EDIT: Maryland Closes All Nonessential Businesses

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday March 23, 2020 · 9:51 AM PDT

2020/03/23 · 09:51

Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan, the chairman of the national governors’ conference, just announced that all nonessential businesses in Maryland must close, effective 5 p.m. today.

He said a reason for the move was that so many Marylanders are ignoring the directives not to gather in large groups.

This is going to zap the hell out of my small law practice. My wife and I will have to figure out how to do some work from home.

The only bright spot in today’s announcement is that liquor stores are exempted.

EDIT: In this short diary I was bouncing off a notice just published in the Carroll County Times/Baltimore Sun. My former law partner dug deeper and sent me an opinion from today by the Maryland Office of Legal Counsel going into much more detail about which businesses are exempt, and that includes law firms, which is a big relief for me and my clients! Still, this will put millions of Marylanders out of work. FWIW, I agree with the governor.

Toilet Paper Adventure

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday March 18, 2020 · 5:57 PM PDT

2020/03/18 · 17:57

I’ve been nervous about so many reports of toilet paper shortages. I’m not about to start using catalog pages, as some of our friends have waggishly suggested. My wife and I are both elderly with serious underlying conditions, and it’s dangerous to go to one or more stores searching for something like toilet paper.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 arrived in my rural Maryland Carroll County starting last Friday. The state government has closed all restaurants except for takeout/delivery, starting yesterday. I keep running into rednecks who claim it’s all a Democratic hoax to impeach Trump a second time! (Seriously.)

Yesterday I read in the local paper a story about the impact of the restaurant shutdown on local restaurants, and the owner of one was quoted that she had access to restaurant supply channels that most people don’t have, so she was planning to offer delivery of toilet paper (and also cigarettes).

Bingo! One of her four pizza joints is in my nearest town so I called and ordered a takeout sandwich plus some toilet paper. They’d just stocked up on toilet paper the night before, and I was the first caller for that. I was quoted a price of $50 for a “case” of TP, and I went for it, not even asking what was in a case. Desperate. Pathetic. Ten minutes later they called back, after a discussion with the owner, and offered a second case for another $10, since the owner obviously felt guilty about the price-gouging. So I immediately went for that.

So 30 minutes later the driver showed up with my sandwich and two enormous boxes of TP, which are now dominating my living room. That’s 96 rolls of single-ply restaurant-quality TP. My beloved wife, who does most of our grocery shopping, thinks that’s a fair price for so much TP, FWIW.

I hope this doesn’t count as hoarding. At least I’ve removed my TP anxiety for quite a few months.

Incidentally, I was inspired to make the move, and to diary this, because I saw a comment here a few days ago from somebody who recommended finding people with access to restaurant supply companies. At the moment, at least, they have vast stocks of TP. And of course they’re eager to sell since so many restaurants are closed.

Lies About Soleimani

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday January 13, 2020 · 6:48 PM PST

2020/01/13 · 18:48

Trump’s politically motivated murder of Iranian General Soleimani is an outrageous war crime.

Every single talking head I’ve seen, including every Democratic legislator, has gone way out of the way to vilify Soleimani as a major “terrorist.” But they NEVER mention that Soleimani was a staunch and major U.S. ally over the last few years in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria!

Soleimani was not a terrorist. A terrorist like Bin Laden strikes to create terror and disrupt target nations with fear. Soleimani never did that. He was not a terrorist. He was a top Iranian military commander pursuing Iranian national goals. That conflicted with U.S. interests, but it damn sure did not make him a terrorist.

Tennessee "Haunted House"/Torture Chamber--Shocking!

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 28, 2019 · 5:29 PM PDT

2019/10/28 · 17:29

I was shocked yesterday by an item I saw on Yahoo about a “haunted house” in Tennessee, part of the MSM’s standard build-up to Halloween. But this one is awful!

Google “Tennessee haunted house” for many more articles. Here is one: www.wsmv.com/…

(that article doesn’t support every statement in that blog post, but it’s not hard to find many others from that Google search that do).

The owner McKamey started this “extreme” haunted house/torture chamber in San Diego, California, then disbanded that operation and opened two similar torture chambers in Nashville, TN and Birmingham, AL. I can’t believe it’s not illegal. I predict we’ll more about this atrocity in the news, if it’s not a hoax.

According to all of the reporting the “haunted house” near Nashville only charges a bag of dog food to enter, which the owner claims goes to his pet dogs and to rescue organizations. The appeal is that he claims to offer $20,000 to anybody who finishes the torture run, and he says so far nobody has ever done so.

Supposedly they take only one person at a time through the gauntlet, and there are 24,000 on the waitlist to get in. They videotape each participant’s grisly passage through the torture. You can’t get in unless you show proof of being an adult, get a letter from a doctor about your good health, and sign a 40-PAGE disclaimer waiving everything even the risk of death. In the dungeon, according to the reports, sadistic monster-assistants beat people within an inch of their lives, give then dental torture, force them to eat unknown foods and liquids, yell and scream at that, etc. Victims are supposed to be able to utter a “safeword” to get the torture to stop, but reportedly that doesn’t work sometimes for at least minutes of on-going torture.

I saw a couple of videos on the plain vanilla site Yahoo showing people convulsing in pain and horror and screaming, with blood all over their faces and coming out of their mouths.

So I guess I’m one of the intended victims of this media push. I see three possibilities:

1. It’s a total hoax. The more I think about this, the more I think this must be the case. But what would be the point of such a bizarre hoax? Nobody ever got rich on bags of dog food. Apparently there is a big niche group who love “extreme horror.” I shudder.

2. It’s just a troll (a hoax trying to hurt some people).

3. It’s a rich evil genius who gets off on torture video and needs to go to jail.

No doubt I’m missing obvious other possibilities.

Trump: The Face of Evil

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 14, 2019 · 4:50 PM PDT

2019/10/14 · 16:50

I’m so sick of seeing hundreds of pictures of evil Twitler every day! It has damaged my mental health and probably shortened my life. And I’m not one of those damaged much (at least so far) by his evil deeds.

We’ve had a lot of discussion of Trump’s mental problems. But I think the key word is “evil.” He exactly meets the description of evil in the great psychiatrist Scott Peck’s book “People of the Lie.” www.amazon.com/...

I just had the thought to look up the “7 deadly sins” in Christian moral theology, which are thought to be the gravest sins that are fatal to spiritual progress and to salvation. Here’s a nice summary:

People have always been immoral, shiftless, and self-gratifying. For ages, humankind struggled to find a conceptual system to operationalize their spiritual shortcomings.

Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

www.deadlysins.com

That sure sounds like Twitler, every last detail!

I think impeachment should come quickly, with a new twist that the House can introduce new facts and grounds into the Senate trial as they become available. There’s no law against that.

Weld Accuses Trump Of Treason

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 23, 2019 · 10:56 AM PDT

2019/09/23 · 10:56

Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld is one of Trump’s three primary challengers. In the wake of the Ukrainian scandal he just accused Trump of treason, and noted that the penalty for treason is death. talkingpointsmemo.com/…

As has been hashed out here hundreds of times, Trump’s misconduct probably doesn’t meet the constitutional definition of treason. But it certainly is in the nature of treason, and it absolutely constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors. It’s a little encouraging to see a Republican criticize Trump like this.

Kaddish for my Dog

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday August 15, 2019 · 11:55 PM PDT

2019/08/15 · 23:55

A few weeks ago I wrote a lugubrious diary about my all-time favorite little dog Max www.dailykos.com/…

Well, the worst nightmares came true and after many years and many thousands of dollars of trying to keep him alive, he collapsed on Monday this week, going into hours of rigid seizures where he was jerking but could not move and kept crying incredibly pitiably. We took him again to the vets on Monday morning, but they had no clue despite many more expensive tests. At 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday we took him to an emergency vet clinic to be euthanized. I’m pretty sure it was a brain stem tumor that had been causing him severe walking difficulties and then crossed some kind of threshold.

Not sure why I’m posting here. I’m incredibly raw from the grief.

A good friend of mine from many years ago says he will say a Kaddish for Max. As far as I know, Jews don’t regularly say Kaddish for pets, but my friend is a special soul.

Timaeus, grieving.

Mueller Hearing: Republicans Fall Into a Trap

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 23, 2019 · 6:44 PM PDT

2019/07/23 · 18:44

Short diary, but sharp. I think the Republicans have overplayed their anti-Mueller hand. They got totally corrupt Republican AG Barr to issue a ridiculous and unprecedented (and illegal, in my opinion) letter to Bob Mueller, right on the brink of his testimony tomorrow before the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees.

The letter warned Mueller not to give any testimony that was outside the four corners of Mueller’s report. In my opinion, that’s obviously illegal.

But I’m pleased to realize that this absolutely boxes in the asshole Republicans like Jim Jordan.

Their whole defense is that somehow the “deep state Democrats” in the FBI and U.S. intelligence service conspired to bring Trump down.

Mueller will get to answer: I’m sorry, but the Attorney General has ordered me not to speak about anything outside the four corners of my report.

Updated x1; Where, where is my little dog tonight?

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday June 23, 2019 · 12:26 AM PDT

2019/06/23 · 00:26

I’ve always been a dog person. My #1 all-time favorite dog is our rescue miniature poodle Max. He’s now about 14. When we picked him up at the rescue shelter in Howard County, MD, he sat in my lap on the drive home and got inseparably bonded to me. My saintly wife does almost all of the dog care, but Max always stays by me. In particular, the other two younger poodles sleep with my wife, but Max always sleeps next to me in the living room, where I sleep in a recliner due to breathing issues.

Max has had a severe attack of pancreatisis over the last week, and we’ve spent more than $4,000 schlepping him between four different vet facilities. We were never able to have children despite lots of trying and medical help, so our dogs are virtual children. It looked like it might be the end of the road for poor Max, but we’ve resisted that as hard as we can with money and prayer.

Two days ago, Max was away in one of the vet ICUs, and I was very unhappy he was not by my side. I kept thinking of the great Leonard Cohen song The Gypsy Wife

YouTube Video

And I kept thinking, as I was half asleep, “Where, where is my little dog tonight?!”

That’s about as lugubrious as one can get, but I had some incredible tears over that.

Max is back with us tonight. He keeps falling down, and sometimes can’t get up. But he’s still Max. The medical situation with him is very complicated, but there is still hope. I’m never, ever going to give the order to euthanize him.

Update: I’m amazed to see this little diary hit the reclist. Thanks. I have what seems like a miracle to report. My wife and the dogs (our pack) tries to take a W (walk) every day, but I’ve been out of action for two months from illness. Today I insisted we take the dogs on another W. We were going to leave Max behind, because has has been so wobbly. But when I made my special sound for a W (Oh the DOGS!) Max perked up and started trotting toward me, tail wagging. So I insisted we take him with us, and darn if he didn’t get through the whole W without falling down! This was a short one, about half a mile, up and down a couple of steep hills, but he survived just fine. Three days ago I would have said it was 100% certain he had only hours to live. That’s what one vet told us. But miracles happen!

Probably nobody will see this, but thanks for all the kind words in the comments.

BTW, yes, I understand about euthanizing a dog, and I’ve had to do it. But I just won’t do it with Max, at least not as long as he’s alert and not in horrible pain.

Lord Lasix

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 20, 2019 · 12:17 AM PDT

2019/06/20 · 00:17

Have any of you been under the cold and imperious command of Lord Lasix? Lasix is a potent diuretic, also called Furosemide. It’s prescribed for swelling (usually lymphedema).

I’ve had to take this recently, because I’ve been suffering from a life-threatening, and extremely painful, attack of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on my leg (two unusual strains as it turns out). This has been going on for more than two months. It has almost destroyed my ability to work. It’s a kind of cellulitis.

The first antibiotics didn’t work. Maybe the last super-duper version (which I just finished) may have turned the corner, though I’m not sure.

Cellulitis can be life-threatening if it gets into the blood stream, causing sepsis. So far, thank God, I have no signs of fever or sepsis, but I’ve been abnormally fatigued (to the point of sleeping 14 hours). My main doctor told me last week that’s a bad sign of a systemic symptom.

In any event, I’m ordered by my doctor to keep regularly taking the lasix, to reduce the swelling, which supposedly will help the wounds to heal—but Lord Almighty, Lord Lasix will mess with your life (when Lord Lasix orders you to pee, you have to do it RIGHT NOW, whatever the time of day or situation, with almost no time to prepare or consider. It’s really cruel.).

Oh I’m off to the bathroom under the cold command of Lord Lasix again. Wonder if anyone has had to live with this.

Updated x1: What's up with Judge Emmet Sullivan!!

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday June 04, 2019 · 12:04 AM PDT

2019/06/04 · 00:04

What’s up with Judge Emmet Sullivan!! As noted in this diary from a few days ago www.dailykos.com/…

the DOJ, in perhaps the only time in U.S. history, just filed a notice with the court on Friday telling the U.S. Federal District Judge, who has a lifetime appointment and godlike powers, to stuff himself!

This was over a dispute about the Michael Flynn sentencing. The judge ORDERED the DOJ to give him a transcript of the surveilled conversation(s) between Flynn and Russian Ambassador/Spy Master Kislyak.

The DOJ didn’t follow any normal procedures. They didn’t submit anything under seal pleading national security concerns. They didn’t plead any special circumstances. They just basically said: Screw you, judge, we don’t think you need that and you’re not going to get it.

That’s a MAJOR constitutional crisis. I had thought that Judge Sullivan, who is said to be a very strong judge, would have stewed over the weekend and then issued a show cause order TODAY demanding that AG Barr and the prosecutors prove they’re not in contempt of court.

I wonder what pressure the judge is under (since I don’t think we’re in a lawful republic anymore). I wonder what he is planning to do. THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Update: Thanks to polliwonk’s comment below for this link to an emptywheel post that gives a learned discussion of all of this and discloses that Judge Sulliven has scheduled a hearing on this mess for June 24th. www.emptywheel.net/...

That’s not as meteoric as I’d hoped for; but emptywheel’s post taught me that this situation is much more complicated than I had understood.

Mueller Report: Proof for Impeachment

Timaeus

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday May 24, 2019 · 12:10 AM PDT

2019/05/24 · 00:10

So who has actually read the Mueller Report? I’ve read most of the 700+ page version of this from the Washington Post, which I think is the best version. I just read another 200 pages of it!

It clearly lays out at least 20 indisputable reasons to impeach Trump. How does this get so buried so fast??

Newer
Older

RSS