In a recent legal action by Trump:

Despite the chaos of election night and the days which followed, the media has consistently proclaimed that no widespread voter fraud has been proven. But this observation misses the point. The constitutional issue is not whether voters committed fraud but whether state officials violated the law by systematically loosening the measures for ballot integrity so that fraud becomes undetectable. [Texas v. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin: Motion of Donald J. Trump to Intervene]

Or, in other words, The fact that we can’t find widespread fraud means fraud occurred.

But I’m not here to poke fun at this blot on someone’s legal history, but to present a question that applies to Trump and, by implication, every single Trump supporter who’s running around with their eyes bulging and their hair on fire:

Prior to the Election, what were your criteria for accepting that Joe Biden won the election?

If the response is

Well, none. We couldn’t lose!

Then it’s time to ask them when they abandoned the principles of the United States and embraced the principles of the Chinese Communist Party, where it’s seize power and never let go, laws be damned.

It’s a question I plan to use if a MAGA hat lover ever accosts me.

Far right pundit and former election lawyer Erick Erickson is entertaining me this morning:

Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, is under a federal investigation and would love a presidential pardon. His lawsuit is just more performative leg humping by someone desperate to curry favor with President Trump.

The various attorneys general who have joined his lawsuit all want to either get re-elected or seek higher office. Joining the lawsuit gives them some measure of ring kissing or protection from any rabid Trump supporters who wanted a “just fight” moment.

Ron DeSantis, mentioned in the title of this post, is Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who, when he entered the primary for his current position, was immediately considered an also-ran. But he knew his constituents and made it his business to appear on Fox News far more than his competitors, won the endorsement of President Trump, and won both primary and the general.

And so Florida is now saddled with a sadly incompetent Governor who has been accused, among other things, of manipulating the Covid-19 numbers in his state to make his management of the pandemic look good, firing his chief data scientist when she, the scientist claims, refused to cooperate, and lately said scientist’s home was raided by Florida law enforcement, who claimed she had been hacking.

So Texas AG Paxton – who, as Erickson notes, is under Federal and, I think, also State investigation, as his own employees blew a whistle alleging wrong-doing in the office of AG, and so he fired all of them – yeah, a real class act he is – knows what he’s about. The world is a reality TV show, in his view.

I personally think my company should pay me workers compensation for brain damage for having to read that lawsuit and related filings. It really is one of the stupidest bits of performative leg humping we have seen in the last five years. These attorneys general are willing to beclown themselves and their states all to get in good with the losing presidential candidate.

A reality TV show where no one – no one – will remember your spectacular incompetence.

The level of debasement these people [other State AGs who’ve joined the Texas lawsuit] have been willing to engage in makes them seem more the ball-gagged gimp from Pulp Fiction, humiliating themselves for their master. They should be ashamed and embarrassed.

I would hope that anyone who might find themselves employing Ken Paxton and the other AGs responsible for joining this impotent lawsuit asking for un-Constitutional actions on the part of SCOTUS will take one look at this ludicrous maneuver and take a pass on them. That includes voters who might find themselves asked to vote for this person.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the right-wing extremists and their followers, trying to characterize them, and all I can come up with self-centered and deeply immature. Somewhere I read that long-time radio pundit Rush Limbaugh claims secession is our only option. He, or his successors and adherents, will look awfully damn stupid when the Russians and Chinese take world leadership away from us, and relegate democracy to an also-ran of governance models. Hell, the New York National Guard may find itself fighting invading Russian armies at Niagara Falls.

Not the US Army. Because there won’t be one.

That’s how stupid Limbaugh, and the far-right, have become.

Well, I’m sad to say that, in the case of former National Security Advisor and General Flynn, Judge Sullivan declined the opportunity to inject even more drama into our drab, colorless lies by rejecting President Trump’s pardon of General Flynn as being premature.

And then sitting on Flynn’s trial, in which Flynn has plead guilty twice and then tried to withdraw his pleas – the weasel – until after Inauguration Day.

Of course, this means the guilty pleas were the legal reality of the situation, and Flynn’s record will forever bear those marks of dishonor – no matter how he and his defenders scrub at them.

And I think Sullivan was right in this:

This just saddens me:

On the last Saturday of the month, two visitors from Nome, Alaska, attended a standing-room-only service in the small local chapel. The Nome visitors relayed that many people back home were sick, but no one was seriously alarmed, wrote Gina Kolata, a science and medicine reporter for The New York Times, in her book “Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It.”

Two days after the service of singing, prayer and feasting, villagers became sick with the flu. Of the 80 local Eskimo villagers, 72 died and their bodies were left frozen in igloos. In one igloo, dogs had scavenged corpses.

“Another igloo looked at first like the site of utter devastation,” Kolata wrote. “And as rescuers peeked inside, they saw only a pile of corpses. Then, suddenly, three terrified children appeared from under deerskins and started shrieking. They had survived somehow on oatmeal, surrounded by the bodies of their family.”

By the end of the three-week outbreak, the village housed only five adults and 46 orphaned children. According to Kolata’s book, Clara Fosso, a missionary’s wife who didn’t get sick, wrote a regretful letter to the Eskimos years later:

“There was a spiritual revival among the Eskimos at the Mission on the last Sunday in November 1918, before the influenza disaster fell upon us. The whole settlement of Eskimos had crowded into the new school room for worship. We felt the spirit of the Lord among us, as the communicants stood at the altar and later met in prayer; many confessed to their faith. We were deeply moved. This was the last time we were gathered together.

“By the following Sunday most members had gone to a more beautiful service with their Savior. You, who are the sons and daughters of these children of God, may remember that many of them died testifying to their Lord and singing the hymn that we had shared on that last Sunday, ‘I Can Hear My Savior Calling.'” [CNN/Health]

And so 46 kids ended up as devastated orphans. The author of this article, Kristen Rogers, later interviews a religious studies dude or two, who make the case that some sects virtually require that members get together to worship, but in the eyes of Nature, that’s just a sect that dies out and doesn’t propagate.

And at the tragic loss of so many people.

Fortunately, between medical advances and a lot less grim virus in SARS-CoV-2 than Spanish Influenza, we needn’t worry so much about that, except possibly for isolated groups that cannot get medical support. But it’s not hard to see Evolution In Action here, is it? Engage in behaviors which deliberately put you at risk, and, by God, Nature will have its way with you.

But that doesn’t stop me from mourning those Inuit who died at the hands of the unthinking.

Nixtamalization:

There’s a number of videos on the subject, but I ran across it yesterday on Max Miller’s Tasting History series. He starts in on nixtamalization at about the 1:57 mark.

A reader writes concerning the advancement of a marijuana bill in the House of Representatives:

When I lived in Colorado, my experience was that conservatives/Republicans/libertarians there were just as big dope smokers as the liberals — if not more so.

To be sure. Largish political parties have many small fault lines, both ideological and geographical. The libertarians have long railed against laws making marijuana use and growth illegal. And I don’t doubt that the Colorado Republicans smoke as well – I’ve always had the impression that the non-Deep-South GOP has had a more relaxed attitude towards marijuana, even if there’s still a token gesture towards the position.

I recall reading a libertarian article on how all anti-recreational drug laws were pushed by the religious right – or maybe religions in general, this was 30+ years ago – because general drug experiences could be interpreted as mystical in nature, suggesting that the mediation of the clergy might not be necessary to achieve connection with the Divine. And we just couldn’t have that, now could we. Take that for what you will.

Also related to this issue: this post by Andrew Sullivan, back in October, celebrating the potential legalization of psilocybin. It’s worth a read, although whether or not I should be taking drug experiences seriously is an open question. I’ve never done any myself, believing that I don’t have enough neurons as it is, so why endanger the ones I have already?

But back to my point, the general push for making marijuana illegal has always been a conservative cause, nationwide. And because the Republicans are loathe to abandon political positions – particularly those considered important to their Religious Right base – as they would then be considered soft, I think the Senate won’t even take up this bill, and, if they do, it won’t be passed.

And the Democrats in Georgia might use that fact against Perdue and Loeffler.

And now – you knew this was coming – Reefer Madness! No, this isn’t a parody! (I’m not quite sure what that 2004 copyright’s doing on the print.) Good ol’ government propaganda at it’s best!

This fall has certainly been one of distraction, so this Max Boot article in WaPo left me breathless:

Erick Erickson is bewildered by the, well, culture of the far-right that he’s periodically helped to engender, and expresses this in a post entitled “How the F— Am I the Sane One?“:

I’m just not down for cults of personality and I continue to note that many of the people most enraged and most convinced that the election is stolen are newcomers to the process who haven’t been around for all the fights before. I like ideas. People? Meh.

What infuriates me the most are the people I know who don’t really believe this stuff, but they’re doing the dog and pony show and performative leg humping so they don’t have people driving past their houses screaming “stop the steal,” like what happened to me last week.

How did I become the sane person in all of this? How did I become the reasonable voice? Me — Erick “let me tell you what he said about David Souter” Erickson!

I suggest Mr. Erickson examine his Trump Derangement Syndrome remark, his abortion is baby-killing broken assertion, and then the thoughts behind this:

I used to be a super political animal and now I am less so and find I am surrounded by people who have become more political. The 24/7 news cycle, social media, the atrophication of in-person social networks, the political demands resulting from a small base of persuadable voters turning America into an “us v them” society, the realization that much of the media really does hate conservatives and Christians — it has all turned into a perfect storm of polarization, politicization, and theological supplementation. As I was disentangling from a lot of it, a lot of people were getting tangled up in it.

Most of the media is run by Christians. Erickson’s problem is that if you aren’t in his sect, well, you’re not Christian. Ask him if he thinks Pastor Rafael Warnock, who is pro-choice, is Christian. Sure, go for it.

So long as Erickson insists on litmus tests, he’ll continue to not understand that he has contributed mightily to the right’s feeling of victimization, and its subsequent decay into the moral depravity of supporting a chronic liar, incompetent, and buffoon over Joe Biden, a man of experience and principles and good reputation.

Yes, moral depravity.

So long as Erickson is convinced the Democrats are evil bastards, he’ll be confused that the right can be even worse.

Readers may remember the recent assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Absard, Iran. The story is evolving:

Officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have divulged new information regarding the Nov. 27 assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Deputy commander Ali Fadavi said during a Q&A session at Tehran University Dec. 6 that Fakhrizadeh had 11 guards with him at the time of his assassination. He was assassinated in the suburbs of Tehran. Fadavi added that 13 bullets were fired at him from the Nissan and that the only other bullets fired were from the Iranian bodyguards.

Fadavi also claimed that the Nissan was controlled through satellite and used artificial intelligence to zoom in on the target. He said that Fakhrizadeh was shot in the back, hitting his spinal cord. [AL-Monitor]

Do I trust the word of the IRGC? Of course not. They’re a conduit for the spread of Iranian arms and propaganda, or at least so the story goes. But the story they’re telling isn’t raising any red flags in terms of consistency or likelihood – everything I read here seems to be easily in the realm of technology.

And it’s interesting to see the evolution of the story:

Fadavi’s statements conflict with earlier reports from Iranian media, which described multiple shooters and a shootout. These reports also suggested an explosion took place. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was one of the first individuals to briefly discuss the use of the satellite-controlled attack.

I presume the consumers of this story are primarily the Iranian public, so this leads me to wonder how the Iranian public is affected by a story of a remote control assassination as compared to an account of …multiple shooters and a shootout. Will this stir up the Iranians more than a brazen attack by a group of assassins on-site? Or will it calm the nerves of people fearing those same assassins will be taking out other targets. The psychology of communication has fascinated me for decades, and this may be an example of a communication used purely to manipulate the target audience.

And … the new account may be entirely true. If so, I wonder why the attackers chose this approach rather than using a drone, as has been used previously by the Yemenis for offensive attacks.

Tired of the anti-vaxxers?

Steve Benen reminds me that, strictly speaking, President Trump’s entreaties to various State entities that they discard the election results and pronounce him the victor are illegal:

Yes, those efforts are clumsy and ridiculous. Yes, his gambit is failing and will continue to fail. But that doesn’t negate the fact that this is one of the most momentous presidential disgraces Americans have ever seen.

What’s more, Trump’s antics may not be legal. As Rachel noted on the show last night, if you or I called election officials, and lobbied them to produce deliberately bogus election results, there’s a pretty good chance we’d face an indictment.

Andrew Weissman, a longtime Justice Department official who helped lead Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, explained in more detail last night how Trump’s election interference may very well run afoul of federal law.

NBC News’ First Read team recently framed the larger story in a compelling way: “Forget Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Or Trump’s impeachment for asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. Arguably the biggest political scandal we’ve ever seen in this country is playing right before our eyes: President Trump and his allies are trying to reverse the election results of a contest he lost.”

In a very real sense, it may be up to FBI Director Christopher Wray to decide if he wants to spring a December surprise on President Trump. To see President Trump marched off in handcuffs before January 20, 2021, would be both a surprise and deeply satisfying for “the left,” as well as NeverTrumpers on the right. And independents, such as myself, who’ve loathed Trump’s terrible, terrible behaviors and morals since he entered the political scene and began his Niagara Falls of lying.

Of course, that raises the question of what would happen to the Trump cult? My guess is they’d take it as a sign of further persecution and become even more firm in their opposition to the election results.

But this might release the silent Republicans who haven’t dared to affirm the election results. We might see a cascade of “Biden will be President” admissions. And with Trump under indictment, who knows what may come out? Perhaps his tax returns, which I suspect will indicate he’s little more than a con-man when it comes to his claims of billions of dollars, will be released, dismaying his followers in the prosperity church community.

Hell, maybe a President Pence would arrange to destroy Trump’s reputation in hopes of salvaging and commanding the GOP.

I don’t really expect Wray to arrest Trump. I don’t expect Barr’s prosecutors to take the case. I don’t expect them to argue Trump’s a flight risk and should not be permitted to pay bail and get out of jail.

But it’d be a helluva lot of fun.

Laches:

A defense to an equitable action, that bars recovery by the plaintiff because of the plaintiff’s undue delay in seeking relief.

Laches is a defense to a proceeding in which a plaintiff seeks equitable relief. Cases in Equity are distinguished from cases at law by the type of remedy, or judicial relief, sought by the plaintiff. Generally, law cases involve a problem that can be solved by the payment of monetary damages. Equity cases involve remedies directed by the court against a party.

Types of equitable relief include Injunction, where the court orders a party to do or not to do something; declaratory relief, where the court declares the rights of the two parties to a controversy; and accounting, where the court orders a detailed written statement of money owed, paid, and held. Courts have complete discretion in equity, and weigh equitable principles against the facts of the case to determine whether relief is warranted. [The Free Dictionary]

Noted “Perhaps the Dumbest Argument Ever Made in Emergency Petition to the Supreme Court Appears in Pennsylvania Election Case,” Rick Hasen, Election Law Blog:

Over the weekend I wrote about the Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court decision to block a ridiculous lawsuit filed by a Republican state senator in state court which argued that the expansion of absentee voting done in 2019 by the Republican state legislature, including the plaintiff in the suit, violated the state constitution. It was a ridiculous suit for many reasons including laches: if you have a problem with an election rule, you cannot wait until after the election is run to see if you like how the election came out before suing. The state Supreme Court unanimously agreed that any kind of relief that would disenfranchise voters who voted using the system approved by the legislature would be impermissible.

That’s Republican law these days. It’s either predatory, stirring up the base, or it’s bloody incompetent.

Jennifer Rubin on business in reality vs business in the right-wing epistemic bubble:

As business leaders and the rest of the country learned in the Trump years, economic prosperity does not rely on deregulation or tax cuts for the rich, but on fundamentals such as a functioning health-care system that can confront a pandemic, a robust international trading system, the rule of law and corruption-free government. While right-wing donors and think tank ideologues may believe that supply-side tax cuts and a roll back of environmental regulations are the keys to prosperity, business leaders rarely prioritize these issues. (And in fact, having invested in green energy, businesses are now pushing back on efforts to revert to excessive carbon output.)

Likewise, the MAGA crowd may seek to demonize Black Lives Matter, but private industry, sensitive to public opinion, largely embraced the message of racial justice and reform.

Given all that, it should not be surprising that Business Roundtable chief executives (who lead companies with nearly $9 trillion in annual revenue and employ close to 19 million workers) are sounding the alarm against the obstructionism, penny pinching and covid-19 denialism that color Republicans’ outlook these days. In a statement released Monday, the Business Roundtable argued that the top priority for the next administration and Congress should be “to help American families amid the global coronavirus pandemic, as their plans and economic outlook improve from historic lows set earlier this year.” [WaPo]

Citizen’s United v. FEC has become notorious for, among other things, giving corporations many of the same rights as people, as I understand it. I think that’s silly, but that’s neither here nor there; and, given its existence, I think Rubin should have extended her argument a little further under the aegis of Corporate Personhood.

She should have called on businesses to refuse to fund right wing politicos until they reform or retire.

This is not a hard argument to make, following Rubin’s take on fertile corporate ground. Good health, educated workers, enlightened governance: while these may be anathema to supremacists of all stripes, as well as wanna-be robber barons, most corporations greatly value those conditions. While there’s many reasons for Silicon Valley’s location, one reason it isn’t located in a State with poor health and education, such as Mississippi, is because it couldn’t prosper there. Between the bad governance (which I happily grant has improved recently with reformations to the election laws) and the bad health, corporations would stumble and crash, despite the low taxes. Meanwhile, in California, land of high taxes, it continues to prosper.

On the flip side, autocracies and theocracies are notorious for their negative effects on both populace and corporations. Sure, if you’re a CEO that is personally related to one of the political or theocratic leaders, you may do extraordinarily well – if you enjoy being surrounded by intrusive 24 hour security and are enough of a narcissist that universal dislike of yourself doesn’t bother you. But most corporations will do only mediocre, and, worse, autocracies are very well known for unilateral actions which damage or destroy corporations, with no recourse to the law for recompense. And theocracies? They just accuse you of blasphemy and execute you.

Rubin cites the Business Roundtable, and that would be a fine place to start. They could compose a letter to be sent to the Republican National Committee and every single Republican elected official specifying the following:

[Official’s Name] will get no more money from the undersigned until

1. You accept Biden is the legitimately elected President, and publicly announce same. That the judiciary has rejected all charges of fraud, as well as requests for theft of Electoral Votes, should inform you that this is the proper American position to take.
2. You denounce all threats and violence emanating from right wing sources.
3. Given our business interests, Senator McConnell helps pass an economic stimulus package that keeps ourselves and our customers afloat. Your responsibility? To call McConnell and urge him to fulfill his responsibilities.
4. You call on President Trump to concede and desist from any more attempts to damage the Republic.
5. You denounce all clerics who have supported you and are attempting to raise a revolt against the legitimately elected Biden Administration. Sedition and treason are not good for business. Don’t be silent on the issue.

This letter should be published in relevant newspapers and online.

Corporations are what make this country run, whether you like it or not, and if they step up and take responsibility for their own future, that would be a big step towards telling an artificially aggrieved minority that it’s time to grow up and reassess. Nothing’s been stolen from the aggrieved.

Their candidate was simply horrible. And rejected.

Andrew Hawthorn notes an important facet of the Star Trek universe:

From the Organians of The Original Series’ “Errand of Mercy”, to Voyager’s “Caretaker”, Star Trek has no end of seemingly omnipotent beings, who could, if they wished, make a good case for godhood. Rarely upon encountering these beings do Starfleet crews fall on their faces and choose worship, so some level of skepticism even in the case of miraculous power should be observed. [StarTrek.com]

The various philosophical choices made by the creators of Star Trek are part of its charm, and part of why so many of its stories have resonated to multiple generations.

But it does make me wonder if Star Trek is popular in evangelical and other far-right-religious circles.

Distal:

anatomy
(of a muscle, bone, limb, etc) situated farthest from the centre, median line, or point of attachment or origin [Collins Dictionary]

Noted in “ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK v. ANDREW M. CUOMO, GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: ON APPLICATION FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF,” SCOTUS:

At the same time, the Governor has chosen to impose no capacity restrictions on certain businesses he considers “essential.” And it turns out the businesses the Governor considers essential include hardware stores, acupuncturists, and liquor stores. Bicycle repair shops, certain signage companies, accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents are all essential too. So, at least according to the Governor, it may be unsafe to go to church, but it is always fine to pick up another bottle of wine, shop for a new bike, or spend the afternoon exploring your distal points and meridians. Who knew public health would so perfectly align with secular convenience?

Certain to be discussed in law classrooms of the future as a prime example of drawing false, even ignorant, equivalencies, and the damage that can inflict on society.

I also must say that it betrays how well Justice Gorsuch has taken up the general right-wing teaching of victimhood. A little sad that he’s unable, in this instance, to step outside of that box and evaluate the scenario without reference to the emotional teachings he received as a child and young adult.

If you like your science fiction dark:

Here are a few of mine:

“Protests need to lead to change, and the only way to make real, sustainable change is voting. And that’s not an original idea. [Late congressman] John Lewis preached that all his life,” Koonin said. “What the protests said to me is that there is energy, but energy has to meet action. And the action is voting and then the people speak. We solved a problem.”

The unplanned, leaguewide strike after Blake’s shooting provided another opportunity to leverage the moment. Paul and James called Obama for advice and came away with a strategy focused on voting. In a matter of days, they saved a season, raised awareness and got 23 of the 30 teams to offer either their arenas or practice facilities as polling places. For the conference finals and NBA Finals, warmup shirts that had read “Black Lives Matter” earlier in the season’s reboot read “Vote.” [WaPo]

All of those players and franchise owners who realized they could lead and help: kudos!

Winner

A FedEx driver surprised a boy with a new basketball and hoop after she noticed him playing with a broken one

Loser

GOP plan disregards poor, prioritizes ‘three-martini-lunch’ policy

Senate Majority Leader “Moscow” Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Mitch McConnell, the man personally responsible for Americans’ low opinion of Congress.

Why are you all floating heads? Am I in heaven?

Patterns (1956), outside of some of its cinematography, is an excellent study in how corporate behavior changes in response to changes in scale. Fred Scales has been newly promoted to a junior VP slot, reporting to senior VP Bill Briggs, who in turn reports to company President and owner Walter Ramsey. Briggs knew the founder of the company, who was the father of Ramsey, and has slowly come to loathe Walter Ramsey. In turn, Ramsey is trying to ease Briggs out.

Staples, an engineer and expert in industrial relations, proves quite competent, but refuses to take credit where credit is not due, while Ramsey would prefer that he do so. Soon, Staples finds himself in a bind, with his sense of ethics on one side, and Ramsey and even his own wife on the other. Meanwhile, Briggs, who lost his wife, is counting the cost of his own position in life: a lost wife, a son who struggles to support his decisions, and a health condition.

So when Ramsey eventually advances the next outrage, Briggs is lost and gone. But when Staples is faced with deciding if it’s up or out, things get really interesting.

Backed with excellent acting, a plot that treats everyone of importance, even Ramsey, as a human, and at least one surprise, it’s an exploration, from the time of the 1950s, of what the oncoming age of huge corporations may mean for humanity.

Both methods and soul.

In Gaza, there’s a few women who want to play like the men:

Society in the Gaza Strip sees boxing for women as an instigator to violence against their husbands in the future and has repeatedly slammed women for practicing it, in an attempt to get them to quit it.

Despite the obstacles, Gazan women have fought for their right to practice boxing in a society that keeps proving its patriarchal character first and foremost with its repeated refusal of women to participate in sports and other fields, restricting women’s roles to marriage and the home.

However, some support women’s rights to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they do not undermine traditions and norms. [AL-Monitor]

It’s not without its challenges:

Osama Ayob, 36, the coach of the girls boxing team in Gaza, decided after a tour in several European and Arab countries to create a boxing team for girls without the support of any party, at his own expense.

In early 2020, he announced through his Facebook page the launch of a boxing training program for women. The team was initially made up of 10 girls, and continued to grow until it reached 45 girls and women aged between seven and 25.

Ayob told Al-Monitor, “Forming a team of girls was difficult for me because it is the first one in Gaza, and it took personal effort without anyone’s support. There was a strong turnout of girls, and I really wished that society’s harsh view of them would change. I took it upon myself to protect them and toughen them against insulting comments that demoralize them and curb their desire to practice this sport.”

Sometimes just successfully existing can be enough to encourage something to pop into existence in another culture.

Lovely!

I was pleased to see that the House passed a bill to decriminalize marijuana nation-wide:

The House voted Friday on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, which decriminalizes cannabis and clears the way to erase nonviolent federal marijuana convictions. The Senate is unlikely to approve the bill.

The MORE Act also creates pathways for ownership opportunities in the emerging industry, allows veterans to obtain medical cannabis recommendations from Veteran Affairs doctors, and establishes funding sources to reinvest in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

Friday’s vote was the first time a full chamber of Congress has taken up the issue of federally decriminalizing cannabis. Of the vote count, 222 Democrats were in favor of passing the MORE Act and six were against it. Five Republicans voted in favor of it and 158 voted against passing it. [NBC News]

But beyond the obvious benefits to our penal system, it’s useful to think of the context.

The Democratic-controlled House passed this bill.

In all likelihood, the Republican-controlled Senate will not. They may not even consider it.

And the two Democrats in Georgia running for those two Senate seats being defended by the Republicans can use that latter potential fact in their campaigns. They can point at the lack of action of which I hypothesize, and say, Hey, if we were seated in that Senate for the next session, the House could pass that bill again and the Democrats could finish the deal.

This would have impact on a Black community ravaged by heavy enforcement of the drug laws, and in the political independents who happen to favor marijuana legalization. Runoff elections are notorious for being lightly attended, and this may help with attendance.

So there may be more going on here than meets the eye.

Mr. All Paper Ballots. He seems dedicated to the public weal, not to his pocketbook:

https://youtu.be/vjlZxb7fOJ4?t=303

If the video doesn’t start at the proper place, go to 5:00 or so and see Mr. Christopher Krebs answer questions concerning the recent election, and in fine form, too.

Because it’s December.

[H/T EN.]