Monthly Archives: December 2024

Tailgunner Josh (r)

04 Wednesday Dec 2024

Posted by in Josh Hawley, social media, US Senate

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Josh Hawley (r) [2024 file photo].

Josh Hawley (r) has his undies in a wad.

Josh Hawley @HawleyMO
I’m putting DOJ & FBI on notice: Don’t shred a single document. Don’t delete a single file. Accountability is coming. The Judiciary Committee WILL investigate – and find out who authorized spying on Christians, attacks on prolifers, the vendettas against Trump – all of it
[….]
5:33 PM · Dec 3, 2024

The letter:

December 3, 2024

The Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

The Honorable Christopher A. Wray
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535

Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray:

I have received reports that, under your leadership, DOJ and FBI employees are destroying records and other documents in an effort to conceal the widespread misconduct that took place under the Biden Administration. You must immediately stop this attempt to evade accountability, and should terminate any employees involved. Further, you must preserve all Department and Bureau documents in anticipation of congressional investigations to come.

Under your leadership, the DOJ and FBI have engaged in unprecedented abuses of the justice system—ranging from the criminal prosecution of President-elect Trump to bad-faith prosecutions of pro-life Americans for peacefully protesting abortion, and attempts to recruit undercover informants in Catholic parishes. This is a sordid track record, and the American people deserve the truth about how it happened and who was involved.

With sunlight now on the horizon, I’m not surprised by last-ditch efforts to stonewall the incoming administration. But those efforts will fail. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who will hold the chairmanship of a Subcommittee in the forthcoming Congress, I intend to investigate your respective agencies’ illicit actions over the past several years. If your staff are presently destroying relevant documents, then the American people will learn about that too, and will learn who gave the orders to do so.

The bottom line is this: you must immediately take all necessary steps to preserve all documents, records, and other materials generated by your agencies during your respective tenures in office. You must cease any bad-faith document destruction. And you should prepare for the real justice to come.

Sincerely,
s/
Josh Hawley
United States Senator

“…With sunlight now on the horizon, I’m not surprised by last-ditch efforts to stonewall the incoming administration…”

Obviously cribbed from a junior high school dance decoration subcommittee report.

Some of the responses at another social media site:

There he goes DEMANDING again… wow…[….]

This will be a big ole nothing burger by the GOP. When was the last time a GOP investigation had any results?

Oh yay more wasted time and money conducting worthless investigations, holding hearings and nothing getting done.
Surprise surprise.

The only ones needed to be reviewed and held accountable are Trump and insurrectionists like yourself. [….]

Hawley, you are a clown with sheep manure for brains. Enjoy your brief tenure, you are one of the many maga cult members who will be quickly forgotten by history.

Resign you christofascist hack

Moron.

HB 95: a ban on banning

03 Tuesday Dec 2024

Posted by in Missouri General Assembly

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Bill prefiling for the 2025 legislative session has started.

A sad commentary on our times:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 95 [pdf]
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE EALY.

0516H.01I
DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To amend chapter 1, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to library collections.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Chapter 1, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 1.521, to read as follows:

1.521. 1. No library that receives any moneys from the federal government or the state or any political subdivision thereof shall ban or restrict access to any book or other resource in the library’s collection because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

2. This section shall not be construed to require a library that receives any moneys from the federal government or the state or any political subdivision thereof to purchase or otherwise acquire a book or resource for inclusion in the library’s collection.

That is until the Fascists start burning them.

HB 38: state-sanctioned bigotry

03 Tuesday Dec 2024

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“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” – Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)

Hardy Billington (r) [2022 file photo]

Bill prefiling for the 2025 legislative session has started.

Right wingnut priorities:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO.38 [pdf]
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE BILLINGTON.

0233H.01I DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To amend chapter 167, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to school employees and independent contractors.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

[….]

2. No employee or independent contractor shall knowingly address, identify, or refer to a student by pronouns that are different from the pronouns that align with such student’s biological sex unless the public school or school board receives written permission from the student’s parent.

3. No public school or school board shall require an employee or independent contractor to address, identify, or refer to an individual by pronouns that are different from the pronouns that align with such individual’s biological sex if such usage is contrary to such employee’s or independent contractor’s religious or moral convictions.

4. Each public school and school board shall adopt and implement a policy that is substantially similar to the provisions of this section.

5. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an employee or independent contractor from discussing any matters of public concern outside the context of such employee’s or independent contractor’s official duties.

“…No public school or school board shall require an employee or independent contractor to address, identify, or refer to an individual by pronouns that are different from the pronouns that align with such individual’s biological sex if such usage is contrary to such employee’s or independent contractor’s religious or moral convictions…”

How would they know? Who’s going to check?

HB 34: Which version, again?

02 Monday Dec 2024

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“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” – Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)

Hardy Billington (r) [2022 file photo].

Bill prefiling for the 2025 legislative session has started.

Right off the bat:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 34 [pdf]
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE BILLINGTON.

0241H.01I
DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To amend chapter 171, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to the Ten Commandments in schools.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Chapter 171, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 171.022, to read as follows:

171.022. 1. As used in this section, “Ten Commandments” means the following text:
“The Ten Commandments
I AM the LORD thy God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

2. Beginning on January1,2026, each school district’s school board and charter school’s governing board shall display the Ten Commandments in each building and classroom under the school board’s or governing board’s jurisdiction, subject to at least the following requirements:
(1) The nature of such display shall be determined by each school board and governing board;
(2) Such display shall be composed of, at a minimum, a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches; and
(3) The text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central focus of the poster or framed document and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font.

3. (1) A school board or governing board may spend the board’s moneys or donated moneys to purchase the displays.
(2) A school board or governing board may accept donated displays.
(3) This section shall not be construed to require a school board or governing board to spend the board’s moneys to purchase displays.

4. The state board of education may promulgate all necessary rules and regulations for the administration of this section. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, that is created under the authority delegated in this section shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all of the provisions of chapter 536 and, if applicable, section 536.028. This section and chapter 536 are non-severable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536 to review, to delay the effective date, or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after the effective date of this section shall be invalid and void.

In the U.S. Constitution:

Article VI

…no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…

There you go.

Presidential Pardon: Hunter Biden

01 Sunday Dec 2024

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“…In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough…”

Joe Biden (D) [2020 file photo].

Tonight:

December 01, 2024
Statement from President Joe Biden

Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.

The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.

No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.

For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.

###
[….]

At Lawyers, Guns and Money:

Biden to issue pardon for Hunter Biden
By Paul Campos / On December 1, 2024 / At 7:36 pm
[….]
The presidential pardon power is a royalist anachronism that either shouldn’t exist at all, or should be far more hemmed in by bureaucratic limitations than it currently is, but that’s not relevant to the merits here. Those include:

(1) Hunter Biden was subject to criminal prosecution for purely political reasons. The offenses he was convicted for are almost literally never prosecuted. The tax evasion charge is particularly outrageous: pursuing criminal charges for tax evasion when the defendant has paid back all the taxes, penalties, and fines that the taxpayer owes essentially never happens.

(2) That Republicans will scream about this is, under the circumstances, something to which any decent person, i.e., not a Republican, should pay exactly zero attention.

“…Do not be taken in by small signs of normality…”

01 Sunday Dec 2024

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“Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality. [….] …history has seen many catastrophes, and most of them unfolded over time. That time included periods of relative calm. [….]”
– Autocracy: Rules for Survival – Masha Gessen – November 10, 2016.

Last month, from a re-posted review of Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts:

10 Lessons from a Dark Past
[….]

David Pepper
Nov 19, 2024

[….]

1) Do not allow increasingly vile and inhumane—and violent—rhetoric and ideas to become normalized. Call them out (for example—thank you to those who immediately marched in response to the neo-Nazi march in Columbus! Do that every time.

2)Do not allow everyday acts of violence to become normalized;

3) Do not dismiss the most bizarre, ostentatious and odd happenings as too outlandish and irrelevant to be taken seriously;

4) Do not dismiss those engaged in vile and disturbing rhetoric as mere clowns or buffoons who could never carry out the things they are so clearly indicating they will do (their forebears were dismissed in just that way in the 1930s); these are people who are now in the fold of power; they can and will do exactly as they say if given the means and space to do it;

5) Do not diminish those who are raising alarm bells by scolding them that they are hurting the cause—do not believe that if only they dialed it back, then the troubling behavior they are describing will somehow go away. History shows that the opposite is true;

6) Stand loudly against any proposals and approaches to consolidate power and eliminate checks and balances that upend long-accepted principles of justice and effective, fair government;

7) For those in the same party as those who just took over, or business leaders or journalists or others, who decide to go along with the program, either out of fear or greed or assuming you can ultimately control those leaders; or betting that you will fare better by muting criticisms as opposed to airing them loudly and clearly…know that did NOT work. History is painfully clear about that. In fact, you are often the first targets of retribution.

8) The biggest mistakes made by both foreign governments and domestic politicians was NOT taking the most dire threats seriously. Not imagining that worse could happen. Not unifying to stand against every step. Over and over, contemporaries (including those with power) assumed the worst had already happened. It hadn’t. And their passivity was a green light—inviting only more.

9) When people who used to be within the inner circle warn the rest of us how bad it is, and how bad it may become, amplify them as best you can; welcome their voices even if there are differences.

10) Similarly, continue to call upon those with influence in the party in power to stop going along with it. And…if/when any Republican Senators and others DO stand up to Trump’s actions, thank them. Lift them. We need them to keep doing so, so we better encourage that good behavior before and after it happens. There will be few, but every dissenting voice matters.

[….]

#resist

“RESIST” (2024)
Posterboard. Permanent marker. 22 x 28.

Previously:

The resistance (December 18, 2016)

Sanewashing on the road to normalcy (November 8, 2024)

Practical Dissent: Protest Signs (November 17, 2024)

Practical Dissent: Just Do It (November 19, 2024)

Practical Dissent: it’s the weather, and a lot more (November 21, 2024)

Practical Dissent: planting seeds (November 26, 2024)

Practical Dissent: One (November 27, 2024)

Practical Dissent: testing, testing… (November 28, 2024)