June 28, 2018

Hey, Democrats: Pack The Supreme Court

t is time for the Democratic Party to stop pretending that the words of men like Kennedy matter as much as their actions. The Supreme Court, Congress and the executive branch of the U.S. government are instruments of political power. All three are currently being used to advance the ideology and agenda of international fascism. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Anthony Kennedy all protest that they themselves do not personally harbor these terrible beliefs. Nevertheless, they find themselves professionally compelled to assist those who do.

Two months ago, the idea that the United States should abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement ― the militarized deportation enforcement agency ― seemed outlandish in Washington. On Tuesday, New York candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a seat in the House of Representatives pledging to do just that. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) has penned Abolish ICE legislation and is now courting co-sponsors. Two years ago, Medicare for All seemed like a pipe dream. Now it’s a standard agenda item for aspiring Democratic politicians, along with a federal jobs guarantee and ending private prisons. These ideas are animating the party faithful because they’re directed at people. They address actual problems facing real, flesh-and-blood humans. They are not scientific abstractions about the ideal functioning of perfectly modeled markets, or the procedural flow of the bureaucracy or the tenor of the discourse at leading think-tanks.

The court was founded in 1789 with just six justices and has included as many as 10 ― from 1863 to 1866, when a Republican legislature intentionally shrank the court size to seven justices to prevent President Andrew Johnson from making any appointments. In 1937, with the Supreme Court habitually striking down President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s efforts to save the country from the Great Depression, FDR floated the idea of expanding the court to as many as 15 justices. The history of “court-packing,” as it became known, is unbecoming. But lawmakers keep coming back to variants of the idea because it works. Even after FDR retreated from his proposal amid a profound outcry from Southern Democrats, the justices sitting on the court got his message and began issuing more sympathetic rulings on the New Deal. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and John Roberts will not be so malleable. Democrats will have to follow through. But members of Congress are not elected to be polite. They are elected to exercise power, a fact well understood by McConnell ― who blocked Obama nominee Merrick Garland. The Senate majority leader didn’t hesitate to demand the speedy confirmation of whomever Trump picks to succeed Kennedy.

The choice between court-packing (in 2021) and international fascism should not be difficult. Democrats can’t get their ends ― a decent society of mutual respect and shared prosperity ― by ignoring the means of power. Playing nice with fascist enablers in Washington will not stop fascism.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b33f7a8e4b0b5e692f3f3d4

June 24, 2018

Switzerland goal scorers could be suspended for 'controversial gestures'

FIFA has been asked to impose two-game bans on Switzerland's Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka after the pair made a strong political statement following their goals in Friday's 2-1 victory over Serbia.

After Xhaka scored early in the second half to pull Switzerland level with a fierce left-footed strike, he put his hands together in a "flapping eagle" gesture that is a symbol of Albanian nationalism.

When Shaqiri prodded home the winner in the final minutes, he followed suit, with images of the action being beamed around the world.

The gesture, with thumbs locked together, is widely understood to imitate the two-headed eagle that is featured prominently on Albania's flag.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2018/06/23/world-cup-xherdan-shaqiri-granit-xhaka-gesture-switzerland-serbia/727828002/

Come on guys! We get it that you're Albanians who hate Serbia, but if you're going to play for the Swiss team, act Swiss and stay neutral! We don't need to refight the Kosovo war at the World Cup!

June 17, 2018

Study: People Are Getting Dumber

Ole Rogeberg, co-author of the study and senior research fellow at the Ragnar Frisch Center for Economic Research in Norway said studies conducted in Denmark, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Finland and Estonia have all demonstrated this similar downward trend.

"The causes in IQ increases over time and now the decline is due to environmental factors," Rogeburg told CNN. "It's not that dumb people are having more kids than smart people, to put it crudely. It's something to do with the environment, because we're seeing the same differences within families."

He explained that these environmental factors could range from nutrition, changes in the education system, less reading and more time spent online to changes in the media environment.

Researchers analyzed the IQ scores of brothers who were born in different years and found that rather than being similar, as expected because of genetics, the brothers' IQ scores were often significantly different. The study also showed that parents with higher IQs tended to have more children. This disproved a long-believed theory known as the dysgenic fertility theory, which states that unintelligent people have more children, leading to the "dumbing down" of society

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2018-06-14/study-people-are-getting-dumber

June 17, 2018

Police Shoot Man Holding Knife to Woman's Throat, Killing Him and Critically Injuring Her

Responding officers repeatedly told the man to drop the knife but he did not let go of the weapon, according to Shepard, who said the police fired nonlethal rounds.

Hamilton confirmed the officers talked to the man and fired bean-bag rounds. But police felt the woman’s life was in imminent danger, so they ultimately opened fire with live ammunition, Hamilton said.

“There wasn’t an opportunity to de-escalate the situation,” Preciado said. “Whenever someone is assaulting someone with a sharp weapon … officers are forced to take action.”

The gunshots struck the man and the woman; both were hospitalized in critical condition. The man, who has not been identified, died at the hospital.

http://ktla.com/2018/06/16/police-shoot-suspect-in-van-nuys-3-people-hospitalized/

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Ok, the bean bags didn't work. So LAPD is out of pepper spray? WTF? They couldn't pepper spray this dude? With a face full of pepper spray, he would dropped the knife and grabbed his eyes. Sure she would have been pepper sprayed too, but she wouldn't be in critical condition in a hospital with bullet wounds. And the mentally disturbed suspect would still be alive, and could have been placed in treatment instead of a grave.

What the hell is going on with police training?