My sister has some foster pups and they are pretty adorable:
I don’t know what the hell is going on in that last picture.
I’m exhausted. This year has been so damned draining.
Late Night Open Thread- Foster Pup EditionPost + Comments (89)
by John Cole| 89 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
My sister has some foster pups and they are pretty adorable:
I don’t know what the hell is going on in that last picture.
I’m exhausted. This year has been so damned draining.
Late Night Open Thread- Foster Pup EditionPost + Comments (89)
by DougJ| 7 Comments
This post is in: Readership Capture
After a long, crazy year it’s time once again to continue a tradition started by Jon Swift/Al Weisel, the “Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves.” Jon/Al left behind some wonderful satire, but was also a nice guy and a strong supporter of small blogs.
If you’d like to participate, just reply to this e-mail or write to me (Batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com) with your best post of the year before 12/25:
Blog Name
Title of Post
Link
Author of Post
Brief Description/Pitch of the Post (1–2 sentences)
(If it’s not a reply, adding “best post” in the subject line would also help.)
To modify Jon Swift’s 2008 solicitation:
I would be very honored if you would participate and send me a link to what you think was your best post of [2016], along with a short description of it. Please make the hard choice and send me only one link. I would like to post it before the end of the year, so if you could get it to me before Christmas, I would really appreciate it.
One submission per blog, please, otherwise things can get messy. Group bloggers can pick a piece among themselves, but are also welcome to submit their work via their individual blogs, if they have them.
As usual, I’m aiming to find the right balance between “inclusive” and “manageable.” If you know a few excellent blogs (preferably on the smaller side) that you suspect might not be on my radar, feel free to send me their website address (and contact info, if you have it).
This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
A range of outcomes are possible for the 2018 House elections. https://t.co/3BL5MlOz2J pic.twitter.com/5F1FLbqlYV
— G. Elliott Morris??♂️ (@gelliottmorris) December 22, 2017
If the U.S. House was decided proportionally to votes, Democrats would have a 97% chance of winning a majority next year.
Instead, since seats are gerrymandered and Democrats are clustered in cities, Democrats are only 59% (!) to win.. https://t.co/jSkahUl6Ci
— G. Elliott Morris??♂️ (@gelliottmorris) December 22, 2017
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I predict most of us Democrats will quite happily work to improve that 59%!
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What’s on the agenda for the weekend, as we count down towards the end of 2017?
Usual frame is Dems cluster. That’s wrong. Reality is Dems of all races will live where they’re the minority, white Repubs usually will not https://t.co/ZfaKj6AFjG
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) December 22, 2017
Late Night Open Thread: Happy PredictionsPost + Comments (79)
by Adam L Silverman| 135 Comments
This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal
Blanket bans are not an effective way to protect the US, Americans, or anyone else visiting the country. They are simply discriminatory, exclusionary, and rooted in deep seated religious and ethnic prejudice and racism. And within the administration’s senior staff they’re being pushed by a deeply disturbed young man who hasn’t quite figured out that he’s only considered white based on the sufferance of others.
BREAKING: Appeals court rules that Trump's third travel ban is illegal https://t.co/wAtTqlb6FB
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 23, 2017
From the decision:
“The Government’s interpretation of 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f) not only upends the carefully crafted immigration scheme Congress has embodied in the INA, but it deviates from the text of the statute, legislative history, and prior executive practice as well. Further, the President did not satisfy the critical prerequisite Congress attached to his suspension authority: Before blocking entry, he must first make a legally sufficient finding that the entry of the specified individuals would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” The Proclamation once again conflicts with the INA’s prohibition on nationality-based discrimination in the issuance of immigrant visas.”
The decision takes direct aim at Trump’s claim that, as President, he can do whatever he’d like with regard to banning people from any country for any reason.
“The Government argues that the President, at any time and under any circumstances, could bar entry of all aliens from any country, and intensifies the consequences of its position by saying that no federal court—not a federal district court, nor our court of appeals, nor even the Supreme Court itself—would have Article III jurisdiction to review that matter because of the consular nonreviewability doctrine. Particularly in the absence of an explicit jurisdiction-stripping provision, we doubt whether the Government’s position could be adopted without running roughshod over the principles of separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.”
The court also takes on the xenophobia underlying Trump’s order:
“In assessing the public interest, we are reminded of Justice Murphy’s wise words: “All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land.” Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, 242 (Murphy, J., dissenting). It cannot be in the public interest that a portion of this country be made to live in fear.”
The court issued a limited injunction blocking the ban as it applies to “foreign nationals who have a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
The full ruling can be found at the link.
Open thread.
This post is in: Dolt 45, Election 2016, Assholes
Remember when Trump was talking about it was going to be all milk and honey for coal workers, steel mill workers, and everyone? Good times:
At this sprawling steel mill on the outskirts of Philadelphia, the workers have one number in mind. Not how many tons of steel roll off the line, or how many hours they work, but where they fall on the plant’s seniority list.
In September, ArcelorMittal, which owns the mill, announced that it would lay off 150 of the plant’s 207 workers next year. While the cuts will start with the most junior employees, they will go so deep that even workers with decades of experience will be cast out.
“I told my son, ‘Christmas is going to be kind of scarce, because Mommy’s going to lose her job soon,’” said Kimberly Allen, a steelworker and single parent who has worked at the plant for more than 22 years. On the seniority list, she’s 72nd.
Personally, I knew he was full of shit because he purchased tons of foreign steel for his own construction projects. If only someone had said something about that during the campaign:
Hillary Clinton slammed Donald Trump on Tuesday over a report that revealed the Republican presidential nominee purchased steel from China instead of from the US in two of his last three construction projects.
“For all his tough talk … I’ve listened to Donald as he’s bashed Chinese. You’ve heard him,” she said at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “Well, we found out yesterday that he has been buying cheap Chinese aluminum and steel. Not buying here in Pennsylvania, not supporting our workers, but supporting the Chinese. These stories keep coming out, don’t they? And everyone makes the same point. They add up to clearly demonstrating that Donald Trump is the poster boy for so much of what is wrong in our economy.”
Well maybe if someone without lady parts had said it.
This post is in: Excellent Links, Assholes
And go watch Mike Cernovich get rekt in a reddit AMA. It is everything you hope for an more:
cernovich is doing an AMA and even the moderator is dunking on him https://t.co/V8U2PFAISx pic.twitter.com/BCJS3ndUli
— Dan Fallon (@da_fallon) December 22, 2017
STOP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOWPost + Comments (134)
by David Anderson| 16 Comments
This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Immigration, Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Rare Sincerity
A lifelong friend of my sister is an attorney and an all around good person. Melanie Gleason has been working as an immigration/asylum attorney with a specific focus on cases on our Southwest border. Her clientele seldom can pay so she needs help.
I don’t often do this but I would like to ask our community to help her out if you can do so. We need to hold to our ideals and help those who are fighting for those ideals day in and day out.
Happy Holidays! How are you? I hope this finds you doing as well as possible—I know it has been quite a year (oof). I also want to apologize for being more out of touch lately; work has honestly been rather tough down here on the border (e.g. on Thanksgiving, I was contacted by a handful of different people whose loved ones were actually detained by ICE that day). So, I am looking forward to being able to connect more in the new year—thanks so much for your support.
I also wanted to share what’s new with Attorney on the Move:
After providing legal services out of my car for a year a half & when #45 won the election last fall, I made the decision to move to the U.S./Mexico border to be on the immigration frontline to help asylum seekers seeking refuge and peace. There have been many difficult days and nights, but it has all been worth it—to see clients released from detention and not feeling alone because they have a lawyer representing them. For a number of immigrant detainees, I am the only person who comes to visit them at Eloy.
In 2018, in addition to providing full representation for asylum seekers on the ground, Attorney on the Move will aim for more scalable impact, including:
- More op-eds elevating the voices of those who are detained and shining the light on other injustices within the immigration system and beyond—such as this piece I wrote featured in The Hill (and then a videographer from The Atlantic contacted me to see if my client’s voice could be featured in an upcoming piece)
- A weekly newsletter starting in early January featuring a curated list of immigration and other social-justice focused articles and commentary—as well as updates on what’s going on here on the ground
- Working closely with other social justice lawyers and advocates to help them launch their own social ventures to address systemic inequities around immigration and other important issues.
I always look forward to the next time our paths will cross—thank you for all you are doing during these wild times. And I’d love to hear more about what you’ve been up to and how things are going over on your end. Happy holidays and I’m grateful to be connected as we move into 2018!
In solidarity,
Melanie
Please help a friend help us live up to our idealsPost + Comments (16)