Friday Open Thread

20 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Oh darn, I missed happy insurrection day. 

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   1. We knew you wouldn't be here for TFG Putsch Day.  You were off celebrating the carnage.  Or mourning the ultimate failure of this Putsch.  Or helping to plan the next one.

      Say what you will about President Biden, he knows how to take the piss out of TFG.  Cucked again.

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   2. You were probably the only Polster who was happy about “Insurrection Day”. But here’s a celebratory anthem for you, courtesy of the Colbert Report:

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2. Oh no, Cyber Ninjas are going out of business! Now how will we ever know if the 2020 election in Colorado was rigged?

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   1. Karen wants to know if they're having a going-out-of-business sale: two fraud verdicts for the price of one.

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      1. Unfortunately, my guess is the going out of business sale involves a whole lot of data

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   2. It gets better:

      "Cyber Ninjas is shutting down," company representative Rod Thompson told NBC News. "All employees have been let go," including CEO Doug Logan….

      But an Arizona judge who had just fined it $50,000 a day for noncompliance with an August order to turn over audit-related records to The Arizona Republic, wasn't having it.

      "The court is not going to accept the assertion that Cyber Ninjas is an empty shell and that no one is responsible for seeing that it complies," Maricopa Superior Court Judge Hannah told Cyber Ninjas lawyer Jack Wilenchik. He questioned the company's insolvency, citing millions in donations, and suggested it needn't cost much to comply with the records request. Hannah said the fines would start to accrue Friday, and may be applied to individuals in the company.

      The lawyer representing them in court asked to withdraw — and the judge said no, not until there is another local attorney in place to take over.

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   3. One has to acknowledge that Cyber Ninjas, in the end, did a great job. They found several hundred more votes for Biden. I bet that pissed off the far right wingers in the Arizona state senate.

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      1. The judge cited millions in donations. Perhaps the right-wingers demanded their money back when they didn't get the result they paid for.

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         1. They're trying to close up shop and run away with their dupe money and the judge isn't having it. Recall Polis could only dream to get this far.

             

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            1. It’s almost like the Polis Clown Car is racing on another (dirt) track!

               

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3.  I look forward to the parody ads…

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   1. SNL will have a ball with this.

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4. Justice Sotomayor is ON FIRE.

   Get some popcorn and follow today's live-blogging of the anti-vax cases being heard at the Supreme Court. 

   What's on the line is much, MUCH more than vaccination mandates. The Federalist Society Judges are going for a HUGE power play to have un-elected judges take decision making away from the experts and expertise embedded in Federal Agencies.

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   1. Gorsuch Seems To Tips His Cards

      Gorsuch is leaving little doubt where he stands on the issue.

      “It is not our role to decide public health questions,” he said, identifying the Court’s choices as a “federal agency on the one hand” and the “Congress of the United States and state governments” on the other.

      “Why does this not belong to people’s representatives,” he asked, pointing out that states usually have the responsibility for overseeing vaccine mandates.

      “Congress has had a year to act on the question of vaccine mandates already,” he said, echoing Roberts’ claim that the federal government is going “agency by agency” because it can’t make Congress act.

      This is the argument of someone who wants to take power away from federal agencies — safe in the knowledge that the Senate is currently simply unable to pass major legislation. That could cause great difficulty for the Biden administration and anything it tries to do unilaterally.

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5. Local decision-makers are not shy about embracing Cancel Culture.

   The Sentinel: Regis Jesuit High School fires teachers after pro-choice column runs in student magazine

   "The [school administration's] letter did not say if any students or staff members were disciplined.."

   Not an opportunity to answer. Not more dialogue.  Not "we screwed up and going forward, we'll have a better process."  Yanking the entire print run; taking the entire issue off the web page. Firing [in some fashion] two teachers when only substitutes were available to fill the positions.

   Clearly, this isn't a First Amendment issue.  But it does reveal a mindset VERY different than the Jesuits I met at several universities, on the debate circuit, and as sort-of colleagues when I was an adjunct at Regis University.

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   1. That is a sad reflection on how Jesuit principles of scientific inquiry and academic rigor have been corrupted by right wing politics. I am a Regis University alumna myself, and the Jesuit approach has influenced my iwn teaching. 

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6. WOTD from Marcy Wheeler: "I'm Just there to open the Envelopes"

   In other words, a key part of the House brief describes Trump giving Pence an illegal order, and then, after Pence refused to follow that order and announced he would do his own Constitutional duty, Trump took actions to focus the anger of the mob on his own Vice President.

   It’s not just what Trump said about Pence, the incitement of an assassination attempt against his Vice President that Trump claims is protected by the First Amendment, but it’s about an illegal order Trump gave to Pence, which Pence duly ignored.

   That order was unconstitutional, and as such is not protected by the First Amendment.

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   1. The direct chain of corruption between Trump pressuring Pence, and then targeting the rioters at him. It was planned ahead of time, executed during Jan 5th & 6th.

      There is a direct line of corrupt intent from the moment where Trump asked Pence, “If these people say you had the power, wouldn’t you want to [exercise it]?” and efforts that his mobsters — both those who planned this in advance and those who reacted to Trump’s incitement — made at the Capitol. Some of the most central players in the attack on the Capitol have testified under oath that they understood their goal to be pressuring Mike Pence. In pursuit of that, they broke into the Capitol, they assaulted cops, they occupied the Mike Pence’s seat.

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7. We lost another good man: Sidney Poitier dies at 94.

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