Please join us this evening for a holiday edition of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet tonight and every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the small room at the back of the tavern. We start at 8:00pm.
Chapters of Living Liberally are all over the place…if you can’t make it to the Seattle chapter, stop by another chapter near you.
Cheers,
Darryl
Teslas don’t make their drivers have more accidents.
BMWs don’t make their drivers drive drunk.
Those are choices drivers make.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/19/tesla-drivers-had-highest-accident-rate-bmw-drivers-most-duis-study.html
Germany will be doing a revote in roughly 500 precincts in Berlin following the chaos of the 2021 Bundestag Election. First report this morning said it included the two Berlin seats held by the former East German Communist party, but the analysts say not enough precincts in those two districts to swing against the Left party. If they lost one of those seats, they would effectively lose 36 more, as they didn’t hit 5% in 2021. They only got the proportional seats because of they won 3 district seats.
Also, there are different rules for Berlin’s local elections, which is why they usually are not on the same day. Plus, Berlin is 5 year term while the Bundestag is 4. When Bavaria’s LandTag election happens in the same month as a Bundestag election (rare, but it happens), tgey are often a week apart. Bavaria does the state election differently, voters can also vote for an individual candidate on the Party slate too, while Federal is a Closed List.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-court-orders-partial-repeat-berlins-2021-election-2023-12-19/
The German Federal Constitutional Court is quite different than the USSC, besides not meeting in Berlin, it is also made up of two senates of 8 justices. The panel that heard this case was made up of 3 SPD appointees, 3 CDU/CSU, and 1 each from the Greens and Free Democrats.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Constitutional_Court
Amazing how fast PM Sunak called for a unilateral cease fire after BP saying they would halt tanker traffic through the Red Sea.
Useless College Degrees, Episode 10:
Heidi Daniel is the daughter of a factory worker. Her parents didn’t go to college. She did, earning a “useless” degree in women’s studies and a master’s in library science. She began her career in children’s and teen programming then went into library administration. She ran libraries in Youngstown, Ohio, and Baltimore, Maryland, and now she’s going to run the King County Libraries.
https://kcls.org/news/heidi-daniel-to-become-new-king-county-library-system-executive-director/
Doctor Dumbfuck has a useless college degree, too, and now he’s going out to the barn to fuck the horse again.
“Useless” and useless are not the same. Doctor Dumbfuck’s medical degree is useless. Heidi Daniel’s women’s studies and library science degrees are not useless. He’s useless. She’s not.
Just to reiterate:
Heidi Daniel’s women’s studies degree: Useful
Doctor Dumbfuck’s MD degree: Useless
Daniel is originally from Texas and Oklahoma, but I’ll bet you couldn’t pay her enough to accept a library job in those states. She won’t have to put up with Moms For Liberty, book bans, or censorship here.
All she has to do is manage 50 libraries, 900 employees, 4 million books, and a $120 million budget. Librarian nirvana.
Alas, your urinary and rectal catheters would cause the device to short-circuit, Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit.
Not the smallest 10%, so you’re SOL, Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit.
Electronic devices are not miracle-workers, you know.
@ 1
Teslas don’t make their drivers have more accidents.
Most people around these parts would disagree with that claim. They have to believe it. Otherwise they’re stuck with backing Buick.
@ 4
I know of someone who has three degrees, including MS and MBA, who couldn’t do shit with them other than drive Sound Transit further into the red.
If you work for the government you are expected to lose money by going way overbudget, and to bring the project in years behind schedule. Degrees in womens’ studies and library science are perfect for those expectations.
Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit expects only to read Barron’s one day later than the rest of the world, by visiting the library.
What the fuck is in the ad feed of that degenerate freak @6?
I just so did not need to know this much about that profoundly sad, fucked-up troll.
TMI motherfucker.
@9 Oh just a small part of the haul it gets when buying out the store at the affirm clinic…
yawwwn.. what a “life” indeed…
@7
So the masters of the Universe at GM who have LITERALLY been trying for two Generations to run ads (Leonard Nimoy’s daughter telling dad how cool his Buick is) and showing Millennials how hupe a big ass underpowered IC SUV or grandma sedan (“I’m in the Buick”) can be are finally coming to grips with reality that one of their production lines is just not profitable.
No one thought the Buick EV was going to turn around the emblem but hey, it’s hard to give up on a historically underperforming division. They just didn’t want to give up on the oldest surviving brand that’s been on life support for 30 years.
They’re still trying to keep it alive. Guys, it’s the Terri Schiavo of cars.
“Well blame the UAW contract. It can’t be boardroom decisions. We are awesome in here.” -Mary Bara and the GOP, at least the part of the GOP that’s willing to admit a female CEO of a CAR COMPANY (?) is a thing that can exist.
@6 “Electronic devices are not miracle-workers, you know.”
In other words, even with an iPhone you’re a stupid troll.
@11 I remember when a GOP presidential nominee wanted to throw the car companies under the bus. Autoworkers remember, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPxvGd0BDW8
Devin Nunes has written a comment on the 14th Amendment case worthy of Trump’s lawyers: “Is Colorado still a state?”
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ballot-loss-reactions/
Yeah. Go to SCOTUS with that.
If you were to Build the Wall (do you want to get sued?) with a big painting of ‘The Point’ on it. Texas Lt. Gove Dan Patrick would have sprinted to a Chevy Suburban and picked up a 95MPH head of steam and slammed right into it.
side note: Insurrection. The entire crux of the suit to keep the Rebels off the ballot. Participating in an insurrection. Websters dictionary defines insurrection as….
One argument that shouldn’t (and probably won’t) get traction: Let the voters decide.
Because in that case, you don’t need the 14th Amendment; it’s superfluous. The whole point of adopting it was taking the ability to elect insurrectionists away from the voters.
@15 The Colorado Supreme Court could not, and did not, take Trump off the ballot in Texas. Only a Texas court, or the U.S. Supreme Court, could do that. Suppose they did, and Texas retaliated against SCOTUS (I’m not sure how, but let’s say they did). Now that would be fun if Texas never won another case at SCOTUS …
A Huffington Post article brings up an interesting, if arcane, legal point, to wit: Former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb predicted SCOTUS would overturn the Colorado ruling by 9-0.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ty-cobb-donald-trump-colorado-prediction_n_6582b8a4e4b085747d67bd29
His reasoning is, “The real key issue in this case is, is Trump an officer of the United States in the context in which that term is used in Article Three of the 14th Amendment. And in 2010, Chief Justice Roberts explained in free enterprise that people don’t vote for officers of the United States.”
He’s referring to Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, 561 U.S. 477 (2010), decision here.
I won’t attempt to predict the Supreme Court vote in the Trump campaign’s appeal of the Colorado ruling. I will say we all know Trump has shitty lawyers, so Cobb’s analysis is suspect on that ground alone. But there’s more.
As Cobb should know, the legal meaning of words isn’t fixed. It can vary from one statute to another. Legislative intent, not semantics, controls legal interpretation. This is first-year law school stuff.
The Free Enterprise case had nothing to do with the 14th Amendment, so that right there tells you any interpretation given to “officer” in an unrelated case won’t necessarily apply.
Moreover, the Free Enterprise case doesn’t just refer to federal executive branch “officers,” but to “executive officers,” “principal” and “inferior” officers, and “lowest grade, middle grade, and highest grade” officers. It variously refers to the president as “President,” “Chief Executive,” and “supreme Magistrate.” As this shows, the court itself uses various terms to refer to the President, so why would the term “officer” be excluded?
Cobb relies in this phrase in the opinion: The people do not vote for the ‘Officers of the United States.’” His argument is that because the president is elected, “Officers of the United States” cannot include the president. A more complete context of that sentence is as follows:
“The diffusion of power carries with it a diffusion of accountability. The people do not vote for the ‘Officers of the United States.’ Art. II, §2, cl. 2. They instead look to the President to guide the ‘assistants or deputies … subject to his superintendence.’ The Federalist No. 72, p. 487 (J. Cooke ed. 1961) (A. Hamilton). Without a clear and effective chain of command, the public cannot ‘determine on whom the blame or the punishment of a pernicious measure, or series of pernicious measures ought really to fall.’ Id., No. 70, at 476 (same). That is why the Framers sought to ensure that ‘those who are employed in the execution of the law will be in their proper situation, and the chain of dependence be preserved; the lowest officers, the middle grade, and the highest, will depend, as they ought, on the President, and the President on the community.’ 1 Annals of Cong., at 499 (J. Madison).”
It is immediately apparent that this phrase refers to the “officers” the President appoints as one of his enumerated powers in Article 2, which establishes the office, duties, and powers of the presidency. It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the 14th Amendment, which was adopted 79 years later. And there is nothing in the Constitution that says “officers” can’t mean one thing for purposes of Article 2, and have a different meaning for purposes of later amendments.
The Free Enterprise case also contains the following language: “Our Constitution was adopted to enable the people to govern themselves, through their elected leaders. The growth of the Executive Branch, which now wields vast power and touches almost every aspect of daily life, heightens the concern that it may slip from the Executive’s control, and thus from that of the people.”
Well, what do we have here? The 14th Amendment applies only to insurrectionists. Is this a court that might be concerned about an Executive (i.e., president) who slips from the people’s control by trying to overthrow an election? Or retain office by means of insurrection?
The Free Enterprise case is all about “executing the laws” — and removal of “inferior officers.” How would justices who choose to follow this precedent react to a president who doesn’t execute the laws, but subverts them? There is nothing in this case that suggests the 14th Amendment cannot, and does not, impose a qualification on the highest officer that he be loyal to the Constitution and his oath of office.
American white supremacists have been at war with the 14th Amendment ever since it was first introduced in the House in the spring of 1866.
His exuberance came to a “grinding halt” one day later, with 115 miles on the odometer, Jain told Reuters. As he drove with his wife and three-year-old daughter, he suddenly lost steering control as he made a slow turn into their neighborhood. The vehicle’s front-right suspension had collapsed, and parts of the car loudly scraped the road as it came to a stop.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/
Who can forget the “exuberance” once expressed by mindless Republican dolts for the “savior” who would deliver them from the terrors of modernity, progress, and social diversity.
Now we all get to sit back and laugh our asses off as the wheels come off the GOP at 70 mph.
Vivek Rama$)&#@(-y has withdrawn from the Colorado Republican primary in “solidarity” with felon rapist Trump.
Never has it been more obvious that he is running to be Trump’s bottom.