Thursday, April 03, 2025

The case against New York Mayor Adams is dismissed - with prejudice.

 Opinion. EmptyWheel analysis and commentary.

Rather than trying to explain what the case is about Crabgrass refers readers to the first few pages of the opinion.

In effect, Pam Bondi's DOJ wanted to tie a string to the Mayor, to keep him in a place where, to do well and not be bomed he'd have to embrace and follow administration immigration policy, in his city. 

Consider the classic image of the organ grinder having a string tied to the dancing monkey, to assure it keeps dancing to the tune, rather than going away on its own path. There is that feeling of impropriety to how the Bondi DOJ does things.

 

Two old guys, and current events.

 https://www.youtube.com/embed/633Y9mcxN-s

In order to galvanize together his Billionaire base and his Christian Nationalist base, Trump signs executive order to compel a camel to fit through the eye of a needle.

 

image source

 While admitting its much like getting to Mars, Elon says, "We need it. We really, really, really need it. Trump listened. We got the order signed, so it's all over but the shouting."

 Hegseth to make it a DOD priority. Not just a priority actually, but a crusade.

"If I can get the ocean to tilt, I can do this too."

With his getting Palintir into the project, and his main man in Idaho, the best hearts and minds are on it, Hegseth says. Have faith. "We're aiming to be engineering a camel downward; from the size of a Tesla to the size of a dust spec, and going to the finish line from there. Of late, we're down to mouse size, but our most recent lab instantiation met with a house cat and we're starting over from there."

So, if you miss or pass over the video, you may be more confused by this post than otherwise.  Not saying you should watch it, just that you might.

Alternatively, try this.  It's sounder than crypto. Buy in. Enjoy mixing with best/brightest. Ask: Where would DOGE be without Palintir as a trailblazer? Guess.

 

  

Wednesday, April 02, 2025

Elon bought a lemon with million dollar checks.

 https://www.fox9.com/news/democratic-backed-susan-crawford-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-seat-cementing-liberal-majority

 

The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court defeated a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, cementing a liberal majority for at least three more years.

Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge who led legal fights to protect union power and abortion rights and to oppose voter ID, defeated Republican-backed Brad Schimel in a race that broke records for spending, was on pace to be the highest-turnout Wisconsin Supreme Court election ever and became a proxy fight for the nation’s political battles.

Trump, Musk and other Republicans lined up behind Schimel, a former state attorney general. Democrats including former President Barack Obama and billionaire megadonor George Soros backed Crawford.

The first major election in the country since November was seen as a litmus test of how voters feel about Trump’s first months back in office and the role played by Musk, [...who] traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday to make a pitch for Schimel and personally hand out to [sic] $1 million checks to voters.

Crawford embraced the backing of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates, running ads that highlighted Schimel’s opposition to the procedure. She also attacked Schimel for his ties to Musk and Republicans, referring to Musk as "Elon Schimel" during a debate.

Young and right minded. Yes!

California Dreaming - I trust Katie Porter to bring it on, Harris to be vapid and empty of policy ideas and ideals, and Republicans to run Steve Garvery. The run to replace Governor Gavin.

NBC has a report with a Porter campaign ad saying she's not an empty vessel.

Here,  with this video URL if you, like Chauncey Gardner, prefer to watch. 

Porter is well known nationally, and in California as a former U.S. House member who rolled the dice for the Feinstein Senate seat but ending up as third in the primary behind Schiff and Garvey. With top to going to the general election.

Garvey, for Christsakes, good baseball player, short on cause to be taken seriously as a politician, but there to squeeze out Porter.

 Schiff not unhappy about it turning out that way.

So Guv race. Expect Harris - Hollywood Harris, to expect it as hers, because.

Crabgrass is 100% behind the Porter candidacy at this point.

Show me something better. You don't have it, so Porter's the one.

Wikipedia page

From that NBC page:

“If Vice President Harris were to choose to run, I am certain that that would have a near field-clearing effect on the Democratic side,” Porter told The Orange County Register late last year. 

Harris, also a former California senator and state attorney general, will decide whether to run for governor by the end of the summer, according to a source familiar with her planning. Harris is also weighing a possible presidential run in 2028, and the source said she is “keeping all options open.”

The people of California need a Governor, not a dilettante who took a loss head on, and down ticket, to Dondald J. Trump and the red cappers. 

So -- Please Kamala, give it up. You blew it big time and there are reasons. 

For Governor Kamala -- You're the second best candidate, between you and Porter. 

Plain, simple, and true. Clyburn has no real say, in California.

_______________UPDATE_______________

https://katieporter.com/

https://katieporter.com/2025/03/consumer-protection-attorney-and-former-congresswoman-katie-porter-launches-campaign-for-california-governor/

 

 

Tuesday, April 01, 2025

"Governor Ron DeSantis leads push to loosen child labor laws as immigration crackdown leads to workforce shortage"

 Guardian -

Alarm as Florida Republicans move to fill deported workers’ jobs with children: ‘It’s insane, right?’

 

Beneath the smugness of Ron DeSantis, at Florida leading the nation in immigration enforcement lies something of a conundrum: how to fill the essential jobs of the scores of immigrant workers targeted for deportation.

The answer, according to Florida lawmakers, is the state’s schoolchildren, who as young as 14 could soon be allowed to work overnight shifts without a break – even on school nights.

A bill that progressed this week through the Republican-dominated state senate seeks to remove numerous existing protections for teenage workers, and allow them, in the Florida governor’s words, to step into the shoes of immigrants who supply Florida’s tourism and agriculture industries with “dirt cheap labor”.

“What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? That’s how it used to be when I was growing up,” DeSantis said at an immigration forum with Donald Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, in Sarasota last week.

“Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be [doing] all this stuff.”

Unsurprisingly, the proposal has alarmed immigration advocates and watchdog groups concerned about child labor abuses and exploitation.

They point out that there is nothing “part-time” in the language of the companion senate and house bills currently before lawmakers, which instead will permit unlimited working hours without breaks for 14- and 15-year-olds who are schooled at home or online, and allow employers to require 16- and 17-year-olds to work for more than six days in a row.

Florida. Alternatively, they could use convict labor. If too few convicts, that can be fixed, Florida style.

What's a politician's Town Hall event, without a town, or a hall? One answer, Planned Bullshit. Or Fear of facing the people.

 

a cat standing on its hind legs with it's mouth open
scardey cat

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/04/house-republicans-doge-town-halls/81417000007/

title:

House Republicans advised to stop holding in-person town halls after DOGE complaints

https://apnews.com/article/town-halls-musk-doge-trump-gop-749d91ea516284057e4c7bcb1615527e

title: 

Speaker Johnson tells GOP lawmakers to skip town halls after an onslaught of protests


https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5175061-house-republicans-town-halls-protests/

title: 

House Republicans advised to avoid in-person town halls amid protests

*****

As in be gutless, don't face the people in a real town, at a real hall.

Why this focus? My district's Rep. Tom Emmer says he'll do a town hall - But ---

His latest email, hitting the inbox three hours ago, one day's notice. This [images omitted] -

Dear Friend, 

As we’ve said for years, Congress is a customer service business. As we continue our work in Washington, D.C., we have announced a telephone town hall to give you an update on our work, hear your input and answer your questions.

Image

The telephone town hall is scheduled for this Wednesday, April 2nd at 5:30 pm. Many of you will receive a call inviting you to participate, but in case you don’t, to join the event call 833-425-1492. Being transparent and accessible to our constituents is always a top priority and we hope you are able join us for this event.

Sincerely, 


Image

 

 

Sincerely, but what's sincere about it? It's phony to the core. It's an insult.

No town. No hall. Why bother?

To stage a controlled phone-based propaganda fling?

For gulls, to gull them further?  BFD

Sorry Tom. NO GUTS. NO GLORY. 

[end of story] 



Monday, March 31, 2025

Please don't.

If you toggle it on, DuckDuckGo will provide a bot blurb as well as a return list. Here's the bot blurb I got with this search:

Donald Trump has expressed interest in finding ways to serve a third term as president, suggesting there may be methods to bypass the two-term limit set by the US Constitution. However, he has not provided specific details on how this could be achieved.

The bot is telling it like it is. The story presumes he'd be able to run again and be elected. To the extent people fail to see Elon is only doing Trump's dirty work, hating on Elon for it instead of hating on the dirty work itself and its actual father, he could possibly win again, but BLESS THE CONSTITUTIONAL LIMIT TO TWO TERMS when considering how he'd abuse things by doing it if he thought he could get away with it. What a piece of work.

UPDATE: Reading the TOI link, it says:

Speaking to NBC News in a phone interview on Sunday, Trump claimed, “There are methods which you could do it,” while also adding that “it is far too early to think about it”.
The 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution, ratified in 1951 after Franklin D Roosevelt's four-term presidency, explicitly limits a president to two elected terms.
However, when asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker whether one way to bypass this restriction could be through Vice President JD Vance running and later stepping aside, Trump responded, “Well, that’s one. But there are others too. There are others”.

That would be running a ticket JD/Trump, JD top spot, and then winning. Another way, same ticket and throw JD off a tall building once winning. Putin's possibly hellpful on options.

Speaker Johnson if asked, likely would prefer the tall building option. 

FURTHER: An Elon/Trump ticket, Elon top spot, would fail because Elon's birthplace is South Africa; foreign birth being a bar, unless Trump could finagle a way to thwart that Constitutional provision too. (It's original text, not by Amendment, so would it be harder to evade?)