In our neoconservative capitalist world, every move that can be monitized is. The more moves, the more money is involved. Factoring in time might be a way to create more moves, more money. I’m being partly snarky. But it seems wise to ask again and again, when one party is being disadvantaged, who is thereby gaining advantage. In our system following the money is revealing.
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- Schmitt’s staffer who held up a posterboard during his display was up for a new job at the White House, Politico reports. Now, he may not be.
Can someone explain to me how this could be remotely disqualifying? Did the White(s Only) House suddenly develop “standards” of, say, “basic competence” while I was asleep?
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It’s also worth noting that the texts weren’t shared with the minority party ahead of time in violation of committee rules.
I know … rules, schmules.
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I confess to a silly fascination with this Rinaldo Del Gallo guy I wrote about earlier today. I googled him and followed the link to his Facebook page. His last post was in June 2024. His office is in Pittsfield (where he seems to have grown up) but he lives (or lived) in Lenox. He looks to be in his 60’s in 2024, in robust health. A beard, receding hairline, and thick bushy hair he wears in a long ponytail. He has a son who looks about 20 in a picture taken in 2015. He posts on things like baseball, a rainbow he got pictures of, a lot about his vegetable garden (of which he is rightly proud) and horse-racing (he’s big on that). He also posts open-ended questions about political figures and issues, also about random stuff (like, did you watch the solar eclipse?), starting conversations with what appear to be regular followers. But the telling posts are videos where he talks straight to his computer camera and lectures his viewers on subjects like why Trump should not have been convicted (which trial in NYC I didn’t listen long enough to learn which one) – he agrees with Jonathan Turley, whom he characterizes as a “liberal” and mentions was his law professor. He has two or three videos on Juneteenth, and the one I listened to a little of he delivered in authoritative tones but the level of which would be appropriate for a 9th grade social studies class. I have the impression that he is not so much on the right or left but a contrarian, someone who thinks by being a contrarian he shows how much smarter and more knowledgeable he is than almost everybody else.
Most interesting was the series of videos berating The Berkshire Eagle for not giving him space for a regular column and not publishing the 400-word letter he had recently written to the editor. He called it censorship. After today’s story, I’ll be on the alert for a letter from him, if The Eagle publishes it.
In the videos and his occasional written comments, Del Gallo is certainly very articulate but, in the videos, utterly lacks the good lawyer’s brevity. He loves to hear himself talk. His egotism and narcissism come across so plainly that I couldn’t bear to listen for long to any of the videos or to stay at his FB page very long.
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Well, in this instance, the little guy (the plaintiff against the brother’s corporations in Cook County) seems to have won through sheer persistence. I think his legal fees alone came to about $16,000, for which he was reimbursed when the commonwealth seized Del Gallo’s house in Pittsfield (which he had inherited from his father but was not residing in).
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There’s that, like spending on “PSA’s” extolling hundreds of things, unamed or id’d in any way, that the oathbreaking traitor has done for the country and its citizens.
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Made me laugh.
Katz.
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I take Lutnik’s overstatement about Alaska LNG to be of a piece with Vance’s “Just give us two more years.” The nation’s economy will soon be booming, if you elect Republicans.
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Good that, sometimes, the system works for the little guy. Reimbursement is great. But it’s a shame he had to endure the process. Were that to have been monetized and included in the reimbursement might have been more just. We live in interesting times.
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Not so. Eleven states now have laws have “Death with Dignity” laws (as Oregon, I believe, calls theirs). Just the other day I heard on NPR out of Albany, NY from a NY or MA doctor who assists patients in dying (after many conditions have been met and much preparation by the patient and the patient’s family). The person just drifts off as if going to sleep. It’s like going under anaesthesia before surgery or a colonoscopy (I have one of those to look forward to in the near future). Or the way a pet you have to put to sleep just drifts off very quickly.
Edit to correct myself: MA does not have such a law. Versions of one keep not getting through committees.
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And it’s also now available in Canada, under the “Medical Assistance in Dying” program:
One of Ms Rowlf’s younger brothers used this program to end his life after battling pancreatic cancer for a couple of years. It was actually quite touching - after working through the required process, his doctor set up an appointment at the brother’s local rural hospital and when the time came, his siblings, their spouses and adult kids all met with him for a final meal. Once that was done, we all surrounded his bed, the nurse had already set up the catheter, so she and the doctor then entered, confirmed this was his intention and he said his final goodbyes. They first injected a sedative, then the final medication and he passed quietly.
Very sobering, but we were all very aware of how much he was suffering (the constant pain, the almost monthly trips to the hospital to drain the liquid from his swollen stomach cavity, etc) so we were glad to see him at rest.
It’s not something to be undertaken lightly, but in cases of serious and continuous pain, it can offer relief.
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Or before the serious and continuous pain sets in. The doctor I listened to had similarly moving stories. She must have been from NY or possibly VT; MA has been considering adopting such a law for several years, but it keeps getting stalled in committee. Here’s an interesting and instructive map. (The whole site is interesting.)
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All excellent points. So the prison regulatory machinery has yet to adopt the ideal drug cocktail or other weapon for killing a human being without inflicting too much pain? Point being, the methods used are not all instant or painless, for whatever reason.
I think it was @txlawyer who answered why. The drug companies won’t sell state prisons the drugs.
Anaesthiologists aren’t among the highest paid doctors for nothing. It’s very easy to kill a patient if the anaesthesia isn’t administered just right. But, in the first place, you have to be using the right drugs.
Very nice. The fall foliage should ramp up the next 2 weeks in Central NYS so I’ll take the camera
through the Gorges, see if I can get anything good to post.
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