o, please, please, please

“There is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that’s decided by liberal Democrats.”--Loser McDaniel

Mississippi is the fiftieth of our fifty states, it used to be the forty-eighth when Faulkner was writing, and...well...you know. “Thank God for Mississippi”, is the motto of Alabama, and Louisiana.

This Tuesday past, there was a special and unusual election. Some people are upset with black voters showing up to the polls, and casting votes. This has been true since they first voted for U.S. Grant, and since then there has been feeling, and (and for years de facto) hindrance to keep them from voting. Well, many voted for the incumbent Republican. For many, this has not happened in living memory.

It was a runoff election in the Republican US senatorial primary. Thad Cochran (as a Republican) had won election as senator in 1978, the first time in an hundred years such a thing happened in Mississippi. The initial primary of this year, he finished second to a venomous Chris McDaniel. Generally, such a second and specific election would have less voters. Not so this time. Mississippi has an open primary.

McDaniel is a teabagger of aggressive racism. Instead of taking a chance, and sitting this out, black voters came to vote against the danger of McDaniel. McDaniel is not a genius (1--Republican, 2--teabagger), but he understood why he lost, and being what he is, graciousness is not there, “We haven’t conceded and we’re not going to concede right now. We’re going to investigate...We likewise know that we have a statute, a law in our state that says you cannot participate in a primary unless you intend to support that candidate. And we know good and well that these 35,000 democrats have no intention to do that”. Well, it is supposed to be a secret ballot; how is one to prove which voter voted for whom? Is there going to be a subtraction of black voters from Cochran's total?


There is some talk, that there might be a write in campaign, O, please, please, please. Cochran first got in because there was a third party candidate splitting the Democratic vote (this was still a time where white Democrats were not yet a rarity in the South). A write in campaign might be enough to split the Republican vote, if the teabaggers are as mad as they say they are. To quote the Alaskan loon, “If Republicans are going to act like Democrats, what's the use in getting all gung ho about getting other Republicans in there?” You betcha.

Cliven fan[atic]

Cliven Bundy is what the outside world considers a member of a domestic terrorist group. Since he is a white racist (and also a Republican) he had major support from US senators Heller and Rand, and Fox News [sic] Group, until he shot his mouth off proving he was a racist. His armed standoff with the federal government attracted others ("civilan militia"), including a married couple who went on to kill two policeman, and a third man. Then Fox and many of their ilk forgot he existed.

Cliven [this is a sort of name Mormons invent] said, some Americans were "better off as slaves, picking cotton". As a Mormon, and as a present day Republican (although he has recently left that party, it was not conservative enough), his view of history and politics is non-standard [fiction]. He claims as personal rights over land that would only make sense if he had conquered that land.

 Cliven still has his supporters [click on picture to read script]

I took this foto on the 16th of June, and hesitated to put it here. The last time out, i talked to the owner, and she was pleasant; but she is nuts.

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postscriptum: on a semi-related note pointed at idiots, see Doonesbury for June 22, 2014

rabbit in clover

relentless, remorseless, vicious, audacious mendacity

"Meet the Press," Transcript for March 16, 2003 [click]

...MR. RUSSERT: If your analysis is not correct, and we’re not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties? 

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I’ve talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. The president and I have met with them, various groups and individuals, people who have devoted their lives from the outside to trying to change things inside Iraq. And like Kanan Makiya who’s a professor at Brandeis, but an Iraqi, he’s written great books about the subject, knows the country intimately, and is a part of the democratic opposition and resistance. The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.
Now, if we get into a significant battle in Baghdad, I think it would be under circumstances in which the security forces around Saddam Hussein, the special Republican Guard, and the special security organization, several thousand strong, that in effect are the close-in defenders of the regime, they might, in fact, try to put up such a struggle. I think the regular army will not. My guess is even significant elements of the Republican Guard are likely as well to want to avoid conflict with the U.S. forces, and are likely to step aside.
Now, I can’t say with certainty that there will be no battle for Baghdad. We have to be prepared for that possibility. But, again, I don’t want to convey to the American people the idea that this is a cost-free operation. Nobody can say that. I do think there’s no doubt about the outcome. There’s no question about who is going to prevail if there is military action. And there’s no question but what it is going to be cheaper and less costly to do it now than it will be to wait a year or two years or three years until he’s developed even more deadly weapons, perhaps nuclear weapons. And the consequences then of having to deal with him would be far more costly than will be the circumstances today. Delay does not help.

MR. RUSSERT: The army’s top general said that we would have to have several hundred thousand troops there for several years in order to maintain stability.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I disagree. We need, obviously, a large force and we’ve deployed a large force. To prevail, from a military standpoint, to achieve our objectives, we will need a significant presence there until such time as we can turn things over to the Iraqis themselves. But to suggest that we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don’t think is accurate. I think that’s an overstatement....

cow abduction

In the area, this past Saturday there were several parades and festivals. The weather was beautifully clear, and cool as a summer day could possibly be, and attendance swelled everywhere.

In Avon of Lorain County, a celebration of a local manufacturer's product was held, duck tape. I should have more information on this, but i do not. All i could find was the weekend's schedule of events.

This year's theme was spacemen. The duck tape sculpture i found the most pleasing, supra, UFO abducting a cow--by Harmony Denlinger. This sort of a festival has the humour pregnant, and this was fine birth.

There was a primary election in Virginia yesterday

It may have started with popcorn, it ended with champagne.

The two happiest people in D.C. last night:
1--John Boehner
2--Barack Obama

Also, me here.

Cantor is a smug, smarmy, wretched individual. Now he can go get money at Fox.

A cursory read of the press has their view that Cantor lost to a teabagger more extreme than he on the issue of immigration. This ignores the facts that Virginia has an open primary, that more people voted this year than in 2012 (which was the presidential year), Cantor did not want federal aid for his district after earthquake and storm damage, he being only a few miles away in DC and doesn't show much interest in his district, and really is an insufferable p**** and SOB who is reminiscent of the Eddie Haskell television character, and many people would really want to slap the s*** out of him (except for the mess that would entail).

Immigration Police Break Families

 this sculpture faces Cleveland's Federal Building

A delegation of Catholic churchman went to Washington D.C. recently, with a special intent to influence the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to pass legislation on immigration; something, supposedly, he would do if his party approved, and something he could do even if they did not; but working with Democrats is something they loathe in considering. Miami's archbishop, Thomas Wenski said at Mass, “Our immigration system is a stain on the soul of our nation. As a moral matter, it must be changed. We must pray that our elected officials recognize this and have the courage to reform it”.

There is a special prosecutorial zeal in removing Mexicans. An exemplar of this totalitarian push in the bureaucracy is Rebecca Adducci, Director of the Detroit Field Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Her bailiwick includes this part of Ohio. There is something called the 'Morton Memo' which reads that immigrants in deportation proceedings can remain in the U.S. if they are good people with strong ties in the United States.  The memo lists numerous criteria ICE officers are supposed to consider.  However, this memo is consistently ignored by the Detroit Field office, which oversees Cleveland.*

To-day, there was in Cleveland a rally and press conference at the Free Stamp sculpture, across the street from Cleveland's Federal Building. Some two hundred people came to plead the cause of the family of Luis Nicasio Padilla. He had to surrender himself to-day for possible deportation. He is a musician, and family man, a father of children born in this country.

There is also the non-uniform application of the severity of enforcement. While Padilla leads a peaceful lifestyle as a responsible father, husband, and musician, someone such as the millionaire Justin Bieber, an English language 'pop' performer, whom has had repeated bouts of hooliganism is not the target of federal immigration police.

Such visible protests are necessary, for these people will only relent from their behaviour by public shaming. Silence always benefits the oppressor. A photographer from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and cameramen from WEWS and WKYC came. Here is where the press is an ally of the people, the actions of the government are made known outside the immediate circle of people affected.

 “What do you tell a child when he wakes up and asks if his father will be deported to-day?”

Part of the support community, who serenaded the Federales. They also cried out for Adducci to find work elsewhere.

Three advocates with Mr. & Mrs. Padilla returning with mixed news from the Federal Building, “come back next week”.
_________________
*The second part of the paragraph taken from Veronica Dahlberg's press release. She has spent ten years advocating for people that were in such circumstances, and can not get over the continuous feeling of absolute nastiness she and they have received from the immigration police and allied functionaries. They comport themselves with a complete lack of humanity and courtesy.
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postcriptum June 12, 2014:  Please sign this petition: http://act.americasvoice.org/page/speakout/tell-dhs-secretary-jeh-johnson-to-stop-luis-deportation-?js=false#step-3
"another major battle with ICE. It will not be easy because Detroit ICE is digging in its heels. They denied his stay petition last week, and then also denied a request for reconsideration on Wednesday. There is an urgency because Luis has to check in with the deportation officer at ICE on Tuesday."


2nd postscriptum on June 12: "LUIS' stay has just been approved for one year!"

postscriptum 5.30 p.m. 15 June 2014 Father's Day: 
Bittersweet Father's Day for those facing deportation (click)

lightning rod

 New copper lightning rod on the shorter steeple of St. Michael the Archangel, Cleveland O.

 Early this morning, it was done, with a telescoping shaft and attached man basket.

 moment of attachment

painted ponies in town

In a continuing twelve year, public art project on the Chinese calendar, the first of the horses are in place on Cleveland's near east side. Around midday, i went by where nineteen installations had been last year (would have gone by a few more, but road work suggested prudence was in order). I saw five horses up, not any looking ready for Saturday's Belmont.

They were late this year. A smaller herd came from Chicago, and larger animals were needed.