with an admonishment to fly right by God, his son, and his book,

“We are sending you into places that we cannot go. It is currently some people’s thoughts to be in vogue to diminish or play down biblical principles. It is what established us, it is what continues to establish us through the years. Everyone in every country in [sic] this planet lives by calendar [sic] that was based on 2022 years ago, it was established by Jesus Christ, and we need to remember that. I promise any time you spend learning God‘s word will not be subtracted from your life.”

The man is a moron. To say that every country on this planet lives by the Christian calendar is an example of some Americans’ arrogant ignorance. It is like saying that every country speaks English because English is the international language of science and business.

The Gregorian calendar is international so everyone is on the same page (literally). But domestically, China (pop. 1.4 billion) uses the NongLi (Farming Calendar). Hindus (1.2 billion) use the Panchanga. And Muslims (1.8 billion) use the Hijri. This means the majority of people do not use the Christian calendar in their daily lives.

Then McGuire lectured on marriage.

“Friends and family. Choose a spouse, I suggest. I also strongly suggest to make sure to choose biblical principles, you know a male with a female and female with a male.”

Every American has the right to follow their faith, including none. But no American has the right to lecture a captive audience with the dogma of that faith. At least he did not tell the audience to marry within their own race.
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The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years differently so as to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long, more closely approximating the 365.2422-day 'tropical' or 'solar' year that is determined by the Earth's revolution around the Sun.

The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in AUC 708 (46 BC), was a reform of the Roman calendar

Ted Cruz Breaks the Hypocrisy Scale

While in Houston last week to celebrate the latest spate of mass shootings with some of his best NRA ghoul-friends, Cruz said this of “elite” gun control advocates in government and the media: “Many of these same people make their accusations from behind great bulwarks of safety, from gated communities equipped with private security or, at the very least, from safe and expensive neighborhoods protected by high home prices and low crime rates. Such people can afford an indulgent ideology that ignores reality.”

That’s particularly ironic, since ignoring reality is one of Ted’s favorite hobbies. The other reason it’s ironic? Ted has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars transforming his own home into a fortress.

Since October 2020, the Cruz campaign has paid Houston-area executive protection firm Atlas Glinn nearly half a million dollars to protect himself and his family—$499,661, almost all of it in monthly lump sums averaging around $30,000, according to federal disclosures. (The Atlas Glinn website features a photo of a security detail guarding Cruz in a parade car.)

Cruz—a Harvard Law School grad who in the aftermath of last week’s elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, attacked the Democratic politicians and the media for dominating the gun control narrative—also put more than $800 of his donors’ money toward “security equipment” last year from Houston-based boutique Caroline Morgan Interiors. It’s not immediately clear from the company’s website exactly which of its wares would fit the bill as security equipment.

While Cruz is the biggest GOP spender, however, he also hauls in the most cash from pro-gun rights groups, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. But the threat of violence now appears to be outweighing those rewards, at least in financial terms. Cruz has spent so much donor money ensuring his own safety that he has fully exhausted the $442,343 he’s received over the years from the gun lobby, and then some.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

I Ain't Afraid of No Recession

On Friday, the Labor Department said the economy gained 390,000 jobs in May, beating analysts’ expectations, while the unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent.

“I’m not sure what’s driving all the talk of recession,” said Johnson. “There’s a lot of negativity out there that’s not well founded.”

The Federal Reserve’s recent change of course on monetary policy is the biggest source of recession fears. After repeatedly assuring investors last year that inflation would prove “transitory,” Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell this year has steered the central bank on a path of interest rate hikes designed to slow the economy and ease pressure on consumer prices.

The Fed’s about-face already has been bad news for financial markets. Lifting interest rates from near zero caused investors to rethink their portfolios, sending stocks plummeting and cementing the notion that something about the economy has gone seriously awry.

But recent indicators suggest that the two-year-old expansion — while slowing from an unsustainable pace of annual growth near 7 percent late last year — shows little sign of slipping into reverse. The labor market is churning out “help wanted” signs faster than employers can add workers. Consumers and businesses are flush with cash. And by some measures, the bond market appears less worried about inflation than do many pundits.
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Invasions Have Consequences

You Heard It Here First

I was posting about Ukraine taking back part of Severodonesk a day or two before the rest of the media picked up the story.

Day 101

Fighting

Ukraine said it clawed back a chunk of the key industrial centre of Severodonetsk, appearing to stymie a Russian drive to capture the ruined city, the focus of Moscow’s offensive to take the eastern Donbas region.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk province, told national television that Ukrainian troops had retaken 20 percent of the territory they had lost in Severodonetsk. His claim of Ukrainian advances could not immediately be verified.

Russia has reinforced its troops and used artillery to conduct “assault operations” in Severodonetsk, but Russian forces retreated after failed attempts to advance in the nearby town of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s military said.

Haidai said in a social media post that four people were killed in Russian attacks in the region on Saturday, including a mother and a child.

In Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on Saturday morning, a missile hit an agricultural storage unit, wounding two people, the regional administration’s spokesman wrote on Telegram.

Moscow will continue its military operation in Ukraine until all its goals have been achieved, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Prosecutors investigating war crimes cases in Ukraine are examining allegations of the forcible deportation of children to Russia since the invasion as they seek to build a genocide indictment, the country’s top prosecutor said.

Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has called on allies to continue to arm Ukraine after “100 days of resistance, bravery and fortitude”.

Economy

The Russian National Settlement Depository (NSD) said it was suspending operations in euros due to the latest European Union sanctions, calling the situation an emergency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Putin denied Russia was preventing Ukrainian ports from exporting grain, saying the best solution would be to ship it through Belarus if sanctions on that country were lifted.

Turkey expects progress on a plan to unlock grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports when Russia’s foreign minister visits next week, a senior Turkish official said.

Diplomacy

The EU blacklisted Russian military commanders who it said led troops involved in atrocities in Ukraine, calling them the “butchers” of Bucha and Mariupol.

Russia accused Germany of throwing European security into imbalance by “remilitarising”, as Berlin shores up its military spending.

Russia’s foreign ministry said it was summoning the heads of US media outlets in Moscow on Monday to notify them of tough measures in response to US restrictions against Russian media.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his country’s support for the Ukrainian people “has not wavered” since Russia invaded Ukraine 100 days ago, “and it never will”.

What Happens After You Use All Your Reserves?

After Ukraine’s military recaptured parts of Severodonetsk in recent days, Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Saturday that the Russian army had regrouped and was “throwing all its efforts, all its reserves” at the city.

Russia is Following Previous Guy's Advice.  Just Declare Victory

Russia—and specifically forces controlled by Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov—made a video to gloat about their capture of Severodonetsk. Twice. A week apart. The only problem is that it didn’t happen, either time. Chechen propagandists were also a little premature with that video that showed how happy the people of Severodonetsk were to be “liberated from Ukrainian Nazis” by their friends the Chechens.



On Saturday, Ukraine is still fighting in Severodonetsk, in spite of the intense pressure Russia has brought against the city from three directions. What’s more, throughout the day on Friday and into Saturday, Ukraine seems to have regained control of a majority of the city.

Russia has every advantage. They have a large numerical edge. They control the surrounding territory. They hold multiple highways and rail lines that reach into the city. Their control lines are short. They’ve even been able to overfly the area with bombers. Every day, every hour, that this fight continues is both a puzzle and a kind of military miracle.

Where's the Fighting?

Here’s a prime artifact of both the confined scale of this battle, and the continued available of cell and satellite phone communication with those directly engaged in the fight.

This report indicates that Russian forces are moving along the P-66 road at the edge of the industrial area of Severodonetsk. The frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces now appears to run along Bohdana Lishchiny Street, with Ukrainian forces advancing east of that street.



Bang!





Whimper



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Doing Something About Gasoline Prices.  Sometimes You Have to Work With Bad People.  



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