20 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. 

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2. WOTD from Vox: "The psychiatrist who briefed Congress on Trump’s mental state: this is “an emergency”"

   Eliza Barclay
   One thing that seems to make a lot of people uncomfortable about psychiatrists like yourself commenting on Trump’s mental disturbances is that you have not evaluated him. So how is your assessment ethical? Why should the public take it seriously?

   Bandy Lee
   We are assessing dangerousness, not making a diagnosis. The two are quite separate: Assessing dangerousness is making a judgment about the situation, not the person. The same person may not be dangerous in a different situation, for example. And it is his threat to public health, not his personal affairs, that is our concern.

   A diagnosis, on the other hand, is a personal affair that does not change with situation, and you require all relevant information — including, I believe, a personal interview. Most people who are dangerous do not have a diagnosable mental illness, and most people with mental illness are more likely to be victims than perpetrators.

   Also, once you declare danger, you are calling first for containment and removal of weapons from the person and, second, for a full evaluation — which may then yield diagnoses. Until that happens, physicians and mental health professionals are expected to err on the side of safety and can be held legally liable if they fail to act. So we’re merely calling for an urgent evaluation so that we may have definitive answers.

    

    

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3. Apparently Roy Moore didn't have a Jew after all.

   Roy Moore’s real Jewish lawyer is a Liberty University graduate who ‘has accepted Christ’

   “We read where we were against Jews — even calling us Nazis,” she told the news outlet in an email. “We have a Jewish lawyer working for us in our firm — Martin Wishnatsky. Judge hired him while Chief Justice, then I hired him at the Foundation.”

   Wishnatsky, 73, was indeed born into a Jewish family, attended a Hebrew school and went to synagogue, as he told Al.com. But in his early 30s, he said, he had “an experience of the reality of God.” Initially, he attended a Mormon church, and later converted to evangelical Christianity.

   In fairness, though, he is their kind of Jew.

   Now, he identifies as a Messianic Jew. “That’s the term they use for a Jewish person who has accepted Christ,” he told Al.com.

   Messianic Judaism is a religious movement of self-proclaimed Jews who embrace Jesus as their savior. Most Jewish groups view it as a form of Christianity, as do most evangelical Christians.

   And they’re going to need him.

   Roy Moore accuser files defamation suit against him

   Leigh Corfman claims in a lawsuit filed this week in Alabama that she’s been the victim of harsh personal attacks since going public with the accusation, according to The Washington Post, who first reported on Corfman’s accusation in addition to the accounts of other women who said Moore had dated them when they were high school age and he was in his 30s.

   She is not seeking financial compensation beyond legal fees and is looking for a public apology from Moore, as well as a court-enforced ban on Moore or his campaign that would prohibit him from allegedly criticizing her again.

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   1. [Wishnatsky] had a spiritual awakening during a trip to Hawaii when a woman “prayed to Jesus to take away my sins,” he told The Post.

      Um, ok….I've had that happen, too, but it didn't make me want to be a Mormon.

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      1. Hmm, I wonder, did he have a similar experience as Marc Cohn sang about in "Walking in Memphis"?

         She said "Tell me are you a Christian"
         I said "Ma'am I am tonight"

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         1. 

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   2. Or, there's another solution…

      Roy Moore accuser's home burns down in possible arson

      Tina Johnson, who said in November that Moore grabbed her rear end in his office in 1991, reported that her home in Gadsden, Alabama, had caught fire on Tuesday, according to AL.com. The local fire department was able to put out the blaze but not before Johnson’s home and belongings were destroyed.

      I guess Roy's not the only one nostalgic for the "good old days" of the South.

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      1. Heritage . . . 

         . . . you Yankees will never understand. 

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         1. Who you callin' a Yankee, Dio? By dumb luck, I was born in Alabama. Both parents born and raised there.

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4. WOTD2 from Josh Marshall: "Trump incapable of following the law"

   Throughout the last year, and particularly in the reporting we’re seeing in recent days, a persistent theme is that Donald Trump not only sometimes breaks the law but has no familiarity or experience following it. The idea of limits is simply alien to him and we see this repeated pattern of aides scurrying around, plotting amongst themselves, all trying to prevent him from doing things that are not only clearly illegal or even unconstitutional but wildly self-destructive. The months’ long effort by even the most transgressive and aggressive aides – folks like Steve Bannon, for example – to stop Trump from firing James Covey is the most vivid and high-octane example.

   …

   Obviously, I’m playing this for laughs at some level. And in any case, even if we use Trump’s family background and acculturation to understand his criminal mindsight, society needs to defend itself from habitual criminal and those who view themselves as above the law. But there is a reality here and it’s a reality I think is key to understanding Trump and the situation the country is currently in. As his top advisors and aides seem to realize as clearly as anyone, Trump is wholly unable to follow the law. He needs to be monitored closely to prevent him from doing it. And don’t get me wrong. Many of these folks are not at all the best people. They’ll break the law. But they’re also acculturated into law-abiding society. So they have a sense of how to do it sparingly so as to at least avoid getting caught. Trump seems to have no such experience. That all worked out fairly well when he operated his fiefdom out of New York, using hyper-litigiousness (paradoxically) to preserve his invulnerability, working the tabloid media culture and cultivating an enabling and protecting relationship with the local offices of the FBI (a still mainly untold story).

   Quite simply he doesn’t know how to follow the law. The same seems to apply to his family. The fact that he is also charged as the top person enforcing the laws of the United States is a mismatch that will and indeed eventually must blow apart. It’s only a matter of time. Indeed, in some sense, it’s already happened.

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5. Winning with tax cuts!

   AT&T sued over layoffs—after promising more investment because of tax cut
   AT&T explanation of layoffs undercuts claim that net neutrality hurt investment.

   Comcast fired 500 despite claiming tax cut would create thousands of jobs
   As Comcast pushed for tax cut, fired employees had to sign NDAs to get severance.

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6. The foundation of the corporate takeover of America is now in place. They recognize no restraint. Accountability and regulation of the great thieving magpies of Megacorp, USA is now a thing of the past.

   Naomi Klein was right on the money.

   Wait for the disaster capitalists to swoop in when the Wall Street disaster comes to fruition. They are flush with cash…waiting to pounce. When they are done they will own the entire country…not just most of it.

   The corporations will have the dedicated assistance of MegaChurch, USA in keeping the poor rabble in line.

   The acendency of the Christian fundamentalists will be complete when President Pence takes over for a disgraced or incarcerated Trump. With the courts and both houses of congress at his beck and call, we can expect to see Christianity, Baptist style, become entreched as our national faith and for the church to become the willing accomplice to the rape of America. .

   Welcome to theocracy…

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   1. Omg.

      Will I have to speak in tongues? I mean, where I come from that gets an exorcist on the run, and will my health plan cover that?

       

      Can part of Colorado just secede and join a native nation?

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   2. The part about Trump eventually being forced from office is definitely coming into view — as we learned from Watergate, it's not so much the initial crime, but the subsequent cover-up that nails them:

      Legal experts said that of the two primary issues Mr. Mueller appears to be investigating — whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice while in office and whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia — there is currently a larger body of public evidence tying the president to a possible crime of obstruction.

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7. Kobach follows disbanding of Trump voter commission with charges against two voters

   He found them!

   Both Fullmer and McCaughey appear to be registered Republicans.

   Oopsie!

   Que J Fullmer

   Bailey Ann McCaughey

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   1. Why are the only two fraudulent voters that Kobach's commission found from Colorado?  I mean, of course they're Republicans – Republicans are the only ones invested enough in voter fraud to make it happen – but why Colorado Republicans?

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      1. I expect that when it is investigated we'll find that the CO elections that these Republicans illegally voted in had tax implications. Republicans believe to their core that it is proper to lie, cheat and steal in order to deprive agencies of the $ necessary to carry out their responsibility.

          

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8. No Friday Jams yesterday, so leaving this here:

   A Change is Gonna Come:

    

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   1. Lots of good music on YouTube from Playing for Change Band.

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9. I expect that when it is investigated we'll find that the CO elections that these Republicans illegally voted in had tax implications. Republicans believe to their core that it is proper to lie, cheat and steal in order to deprive agencies of the $ necessary to carry out their responsibility.

    

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