From rq. One of my favourite photo themes to do is the art of decay, because there is art in it, and beauty, and it’s a wonderful illustration of the circle of life. rq says: From northern Ontario, so no endemic European species. But still. I especially love the runic nature f the snail/slug/insect tracks on that rock. Like a code to be deciphered, a secret message from molluscans to you. Click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
From rq, more beautiful Lilacs. I love the smell of lilacs, it’s one of my favourite things about Spring. Click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
Downy Whooooosh. Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
Protesters at the Seattle event in an AP photo by Ted Warren.
A “person of interest” is under arrest in the shooting of a man during the protest of an appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos in Seattle.
The victim, who is in his 30s, is hospitalized in critical condition with a possibly life-threatening injury, Seattle PI reports. He was shot in the abdomen at a Friday night protest at the University of Washington, where Yiannopoulos, a gay
alt-rightnazi commentator, was speaking.The victim’s name has not been released, nor has the name of the person of interest. He turned himself in to university police and is under arrest, according to Seattle PI.
The massive protest delayed the start of the speech by Yiannopoulos, a Breitbart editor who is notorious for his racist, anti-trans, and otherwise inflammatory statements. The event, coordinated by the University of Washington College Republicans, had been oversold, and police had to eventually stop ticket holders from entering the venue. Some attendees supported Yiannopoulos, but others came to confront him.
The shooting came after what had been a largely peaceful protest, with demonstrators holding anti-Yiannopoulos and anti–Donald Trump signs, and “occasionally trading barbs” with ticket holders, Seattle PI reports.
Via The Advocate. Let’s hope we don’t see more of this happening.
I can now report that the snow is thigh deep. Not fun, but hoarfrost. And that might be the last time I venture out until effing mud season. Click for full size.
Credit: Bigstock.
The inaugural speech was dark, ominous, painting a picture of a disintegrated America. The inaugural speech was also a lie. All of it. This should not come as a surprise; if there has been any consistency about Trump, it’s been that he lies, constantly. It’s in Trump’s interest to paint such a picture, and it’s also necessary for his plans for fascism – reality is not his friend. Fortunately for us, Think Progress has a nice point by point refutation of all Trump’s inaugural claims.
During his inaugural address on Friday, President Donald Trump painted a bleak picture of an America beset by violent crime, drugs, and lack of education. He presented himself as a savior who will “fight for you with every breath in my body and I will never ever let you down.”
[…]
But as was the case during Trump’s similarly dire Republican National Convention speech, many of the claims he used to paint his picture of “American carnage” were false. In other instances, Trump referred to real problems, but didn’t mention that he has no plan to fix them.
[…]
Here are some of the ways in which Trump tried to deceive the American people about the state of their country during his first speech as president.
Jobs
“Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed… We will bring back our jobs,” Trump said.
But during the Obama years, the economy has actually been adding jobs each month at a steady pace: it added jobs for 75 straight months, the longest streak on record. There were 2,157,000 more jobs added over the last year, and 11,250,000 created over Obama’s presidency.
Head over to Think Progress for the full reality check.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” — H. L. Mencken.
Reps. Julio Gonzalez and John Koster.
Two state legislatures are considering measures that would allow lawmakers to overrule decisions by Supreme Court majorities — and one Florida Republican wants to change the U.S. Constitution to allow Congress to do the same.
In Florida, state Rep. Julio Gonzalez (R-Venice) has filed two bills that would allow the state legislature or the U.S. Congress “to override or nullify court decisions.”
House Joint Resolution 121 would allow lawmakers to undo any state court decision by a two-thirds vote for up to five years, and House Memorial 125 would permit Congress to propose a similar constitutional amendment to give themselves the power to nullify federal court decisions.
Gonzalez, an orthopedic surgeon, said the bills are necessary because judges are often unaccountable to voters and unable to decide cases without considering their practical or political impact.
“(The legislation) would curtail the tendency of activist judges to manipulate the law to suit their political views and agendas,” Gonzalez said. “Equally as important, this would force the people to engage the Legislature in enacting rectifications to current laws that they see as objectionable or flawed, restoring the natural relationship between the people and their legislative bodies. This would also force the electorate to more carefully look at their candidates and their actions during times of re-election.”
There’s that dog whistle, “activist judges”. Yes, we only want judges who will do what we want, fuck the law!
[…]
Washington is considering a similar measure that would allow lawmakers to “reject the determination of the court” by a simple majority on cases where the state’s Supreme Court rules an act unconstitutional.
State Rep. John Koster (R-Arlington Heights), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said he supports the measure because he believes the court overstepped its authority in deciding a lawsuit on education funding.
“It’s a worthy effort to tap (judges) on the shoulder and remind them of separation of powers,” said Koster, who admits the bill might not pass.
Gonzalez identified rulings on public displays of religion — including holiday celebrations and school prayer — and laws against flag-burning as his justification for the bills.
Emphasis mine. Well, that didn’t take long, did it? There isn’t even the slightest effort to wrap this in flowery language. I wonder how long it will be before bibles and public prayer are foisted on what’s left of schools.
Via Raw Story.
Handy dandy help for everyone, from FactCheck.org – How to spot fake news. An article to bookmark and refer to when needed, and I imagine it might be needed a lot in the coming years.
…Those all still hold true, but fake stories — as in, completely made-up “news” — has grown more sophisticated, often presented on a site designed to look (sort of) like a legitimate news organization. Still, we find it’s easy to figure out what’s real and what’s imaginary if you’re armed with some critical thinking and fact-checking tools of the trade.
Here’s our advice on how to spot a fake:
Good, solid advice. Click on over to read the whole article.
And, here’s a good way to sharpen up those bullshit detection skills, learning that correlation does not imply causation. While most people know this, at least hazily so, that’s one fact that tends to get kicked out in favour of “hmmm, that’s interesting, ennit?” and “that’s some coincidence!” and so forth. We’re all prone to veering off into the more magical type of thinking, and the correlation/causation bit is an oft used trick to manipulate people. Being much smarter than that, of course you want to make sure you don’t fall for such shit. Head on over to Tyler Vigen’s Spurious Correlations, and you can enjoy learning all about it. Spurious Correlations is now a ridiculous and wonderful book, and I highly recommend it.
Lilacs, because I say that this day, we all need flowers. From rq, click for full size!
© rq, all rights reserved.
And covered in beautiful water. From rq, click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
From rq, it’s all about the spines. Click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
