download my app in the app store mistermix

Romney just announced that he’ll vote for a RBG replacement this year, so Mitch probably has the votes to go ahead.

I’m so disgusted by this whole spectacle that I’ll just outsource further commentary to Josh Marshall, who is right when he says that Democrats need to expand the supreme court and federal courts* in response, and also right when he points out that arguments of the form “if we pack the court, Republicans will do something even worse” are arguments from impotence.

As I see it, we have two choices:  (1) put up with the pearl clutching of the DC press and the whining and caterwauling of Republicans when we make DC a state, pack the courts, and otherwise play hardball, or (2) lose.

* Expanding federal courts is what I’m advocating, not Josh, but it’s consistent with rebalancing the courts.

Good News – We Can Hate Mitt Romney Again!Post + Comments (205)

I was too busy with grown cops throwing tantrums in Rochester to comment on yesterday’s Cuomo Show. The backstory for this episode is that Cuomo has been low key (well, as low key as Cuomo gets) passive-aggressively fucking with the NYPD and their babyish ways.  The NYPD (38,000 officers) is doing essentially no enforcement of COVID mandates, while the New York County Sheriff (150 Officers) has been doing the bulk of the enforcement (example here), along with a task force comprised of State Liquor Authority agents (20 or so) and State Troopers.  That task force makes an impressive number of visits to bars (5,981 during the last week in August), and has cited a few (35 during that week in August, for example).

Yesterday, Cuomo upped the ante by refusing to allow resumption of indoor dining in New York City until there’s an enforcement plan in place.  Or, as the New York Post put it (not gonna link), “Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo Wish Death on NYC Restaurants”.  The only real enforcement that can take place is via the NYPD, and apparently they’re all hiding in their rooms with their favorite plushies working through their feelings.

Whatever you think of Cuomo, his enormous ego is very much tied into this graph and our sub-1% positive rate:

And that graph is in danger , especially with schools re-opening, so he’s digging in on NYC restaurants until the NYPD steps up.  As far as I’m concerned, this is fine.  I’ve just spent 6 weeks in a state where the governor only cared about how far she could climb up Trump’s asshole, so it’s hard to express just how happy I am to have Cuomo running the show, instead of Dollar Store Sarah Palin.

Also, I wonder just how much good will the cops think they have in the bank on this one.  New York has witnessed some true heroism from medical personnel who have died fighting this fucking virus, and most of them don’t have anything approaching the pension and/or union protections afforded to the average street cop.  When these motherfuckers get defunded, I hope they have plenty of kleenex to wipe away their tears, because they won’t have my shoulder to cry on.

Just When You Think I’m Gone, You Change the Track I’m OnPost + Comments (105)

This afternoon, immediately before Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren and Police Chief LaRon Singletary were to meet with the City Council to talk about the police response to demonstrations, Singletary and the rest of his command staff quit.  Those, like Singletary, who were eligible for retirement filed papers.  The rest resigned their command positions to return back to their previous rank.

Singletary’s retirement announcement contained this statement:

“As a man of integrity, I will not sit idly by while outside entities attempt to destroy my character. The events over the past week are an attempt to destroy my character and integrity,” Singletary said. “The members of the Rochester Police Department and the greater Rochester community know my reputation and know what I stand for. The mischaracterization and the politicization of the actions that I took after being informed of Mr. Prude’s death is not based on facts, and is not what I stand for.”

Now, the main person who was characterizing or mischaracterizing Singletary’s actions was one Lovely Ann Warren, Mayor.  However, Singletary is by no means clean in all this.  I thought this tweet nailed it:

NOTE FOR OUT-OF-TOWNERS: The mayor and the chief have been throwing each other under every available bus throughout this entire debacle, so this surprise resignation is both entirely in character and hilariously petty https://t.co/JPHtfDH1Xv

— Jack Feerick (@JackFeerick) September 8, 2020

Anyway, the protesters took a moment to celebrate the resignations/retirements at the PD, and continued their work painting “Black Lives Matter” on the street where Daniel Prude was killed.

Painting BLM on Jefferson Ave where Daniel Prude was killed in RPD custody @roccitynews @jamesbrowntv @maxrocphoto pic.twitter.com/PgDWADEK6h

— WXXI News (@WXXINews) September 9, 2020

Despite Trump’s white panic over 3 guys retiring, we still have 700 cops left.  I think we’ll be about as safe as we ever were.

Puzzling EvidencePost + Comments (41)

Last night there was a peaceful protest in Rochester, because a group of local ministers volunteered to be human shields.  Here’s Trump’s attempt to make it something it wasn’t, and the response from one of the best print reporters in Rochester.

Is there unrest in Rochester right now? Yes. Was it “bad” last night? No. It was a subdued demonstration, with what I’d estimate were 800 people exercising their rights. No arrests. No injuries. Is my report “fake news?” https://t.co/o42L8N2zCL https://t.co/Sh8coW6Ep7

— David Andreatta (@david_andreatta) September 7, 2020

Of course, after being pressured by the ministers to do the right thing, Mayor Lovely Warren issued a statement that said that part of the reason the protest was successful was her “edict” to the police to adopt a smaller and more restrained posture.  I guess her “edicts” can only be given after the police have tear gassed and pepper balled protesters for a few nights.

In the comments yesterday, BCHS Class of 1980 asked:

To mistermix: my wife went to RIT (or as they called it, South Henrietta Institute of Technology). What sort of bad is this mayor? Terrified of the cops bad, or actively on their side bad?

My answer:  Probably terrified bad — I think she’s basically a status quo player and doesn’t have the grit to start the fight that she needs to have with the cops to defund and reform them.  (That said, to be fair, 50 years of reform in Rochester haven’t worked, as is well-detailed in this recent piece). She is so thin-skinned that she has boycotted a local public radio show because the host asked her some very soft but persistent questions.  She is under investigation for what I think is a pretty clear-cut set of campaign finance violations.  Her actions have shown that she’s not up to the job,  as well as corrupt, and the sooner we get rid of her, the better.

Also, I call RIT “the monastery”.

About Last NightPost + Comments (98)

So, South Dakota Governor/Failer Kristi Noem gave a convention speech last night.  Today, this appeared on the South Dakota State Department of Health COVID dashboard:

Note my highlights in red.  The state under-reported in the two-day run up to Kristi’s speech.  Wonder why that was.  Also note that while cases are way, way up, South Dakota’s testing goals are not.  North Dakota, which is roughly the same size as South Dakota, has processed a total of 450K tests. South Dakota has done less than half of that testing.

Kristi is probably a little disappointed because giving Trump a model of Mt Rushmore with Trump’s face on it didn’t make Trump replace Pence with her.  Still, as a loyal Trumper, she’s happy to under test, under trace and generally fuck things up to kiss his ass.

Dollar Store Sarah Palin Jukes the StatsPost + Comments (167)

Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki had hotwife/cuck relationships with a series of young men, the first of whom has spilled all the beans. Via Michael Cohen, Trump probably leveraged this relationship to get an endorsement out of Falwell.

We know that Cohen struck up a relationship with Falwell as far back as 2011/2012. We know that he got involved in helping keep the couple’s secrets, including hushing up compromising photos of Becki. It was as late as 2015 when Cohen helped the Falwells deal with the photos – photos which were apparently connected to another fit young man close to the couple.

I’m sure a lot of stories will be written about the sexual details of this relationship, but the fucking disgrace of it all is that a charitable organization was flying around young men in its private jet for assignations, and large sums of money were given to these guys. This isn’t (just) a sexual scandal, it’s a fraud scandal, and Falwell should go to jail for stealing money from donors and violating the tax code. I’m just going to guess that the fraud won’t be the headline in most papers. Fuck who you want how you want, as long as its consensual and no minors are involved, but unless hotwifing is a tenet of your religion, pay your fucking taxes on the money you use to transport, house and employ your fuckbois.

It’s Not the Sex, It’s the Hypocrisy and FraudPost + Comments (334)