This is what I was originally trying to post when that blog hijacked my "copy" feature. The weird thing is that I did not copy anything from that blog, but still every word of it - I mean EVERY word of it - was harder to get rid of than it should have been. Anyway, *this* is what I wanted to post.
October 22, 2021 Heather Cox Richardson Oct 23 Comment Share
This morning, Jonathan Martin at the New York Times reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has warned Republican political consultants that they may not continue to work for both him and Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who is vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
While Republican lawmakers are trying to sweep the insurrection under the rug, Cheney is calling out the attack and demanding sunlight on what happened. Republican leaders are lining up behind former president Trump in hopes of retaining his loyalist voters, but Cheney is repeatedly, and increasingly clearly, suggesting that the president was responsible for the events of that day.
That McCarthy is trying to make her a pariah indicates a fight over the future of the Republican Party. While one fund-raising company has already cut ties with her, Cheney is not operating from a weak position. Her father is Richard (Dick) Cheney, who was President George W. Bush’s vice president and, perhaps more significant for today’s events, President George H. W. Bush’s secretary of defense. The Cheneys are likely not unaware of what is happening among intelligence officials, which seems likely to involve some current Republican lawmakers.
And Liz Cheney’s stand against McCarthy and Trump is not hurting her politically at home: she has raised more than $5 million for her reelection, compared to the $300,000 raised in the last two months or so by her Trump-backed opponent.
There is an important story behind McCarthy’s attack on Representative Cheney. She presents a threat to the pro-Trump Republican Party not simply because she is standing strong against the former president and the attack on our democracy.
She is offering to women and men in the suburbs a reasonable alternative to those pro-Trump representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) whose pistol packing and aggression gets attention for all the wrong reasons. Trump Republicans have lost the support of suburban women, and Cheney seems to be picking them up and explaining that Trump and his supporters, including McCarthy, tried to destroy our democracy. That McCarthy felt it necessary to try to undercut her this way suggests they see her as a major threat.
McCarthy had another reason to be unhappy today. Longtime readers of these letters may perhaps remember that McCarthy took money from a Ukraine-born U.S. businessman, Lev Parnas.
Parnas worked with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to try to find dirt on Joe Biden’s son Hunter in Ukraine. In 2019, prosecutors said that money was illegal: Parnas had taken $1 million from Ukraine oligarch Dmytro Firtash and had illegally funneled more than $350,000 to pro-Trump political action committees and other Republican lawmakers in 2016.
Today, a jury found Parnas guilty of making illegal campaign contributions.
In other developments that might be making Republican lawmakers uncomfortable, Jeffrey Clark, the Justice Department attorney who wanted to help then-president Trump stay in the White House despite losing the election, is scheduled to testify before the January 6th committee next Friday.
According to CNN, Alyssa Farah, who was Trump’s director of strategic communications, has met voluntarily with Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who, along with Cheney, is on the January 6 committee.
It appears there is concern about the mounting evidence before the January 6th committee. In an interview with National Review, John Eastman, who wrote a very clear memo outlining how then–vice president Mike Pence could overturn the results of the 2020 election, called that scenario “crazy.”
Guardian headline: Alec Baldwin was given loaded weapon and told it was a ‘cold gun’, court records show Assistant director assured actor the gun was safe to use because it didn’t have live ammunition, search warrant says
And the damned fool didn’t check? Basic gun safety.
He wasn't a fool...there is a person whose one job is gun safety. She screwed up. The guy who handed it to Baldwin clearly hadn't checked it...so why did he declare it safe? Third issue is that union workers walked off the job that morning. THAT's why the guy who handed the gun to Baldwin should have double checked it! And I'm sure Alec Baldwin is wishing he had checked it too, but I'd say he's more a victim in this than you might think.
We had firearms in the house when I was young. I will never forget what my father said: "Guns are not toys; they are not noisemakers. They are for one thing and one thing only: to kill." And he insisted that we always check every firearm we pick up to see if it is loaded or not. My father always unloaded his shotgun; one day he was showing it to someone and pumped it to demonstrate that it was unloaded--and a shell popped out. I have no sympathy at all for Mr. Baldwin. Picking the pistol up, it was his responsibility to check to see if it had live shells in it, and particularly in the chamber. It was his responsibility not to point it at anyone. It was his responsibility to make sure the safety was on. It was his responsibility not to put his finger on the trigger. But I will admit to surprise that they were using a real pistol rather than a starter's pistol.
A friend had an old and presumably worn bolt action rifle unexpectedly fire when it was loaded (since it was pointed at the ground no one was injured). After being reloaded many times, the same thing happened again. I suppose it was then taken to the gun shop to be repaired.
It was common knowledge when I was young that if you happened to *accidentally* blow off your big toe while practicing the quick draw you wouldn't be drafted; but I never knew anyone who had such an accident.
This is what I was originally trying to post when that blog hijacked my "copy" feature. The weird thing is that I did not copy anything from that blog, but still every word of it - I mean EVERY word of it - was harder to get rid of than it should have been. Anyway, *this* is what I wanted to post.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article255185907.html
That is good news; thanks for sharing, Susan.
DeleteIn Chinese, the measure word for people is mouth. If you go to a restaurant and try to make reservations, you will be asked, "How many mouths?"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article255185907.html
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOctober 22, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson Oct 23 Comment Share
This morning, Jonathan Martin at the New York Times reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has warned Republican political consultants that they may not continue to work for both him and Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who is vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
While Republican lawmakers are trying to sweep the insurrection under the rug, Cheney is calling out the attack and demanding sunlight on what happened. Republican leaders are lining up behind former president Trump in hopes of retaining his loyalist voters, but Cheney is repeatedly, and increasingly clearly, suggesting that the president was responsible for the events of that day.
That McCarthy is trying to make her a pariah indicates a fight over the future of the Republican Party. While one fund-raising company has already cut ties with her, Cheney is not operating from a weak position. Her father is Richard (Dick) Cheney, who was President George W. Bush’s vice president and, perhaps more significant for today’s events, President George H. W. Bush’s secretary of defense. The Cheneys are likely not unaware of what is happening among intelligence officials, which seems likely to involve some current Republican lawmakers.
And Liz Cheney’s stand against McCarthy and Trump is not hurting her politically at home: she has raised more than $5 million for her reelection, compared to the $300,000 raised in the last two months or so by her Trump-backed opponent.
There is an important story behind McCarthy’s attack on Representative Cheney. She presents a threat to the pro-Trump Republican Party not simply because she is standing strong against the former president and the attack on our democracy.
She is offering to women and men in the suburbs a reasonable alternative to those pro-Trump representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) whose pistol packing and aggression gets attention for all the wrong reasons. Trump Republicans have lost the support of suburban women, and Cheney seems to be picking them up and explaining that Trump and his supporters, including McCarthy, tried to destroy our democracy. That McCarthy felt it necessary to try to undercut her this way suggests they see her as a major threat.
McCarthy had another reason to be unhappy today. Longtime readers of these letters may perhaps remember that McCarthy took money from a Ukraine-born U.S. businessman, Lev Parnas.
Parnas worked with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to try to find dirt on Joe Biden’s son Hunter in Ukraine. In 2019, prosecutors said that money was illegal: Parnas had taken $1 million from Ukraine oligarch Dmytro Firtash and had illegally funneled more than $350,000 to pro-Trump political action committees and other Republican lawmakers in 2016.
Today, a jury found Parnas guilty of making illegal campaign contributions.
In other developments that might be making Republican lawmakers uncomfortable, Jeffrey Clark, the Justice Department attorney who wanted to help then-president Trump stay in the White House despite losing the election, is scheduled to testify before the January 6th committee next Friday.
According to CNN, Alyssa Farah, who was Trump’s director of strategic communications, has met voluntarily with Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who, along with Cheney, is on the January 6 committee.
It appears there is concern about the mounting evidence before the January 6th committee. In an interview with National Review, John Eastman, who wrote a very clear memo outlining how then–vice president Mike Pence could overturn the results of the 2020 election, called that scenario “crazy.”
Well, very good! Thanks, puddle. Although only just starting to bubble, there is time for the pot to come to a good boil before the next election.
DeleteI don’t have time this morning to transcribe these quotations from
DeleteWashington [Click] and
Hamilton, [Click] but will try to post the images.
Good, the links worked.
DeleteNBC: How Facebook Radicalizes Users [Click] Incredibly blatant.
ReplyDeleteHow Facebook Fueled the Insurrection [Click]
Trumpets Hurl Increasingly Vulgar Taunts at Biden [Click] Might they be feeling endangered?
ReplyDeleteGuardian headline:
ReplyDeleteAlec Baldwin was given loaded weapon and told it was a ‘cold gun’, court records show
Assistant director assured actor the gun was safe to use because it didn’t have live ammunition, search warrant says
And the damned fool didn’t check? Basic gun safety.
He wasn't a fool...there is a person whose one job is gun safety. She screwed up. The guy who handed it to Baldwin clearly hadn't checked it...so why did he declare it safe? Third issue is that union workers walked off the job that morning. THAT's why the guy who handed the gun to Baldwin should have double checked it! And I'm sure Alec Baldwin is wishing he had checked it too, but I'd say he's more a victim in this than you might think.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWe had firearms in the house when I was young. I will never forget what my father said:
Delete"Guns are not toys; they are not noisemakers. They are for one thing and one thing only: to kill." And he insisted that we always check every firearm we pick up to see if it is loaded or not. My father always unloaded his shotgun; one day he was showing it to someone and pumped it to demonstrate that it was unloaded--and a shell popped out. I have no sympathy at all for Mr. Baldwin. Picking the pistol up, it was his responsibility to check to see if it had live shells in it, and particularly in the chamber. It was his responsibility not to point it at anyone. It was his responsibility to make sure the safety was on. It was his responsibility not to put his finger on the trigger. But I will admit to surprise that they were using a real pistol rather than a starter's pistol.
A friend had an old and presumably worn bolt action rifle unexpectedly fire when it was loaded (since it was pointed at the ground no one was injured). After being reloaded many times, the same thing happened again. I suppose it was then taken to the gun shop to be repaired.
It was common knowledge when I was young that if you happened to *accidentally* blow off your big toe while practicing the quick draw you wouldn't be drafted; but I never knew anyone who had such an accident.
DeleteGotte get moving--off to sketching at the local junior college in about half an hour. Rain predicted starting tomorrow.
ReplyDelete