Cranky Old Man #82

On my ride home after breakfast at the diner a few days ago, I saw dozens of people, usually in clumps of 4-5, wearing all red. I've lived here a long time, so I know what this means — it's game day. The university's color is red, the team has a home game, and many people wear red to support the team.

Can't imagine there's any sporting advantage to it — the home team isn't going to sink an extra free throw because the seats will be filled with red-wearing fans — so what it really means, of course, is indoctrination. Standing together. Merging yourself into the crowd. It's a small-scale manifestation of groupthink and obedience, and I find it small-scale troubling every time I see it, before or after every home game for football, basketball, hockey, badminton, etc.

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Happy 20th birthday, Guantanamo Concentration Camp

Guantánamo Bay was a mad, cruel experiment about how legal limbos and forged purgatories of the law can function to dehumanise and degrade. It was developed by people supposedly versed in a liberal legal tradition but keen to make exceptions in battling a supposedly novel enemy. The detainees were deemed “unlawful enemy combatants” — as if there was such a thing — thereby placing them outside the formal protections of humanitarian law. They were subjected to sleep deprivation, forced feeding, lengthy detainment, beatings, stress positions and an assortment of other torture methods.

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Texas says supply chain issues have limited the number of voter registration forms it can give out

Skeptical.

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Capitol attack panel grapples with moving inquiry forward: to subpoena or not?

The Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and Republican members of Congress Jim Jordan and Scott Perry may have inside knowledge about Trump’s plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election and whether it was coordinated with the Capitol attack.
But the outright refusal of McCarthy and the other Republican lawmakers to testify voluntarily with the investigation has intensified discussions among the panel’s members and investigators about whether to force their cooperation.
The select committee is undecided on whether to take that near-unprecedented step, in part because of one major concern that has emerged in recent days, according to two sources familiar with the matter: Republican retaliation against Biden and Democrats in future inquiries.

They're pondering the political repercussions, which is almost always the wrong thing to do, and certainly the wrong thing to do in a matter of such urgent consequence. As if Republicans will be cordial, and behave within precedent and prudence, if only the Democrats let them get away with an attempted coup?

Do the right thing. Do it now, or don't. Either way, what happens next will let voters see what the Democrats' leadership is made of.

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College football coaches making $25,000 a day? Let’s sideline this lunacy!

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U.S. Senate candidate Gary Chambers smokes marijuana in new campaign ad

The candidate, Gary Chambers, is black and genuinely progressive, and of course I'm rooting for him, but from my great (and greatly appreciated) distance, victory seems unlikely. He's running in a Louisiana Democratic primary against a bland white middle-of-the-road Democrat, for the right to face a beloved QAnon incumbent.

That said, the ad is brilliant, gets across the message, and if I had money and could anonymously donate to Chambers, I would.

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Sixty years ago, NASA scientists found that women would be better astronauts. Their work was never published.

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Michigan Attorney General: 'Absolutely' enough evidence to charge GOP electors

Oh, I like this. Michigan AG Dana Nessel is deferring to the feds for now, which makes sense, because it looks like an interstate operation. If US AG Merrick Garland continues to seem unconcerned with the Republican crime wave, state prosecutions would be perfectly proper.

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Emily’s List and NARAL — abortion rights groups — withdraw support for Sinema over filibuster

“So, we want to make it clear: if Sen. Sinema can not support a path forward for the passage of this legislation, we believe she undermines the foundations of our democracy, her own path to victory and also the mission of EMILY’s List, and we will be unable to endorse her moving forward,” Butler said.

I don't know whether this is a Big Deal — Sinema won't face election until 2024 — but it's the right thing to do.

So many politicians and political groups won't do the right thing, because it's futile or might have political consequences, but that's dumb. Doing the right thing, even when it's just a gesture, is how people know you're seriously in favor of the right things.

Case in point: Me. Until reading this, I'd thought Emily's List was a left-leaning group with feminist tendencies. No, they're specifically about abortion rights — but I only know that because today they spoke up about Sinema blocking filibuster reform that would protect voting rights — because big picture, that relates to abortion rights, too.

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Boy robot writes a note… in 1774.

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Athletes warned against speaking up on human rights at Beijing Games

It's a precaution that probably makes sense:

"Chinese laws are very vague on the crimes that can be used to prosecute people's free speech," Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang said.

The real question is, Why are the Olympics being held in a totalitarian nation while it's well-known to be committing genocide? And the real answer is, money.

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By habit, choice, and for simple survival, I tune out most of the Republicans' stupidity and cruelty, but this one's a doozy:

Florida Department of Health confirms Dr. Raul Pino put on leave for encouraging Orange County Department of Health employees to get vaccinated

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One-word newscast:

• COVID

• Republicans

• Republicans

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What's the solution to the QAnon and Republican assault on common sense and common decency? With Fox News and a thousand mysteriously well-funded media outlets trumpeting BS 24/7, how can their lies be defeated by the truth?

It would take a rigorous and vigorous dedication to telling the truth by mainstream media, but "mainstream media" is the Catch 22. No matter how deep the river of lies, the New York and Los Angeles Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN will never simply report that Republicans are full of shit. Until mainstream media calls liars liars, plainly — and in the news, not merely in editorials — democracy will continue drowning in lies.

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Mystery links — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

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Sing along with Doug:
Hava Nagila, by Chubby Checker
Tip 'o the hat:
All Hat No Cattle • Linden Arden
BoingBoing • Captain Hampockets
Follow Me Here • John the Basket
LiarTownUSA • Messy Nessy Chick
National Zero • Ran Prieur
Vintage Everyday • Voenix Rising
Extra special thanks:
Becky Jo • Name Withheld • Dave S.
and always, Stephanie
1/19/2022
Cranky Old Man