June 2, 2024

Supreme Court Architect Leonard Leo Demands Justices Shield Big Oil From Historic Climate Trial

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/supreme-court-big-oil-leonard-leo-climate-change-trial-1235031027/

Leonard Leo is known as the architect of the Supreme Court for good reason: He helped Donald Trump pick three Supreme Court justices, and his dark money network led PR campaigns to install five of its six conservative justices. Leo’s network also funds politicians and organizations pressing the court to take up certain cases and rule specific ways.

This approach has been enormously successful, culminating in an end to federal protections for abortion rights and a $1.6 billion donation to Leo’s network. Now, Leo’s operation is upping the ante: It’s leading a public-facing campaign saying the Supreme Court “needs to take up” Honolulu’s historic lawsuit against major oil companies, and shield Big Oil companies from a trial over climate-related damages.

In 2020, Honolulu sued major oil and gas companies, accusing them of knowing for decades that burning fossil fuels would damage the climate, and concealing that information from the public. The lawsuit alleges oil companies violated public and private nuisance laws, as well as laws requiring them to warn about the harms caused by their products — and it demands the companies pay damages to make up for the costs to property and infrastructure.

The defendants — which include Aloha Petroleum, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, Shell, and Sunoco — have fought for years to block the Honolulu lawsuit from moving forward, arguing that the city is wrongfully seeking to regulate interstate and international greenhouse gas emissions, and that the federal Clean Air Act should preempt state law.

June 2, 2024

Josh Gibson becomes MLB career and season batting leader as Negro Leagues statistics incorporated

https://apnews.com/article/negro-leagues-statistics-4a204a3cac0527ab5be750783fd411df

NEW YORK (AP) — Josh Gibson became Major League Baseball’s career leader with a .372 batting average, surpassing Ty Cobb’s .367, when Negro Leagues records for more than 2,300 players were incorporated Tuesday after a three-year research project. Gibson also became the career leader in slugging percentage (.718) and OPS (1.177), moving ahead of Babe Ruth (.690 and 1.164).

“It’s a show of respect for great players who performed in the Negro Leagues due to circumstances beyond their control and once those circumstances changed demonstrated that they were truly major leaguers,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. “Maybe the single biggest factor was the success of players who played in the Negro Leagues and then came to the big leagues.”

MLB announced in December 2020 that it would be “correcting a longtime oversight” and would add the Negro Leagues. John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, chaired a 17-person committee that included Negro Leagues experts and statisticians.

Records include the first Negro National League (1920-31), Eastern Colored League (1923-28), American Negro League (1929), East-West League (1932), Negro Southern League (1932), second Negro National League (1933-48) and Negro American League (1937-48). Barnstorming exhibition games are not included.

June 1, 2024

Seinfeld mourning 'dominant masculinity', cheerleading genocidal violence, and joking about suffering children in Gaza

The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/01/jerry-seinfeld-real-men-dominant-masculinity-bari-weiss-podcast

Seinfeld’s lurch to the right hasn’t come out of nowhere: the billionaire comedian was never exactly woke. He famously dated a 17-year-old high school student when he was 38 and definitely not a high school student. Several years ago, he also took his family to a so-called Anti-terror Fantasy Camp in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank accused of “gamifying” apartheid, where they could shoot guns and pretend to be soldiers.

But while Seinfeld has never been a bleeding-heart liberal, it feels like he’s never been quite so vocally anti-progressive as he is now. Ever since 7 October, Seinfeld has advocated loudly for Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians, demonized pro-Palestinian protesters, and joked about suffering children in Gaza. “Save the children of Gaza,” he said in a mocking voice after getting heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters at a show. Along with cheerleading what the United Nations human rights council has described as genocidal violence, he has also apparently decided that a great tactic for publicizing his much-panned movie about Pop-Tarts is by complaining about the left.

Then this week, Seinfeld decided to get nostalgic about “real men” on the conservative agitator Bari Weiss’s podcast. “I miss a dominant masculinity,” Seinfeld said. “Yeah, I get the toxic thing … But still, I like a real man.” The pair also talked about Israel and managed to display so little regard for the suffering in Gaza that an Israeli journalist wrote a disgusted column about it.

Oh, there’s more. Weiss and Seinfeld both got weirdly nostalgic about the 60s. “Obviously there were problems. [The] civil rights movement had yet to start, like a zillion. But the thing that was present that I feel like isn’t now is a sense of, like … a common culture,” Weiss said. Seinfeld agreed, saying the best thing about that era, which is when his Pop-Tarts movie was based, was “an agreed-upon hierarchy”.

June 1, 2024

Don Whoreleone's Greatest Hits - ROTFLMAO

Jimmy Kimmel:

Brent Terhune:

May 31, 2024

Where's Melania??

Nowhere to be found today...

May 30, 2024

New York State Of Mind

So grateful that 12 brave New Yorkers had the courage to call the Slobfather's shit.

May 28, 2024

Rude Pundit: A Poem for Memorial Day

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2024/05/a-poem-for-memorial-day.html

By Toby Hartbarger, of Warrior Writers

Ten years gone, 19 years old and naive
back flat against red Georgia clay-dirt
which wicks the sweat from my Army P.T. shirt
legs at roughly a 45 degree angle from the ground
hands to my sides, or tucked beneath my back
to protect a sore that had formed over my tailbone
teeth clenched and lightly caked with dust
eyes shut tight to avoid the relentless southern sun
and the frequent streams of sweat that run down my face
into a pool forming at the base of my neck
mind still full of the bullshit one believes
prior to knowing much of anything
unaware that by nine years gone
a different soil would claim my water

Nine years gone, 20 years old and a bigot
seated on the gunner’s strap of a soft-skinned HMMWV
in Baghdad Iraq, the air apparent
radiating off buff colored buildings and yellowed Mercedes
fenders, quarter panels, and doors painted odd colors
or as often, simply removed
my whole world seemed caked with dust
fearful gaze fixed fast on anything and everything but
frequent streams of five-five-six could make me scream
fuck no, I’m not afraid!
mind so full of the hatred one acquires
following fear and death and failure
praying that by eight years gone
a different soil might claim my water

Eight years gone, 21 years old and tired
lead foot flat against that Chevrolet floorboard
attempting to feel something worthwhile
something but the numbness and the nothing, just this nothing
and the thought that all of life’s pleasures and pains
may rightfully be retained from someone like me
ever recollecting how heinous I could be
knowing of a part of me I’d rather not have seen so
frequent dreams of who I’d been came crashing back at me
and into the hollow forming at the core of me
mind now full of the resentment one compounds
following loss without grief or healing
without concern for “life goes on”
that the earth continues to claim our water

My younger years gone, years older, still alive
feet feeling the sand, wading into warm water
fishing pole over my shoulder on a lake in fair Michigan
wind at my back, sweet scent of honeysuckle
my line flies fine, shot fired with great accuracy
the tug and the feel of the lure as I reel, heals me
eyes silently searching for the eddies and stills
for my next opportunity
I frequent streams, the calm it brings makes me sing
fuck no, I’m not afraid
mind now equipped with the wisdom one acquires
having survived the times that try you
with the utmost concern that life should go on
that the earth may continue to cleanse with her water

May 27, 2024

Tiedrich: Republicans hate our troops -- and no one hates them more than Donald Trump

https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/republicans-hate-our-troops-and-no

today is Memorial Day. you’re going to hear a lot of bloviating from the Usual Republican Suspects about how much they honor and respect our nation’s fallen heroes. they’re going to be all over social media, tweeting out the same old boilerplate platitudes about duty and sacrifice. it’s all bullshit. the GOP fucking hates our troops. as always, watch what they do, not what they say.

here we have a bunch of Republican Senators fist-bumping. why? because they just blocked a bill that would have expanded healthcare coverage for military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their service. who the fuck celebrates that? awesome job, you evil soulless hypocrites — because nothing says “we support our heroes” so much as “just fucking die.” listen up, shitheads: you send a person into a war zone and tell them to fight for their country, and when they come back injured and permanently disabled, you fucking well take care of them — forever.

let’s not forget that in November 2018, as world leaders gathered at a cemetery in France to honor the memory of US soldiers killed while fighting in World War One, Donny blew the whole thing off — because it was drizzling lightly and he didn’t want that weird tangle of piss-colored bullshit on top of his head to get wet. instead, he spent the day rage-tweeting from his hotel room. good times, bro, good times.

imagine you’re a severely wounded soldier. after five combat tours, sacrificing yourself for your country — you find yourself in a military hospital, minus one leg, your life permanently altered. you live though months of hell — bedridden, undergoing multiple operations and grueling physical therapy — and when finally you’re discharged, you’re confined to a wheelchair for the rest of your life. and what does the President of the United States — your Commander in Chief — say about you? “no one wants to see that, the wounded.” fuck you, Donald Trump. you piece of shit.

May 23, 2024

Amid Record Heat, Florida Meteorologist Rips GOP 'Don't Say Climate Change' Law

https://www.commondreams.org/news/florida-climate-change

Amid what's shaping up to be the hottest May on record in Miami, one local South Florida TV meteorologist recently slammed new Republican legislation prohibiting the mention of climate change in state law and implored Floridians to vote for candidates who "believe in climate change" and solutions to the planetary emergency.

The new law, signed last week by Republican Gov. DeSantis, also deprioritizes climate considerations in policy decisions, promotes fossil fuel infrastructure development, and bans the installation of wind turbines in state waters. While signing the bill, the failed 2024 GOP presidential contender said Florida was "restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots."

As South Floridians suffered record-breaking temperatures and a heat index that made it feel as hot as 110°F on Saturday, WTVJ meteorologist Steve MacLaughlin stood before a graphic showing that April was the 11th straight hottest month on record globally and said that Florida's government is "starting to roll back really important climate change legislation and really important climate change language."

While not mentioning DeSantis by name, MacLaughlin said: "Please keep in mind the most powerful climate change solution is the one you already have in the palm of your hand: the right to vote... We implore you to please do your research and know that there are candidates that believe in climate change and that there are solutions, and there are candidates that don't."

May 23, 2024

If Democracy Dies, So What?

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/democracy-vs-authoritarianism

Time magazine’s Eric Cortellessa, for instance, recently interviewed Trump to find out what he would do in a second term. The answer, in broad outline, is an imperial presidency that would reshape the country. He would deport millions of people, build migrant detention camps, and deploy the US military both at the border and in the country’s interior. He would allow red states to monitor and prosecute women who seek abortions. He would dictate to the Department of Justice and fire any US Attorney who defies his orders. He would pardon his supporters who attacked the US Capitol and punish his enemies. He would replace existing federal civil servants with political supporters. In short, Cortellessa reports, the 2024 election could amount to a revolution that brings about, in the words of historian Douglas Brinkley, “the end of our democracy.”

Unfortunately, Trump’s MAGA-dominated Republican Party has abandoned democracy to become the party of authoritarian rule. Election 2024 is their final battle to “demolish the deep state,” to “drive out the globalists,” to “cast out the communists … and radical-left thugs that live like vermin,” to “rout the fake-news media,” to “throw off the sick political class that hates our country.” The real threat, Trump proclaims, “is from within,” from the “radical left.” Joe Biden, in Trump’s upside-down rhetoric, is “the true threat to democracy.” As political historian Federico Finchelstein notes, “This is how fascists campaign.” Indeed, Robert Reich observes, Trump has begun to “signal his embrace of fascism.”

Criticism of Joe Biden’s policies, or even concern for his age, is not the problem. Indeed, a healthy democracy engages in spirited debate and is marked by the serious contestation of divergent viewpoints. The problem instead is that translating such concerns and serious differences into a decision not to vote, or even to vote for a third candidate, amounts to a vote against democracy. The 2024 election is a referendum on Joe Biden only insofar as he represents the alternative to authoritarian rule. This election is not a choice between candidates of the two major parties both of whom affirm democratic values. The choice is between constitutional democracy and autocracy. If the candidate for democracy wins, the politics of persuasion in a pluralistic polity and governance by checks and balances continue; if he loses, rule by demagoguery and coercion begins.

These are apocalyptic times that test the country’s democratic will. The conceit of white dominion that festers at the base of Trump’s candidacy is at war with the aspirations of a diverse people. The outcome of this prophetic struggle between authoritarian demagoguery and democratic persuasion hinges on this year’s general election. Whether democracy dies slowly or is dispatched quickly should it suffer electoral defeat in November, its demise will impact Americans adversely, more grievously than they expect. Life under authoritarian rule is stifling and harsh. It subdues aspirations, demolishes the freedoms and rights we prize, rescinds the material benefits we take for granted, defaults to coercion, and crushes morale. Alternatively, a coalition opposed to tyranny can still disagree with one another and advocate for competing policies while working together to reawaken the people’s stake in a democratic future and to turn out a decisive majority in November.