TGIF! [DOT 30/6/23]

30/6/23 MegMegMcGee 46

Happy Friday all!

Are we treating this as a long weekend? I am; I’m driving to Cleveland tomorrow for the week. #exciting!

I have 5 WaPo links left to give this month:

Supreme Court rejects race-based affirmative action in college admissions

https://wapo.st/3XzWkHQ

Scot Peterson, who didn’t act to stop Parkland massacre, is acquitted
https://wapo.st/43ZkqOq

Poor air quality and hazy skies as Canada wildfire smoke keeps spilling into U.S.
https://wapo.st/44j0zta

As United’s woes enter fifth day, July 4 travel rush will test fragile system
https://wapo.st/3NSevoF

What’s the best vanilla ice cream? We tried 13 popular brands.
https://wapo.st/3JBzo54

Have a great day!

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46 Comments

  1. Happy trails! I am treating this as a working long weekend, because the places I got these projects from are closed until the 5th. So I, kind of forgetting about the 4th of July holiday, was relieved to discover this, which gives me two more days to procrastinate!

    Also, tomorrow’s Canada Day. Are our neighbors to the north off today or Monday to compensate?

  5. Canadian wildfire smoke reached all the way to Spain this week. I wish I could do the same. But in all seriousness, climate change is scary AF and this highlights how we are doomed not protected from it by political or geographic borders. I say we give climate change a face (or an evil conglomerate of 1-percenter faces) to muster up that “us vs them” unity needed to spearhead collective action.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.majorcadailybulletin.com/weather/weather/2023/06/28/114473/smoke-from-canada-wildfires-reaches-spain-mallorca-extreme-forest-fire-alert.html

    • This is really off-tangent BUT…we have friends, they’re more friends of Better Half’s, who told him over the phone last night that they’re in a position to retire and they’re going to throw in the towel. One of them is a native of England/The UK, and his husband is even more of an Anglophile than I am, so they’re going to sell their place and shove off. Conveniently the Englishman maintained dual citizenship, like BoJo and Rish!, and I think the Anglophile gets in as a spouse, but I don’t know.

      Then I overheard BH talking about our imminent retirement to Spain, or at least partially, we’ll have to keep some kind of place in New York, once the Faithful Hound goes to his Great Reward. So they were talking about how in their own retirement they could sublease our place in Spain for a month, say, and they would look forward to hosting us in England.

      “A little cart before the horse, Better Half.”

        • The south, particularly Barcelona, (that’s kind of the northeast, actually) but the prices of apartments are skyrocketing and the city is actually, like Venice, starting to try to impose tourist limits. We missed our chance, and in life, timing is everything. We could have had the apartment of our dreams in the Eixample for about 200,000 euros a decade ago. Now, those kinds of apartments don’t come up and if they do they’re snapped up within minutes.

          • I think the flip side to trend-driven real estate is that the places left behind can be relative bargains which escape the overcrowding, and who wants to live in the place everyone avoids because it’s too crowded, as Yogi Berra repeated. Good luck.

            • The problem with Spain (although it’s not really a problem) is that the whole coast has been colonized by Euros and Brits for decades. But they left the cities alone, especially Barcelona, which was a hotbed of Catalan independence. Most of them just wanted to start drinking upon waking and sunburn themselves but we wanted to dive right in and, personally, wanted to see how much Catalan (which I can’t speak or understand but I can read) differed from the Spanish I was taught.

              But now Barcelona is what Prague was in the 1990s. Everyone had to go and everyone had to live there for a spell. And then people stopped doing this in Prague. So I hope Barcelona calms down (they’re not immune to a good riot or two, but I mean this in an expat way.)

    • reached us over here too….unfortunately we’re overcast for the time being so i didnt get to see what im told would have been a spectacular sunrise

  6. Was awoken this morning at about 4:55 with a massively painful leg cramp, so my Friday didn’t start exactly the way I was hoping.

    Also, a minor point, but I’m vaguely annoyed at national media declaring this a holiday weekend when lots of people (myself included) will be working as normal on Monday.

  8. I suspect wiping out affirmative action is going to blow up in Conservatives faces like the other stupid decisions the Supremely Corrupt Court has made in the past couple of years as this isn’t the 1950s where only mediocre white males could climb the ladder (looking at you Judge Rapey, Sammy Asshole and Grabby Gorsuch.)

    I find it (grimly) amusing that they didn’t wipe out affirmative action based on sex.

    If Ivy League Admissions are based solely on academics/extra curriculars then expect a wave of Asian dominated freshman classes but we know they’re not. Either way, the mediocre white right wing fools who expected Ivy League admissions are going to be really disappointed.

      • There’s a lot of gnashing of teeth among right wingers over the fact that women are currently more than 50% of college students. They will absolutely be pushing for policies that benefit dumber Chads and Thads.

        One of the obvious contradictions of this ruling and the anti-gay discrimination ruling is that the right wingers are prohibiting private entities from helping some groups, but also allowing private entities to hurt others. They’re just picking and choosing winners and losers, and you can bet as far as college applications they’ll encourage policies which help White men at the expense of White women.

        • …I saw a tweet…which I don’t have a link for because twitter is apparently trying out a new “you can read the preview but you can’t have a link without logging in” bit of bullshit I haven’t got time to find a way around…that pointed out the disparity between a private business being entitled to refuse someone specifically because they qualify as a member of a protected class while the same court determined that another private business was not allowed to grant access to someone because they qualified as a member of a protected class

          …it’s…teetering on being an unhelpful phrasing since technicality-wise the university is t being told it can’t award places to students who would have been in line for affirmative action considerations…but in terms of making it clear that the object of the exercise is explicitly to contort the reading of the overlapping law involved so as to enable the destruction of the protection the law they profess to be guided by supposedly guaranteed…it seemed a useful way to think about it

          …well…if “useful” can be stretched to meaning “makes you want to start breaking shit & maybe lighting some stuff on fire”

          …if this shit was happening in france by now you’d be able to see the suburbs from space…there’d be so many cars on fire even the smoke from north of the border wouldn’t blot it out

            • And as far as the specific comparison, it’s fair in the narrow sense to call it a stretch.

              But the larger point is that they’re engaging in a project of creating ideologically based super rights which wipe out other rights, and it’s happening on an ad hoc basis which suits their biases.

              They’re demolishing the Reconstruction Amendments in the same way as the radical courts of the late 1800s and early 1900s. And of course the irony, as people like Jamelle Bouie are saying, is they are ignoring the obvious intent of the creators of those Amendments, people who intentionally superceded the original design with the authority given to them by the Constitution itself.

              • …yeah…it’s alarming how they’ve lent so far into their partisan project that it’s entirely overt in its otherwise-mutually-contradictory conclusions…like…you can’t consistently employ the same set of principles in the same way & come out with diametrically opposed rulings that have basically nothing in common beyond a nominal fig-leaf behind which to deny the very thing presupposed by the existence of a protected class

                …there’s an unambiguous case to be made that the court who just this week declared itself the final arbiter of elections to the other two branches of government & which lacks enforceable means of hiring & firing its occupants when they go rogue is over the line into the kind of illegitimate territory that credulous morons think biden’s election belongs in

                …how do you pierce the pre-existing veil of bullshit to address the legitimate kind of urgent need to combat illegitimately usurped authority?

                • …how do you pierce the pre-existing veil of bullshit to address the legitimate kind of urgent need to combat illegitimately usurped authority?

                  What happened during the New Deal when the radical right Supreme Court went through a similar level of unprincipled activism is Roosevelt threatened to pack the court.

                  The angry reaction led him to back down, but the court also suddenly started reversing itself.

                  Short of a few of these corrupt freaks being arrested for things like this — https://www.theonion.com/1850566803 — I am guessing there’s a serious chance of something similar.

                  The public respect for the Supreme Court has cratered, and these kinds of decisions will only make it worse. Back then, the Supreme Court was a more obscure institution, and they had a lot of residual respect that’s worn thin now. Although there’s the issue that Roosevelt had big majorities in Congress when he made his move, and who knows what the future landscape will be like.

        • Sure, that’s already the way it is. But by excluding gender from the ruling they are appealing to educated white women who think they are protected. The same women who demanded that Black women fight with them on reproductive rights. But will vote Republican when it doesn’t hurt them specifically,  throwing Black women, Indigenous women, and other people of color under the bus.

    • SCOTUS just ruled in favor of a bigot website designer who refused to make a wedding website for a gay couple saying it violates their right to freedom of speech.

      Fuck x infinity. We are so fucked.

      • Worry not! I will design the invites to my own wedding.

        I think I told you all that BH and I are not really married. No, we’re still just domestic partners. But we refer to each other as husbands, because that’s just easier.

        However, employers are going to catch on to this con (there are good and complicated tax reasons to maintain this status) at some point. If that happens we’ll get married and I’m going to demand a ceremony, where I’m going to be temporary officiant, co-groom, and then ringmaster of the circus-like reception that will ensue. I will juggle many balls to pull this off but I’ve pulled off more complicated maneuvers.

        You will all be invited. During the service you could give readings. “A reading from Cousin Matthew, May 22, 2022.”

      • Rip pointed to an article yesterday showing the entire basis for the suit was completely made up. There never was an application to the web design company in the first place.

        The next step is letting people start writing ads for housing and jobs that are blatantly discriminatory, and engage in openly hostile policies in the workplace.

        Employers being able to fire anyone who doesn’t carry out daily anti-gay “prayers” is where this headed. And the flip side is the right wingers will need to limit this authority to right wing pseudochristians, so look for them to start attacking the idea of a neutral First Amendment with respect to religion.

    • As I understand it, one of the criterion scores was basically sociability, which, was always bogus, but they could interview the candidate and give low marks to the Asian candidates, based on that alone. Like a social credit score or something.

      My university required a passport photo with my application. This was my American university, and I was a typical 18-year-old white male from the time. I got in, early admission, so I don’t know if it helped or hurt.

    • …however unlikely it might be that any of this will ultimately result in the full spectrum of consequences I wish it would…I can’t help but hope this is still just the beginning…& that it snowballs to such immense proportions that it becomes a snowball that would have better than an even chance even in hell?

    • …so…I’d read some other stuff that seemed to be uncertain about the jurisdiction…that one’s talking about superceding indictments which would be adding to the tally in the florida grand jury stuff rather than, say, DC or whatever court is nearest to bedminster

      …but I notice it mentioned being

      based on evidence against Trump “that has not yet been publicly acknowledged by the department, including other recordings prosecutors have obtained which reveal Mr. Trump making incriminating statements.”

      …so…lawdy, there’s (more) tapes…& also talked about rudy’s sit down with prosecutors…which isn’t all that unusual in a procedural sense but is ripe for jokes because it’s an arrangement often referred to as “queen for a day”

      …& also doesn’t serve to advantage him if he at any point lied or missed providing them with something on his end of the deal he was trying to get them to hook him up with

      …so…you can admit to any kind of shit & they can’t use the admission in evidence against you (just you) & if you have anything they can use that’s the quid pro quo that gets you leniency

      …but if they catch you trying to play them all bets are off & they can use it all…at least as it was explained to me

      …& this is rudy we’re talking about…younger & smarter fuck ups from this stable have already fallen over that clear & well signposted step…so…I’m almost optimistic about where that seems to be headed?

  11. …I made a crack about the way the french would be reacting to the supreme court but I didn’t find space in the DOT the other day for the thing that had that on my mind…basically a young black guy was killed by a white police officer…& if you’ve ever seen la haine or read the stranger you’ll probably have a pretty good grasp of why the police claiming they aren’t racist is going down spectacularly poorly

    …so…over 650 arrested thus far…macron had an emergency meeting about it today…& there are a lot of burned out &/or burning cars in the paris banlieues

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/30/france-riots-more-than-400-arrested-as-police-officer-accused-of-shooting-teen-apologises

    • Did you know that the banlieues (and they’re not just around Paris) are referred to in French as “the lost territories of the French Republic”? They’re called that because although they are on mainland French soil, no “real” French person can enter or travel through, let alone move there. That includes the police.

      • …I’m certainly not a real french person…but I’ve been through one or two in the company of one or two so that might be a colorful way of putting it…but it certainly hints at a real thing

        …the attitude on both sides of the immigrant/police divide is pretty trenchant…though I find one set of grievances easier to understand…& this may well be one of those times when it resembles that scene from the wire where the police car out front of a block gets molotovs lobbed at it

        …macron trying to say the average age of the crowds is young enough that it’s more the parents’fault for not keeping them home…& the various kinds of curfew measures popping up from paris to marseilles would suggest pretty strongly that it’s well beyond the boundaries of the banlieues at this point, though

        • Our new dog walker, who’s working out splendidly, is a young Frenchwoman. We were working out a schedule this morning because BH’s work travel is heating up, and she said that she would not be around a few days surrounding 14 Juillet. Of course not. En vacances. But that will not inconvenience us, because aside from me probably whipping up something à propos, we’ll be fine. I will ask her about the rioting. That might be kind of sensitive, so maybe I won’t. But I’m telling you, if I were French…

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