A piece in The Atlantic (paywall), and a note in Axios (no apparent paywall), describes a program where Amazon subcontracts small businesses to deliver packages.
Not businesses involved in the delivery or logistics business, but any small business. Hair salons, florists, dry cleaners, etc. The businesses get paid by Amazon, but the actual employees who undertake deliveries are not. Any additional compensation would come from their employer.
I’m reminded of totalitarian societies where just about everyone is an informant for the secret police, spying on everyone else.
In early 2021 James Joyner questioned Trump’s sanity due to the infamous Brad Raffensperger phone call, on the grounds that altering Georgia’s electoral votes wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the election. I replied at the time: “What makes you think this is the only state where he’s had a conversation like this with a state official? It’s just the only one where a recording of the conversation was released.”
“In a phone call in late 2020, President Donald Trump tried to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to overturn the state’s presidential election results, saying that if enough fraudulent votes could be found it would overcome Trump’s narrow loss in Arizona, according to three people familiar with the call,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump also repeatedly asked Vice President Mike Pence to call Ducey and prod him to find the evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims of fraud, according to two of these people. Pence called Ducey several times to discuss the election, they said, though he did not follow Trump’s directions to pressure the governor.”
“The extent of Trump’s efforts to cajole Ducey into helping him stay in power have not before been reported, even as other efforts by Trump’s lawyer and allies to pressure Arizona officials have been made public.”
@Kylopod: You make a good point and I find this is all too common on how people react to things. For instance, I’ve seen a number of people reacting to Alito’s trip with the billionaires as if it is an isolated event. Considering what it took to gather evidence and document, it is not surprising that only one has come out. But given Alito’s justifications on why he didn’t report the trip, it would be naive in the extreme to assume that it was a one off. Not just naive, but improbable. If this was a one off trip, it is very likely he would have said so, and made caustic comments about dredging up 15 year old news.
We also know that the legislatures in Wisc and PA, enthusiastically signed on to vote fraud scam. That was trump’s plan to overturn the election and he was counting on the supremes to validate it all.
What stood in the way of the 2020 election being more than a cluster than it was, turned on the patriotism of Ducey and Raffensperger.
@MarkedMan: Nor is there any reason to think it’s just Alito, Thomas, and Robert’s wife. As you say, these aren’t isolated incidents, these are isolated glimpses of a system.
So I see a potential trainwrecks with the SCOTUS ruling on the Website designer.
They’ve established the right for the designer to hang a NO GAYS disclaimer. However, sexual orientation is still a protected class.
What happens if a couple ignores the disclaimer, requests website design services from this vendor, and is refused on the grounds of their sexual orientation. The Court would have a real problem squaring those tensions with a fig leaf of ideological consistency
@Jim Brown 32: “The Court would have a real problem squaring those tensions with a fig leaf of ideological consistency”
Talk about assuming facts not in evidence!
What makes you think the YOLO six — all credit to Strict Scrutiny there — gives a damn about ideological consistency? They rule for whatever outcome they want, and then they send a pissy note whining about those ungrateful citizens who don’t worship their every decision.
A mix of homophobic and homoerotic imagery. Comparisons of DeSantis to famous movie psychopaths and criminals. (Vote for me, the American Psycho?) “Messages” that flash so fast that they’re unreadable. The look and feel of a video made by a 19 year old who just watched an Adobe Premiere tutorial on YouTube and snorted Adderall.
The acme of cruelty and stupidity, which unfortunately may make it a good ad for his target demographic.
One can only hope that Twitter’s recent self-own (including making denial of service attacks on itself) will limit the impact.
Ron is such an amateur. One thing Trump understands well is that when attacking a political opponent, you need to make them look ridiculous. The “pudding” ad a couple months ago got that down to a tee. That old skit with Rudy would have served that purpose for DeSantis and triggered the reptile brains of queerphobes everywhere. Instead, all he’s left with is showing Trump pandering, which literally nobody cares about.
@Jim Brown 32:
The Court took up a case that didn’t exist, there was no harm because it was purely hypothetical, and the supposed guy who allegedly wanted a cake was never involved in anyway.
This is a truly fuqed up Court.
We also know that the legislatures in Wisc and PA, enthusiastically signed on to vote fraud scam. That was trump’s plan to overturn the election and he was counting on the supremes to validate it all.
I’m still far from sure we won’t be finding out about yet other state officials he tried to bully–though, I should mention, Raffensperger was the only Republican Sec. of State in a state Biden won, and Kemp and Ducey were the only Republican governors among the key battleground states that went to Biden.
(Of course there were Republican governors in some other Biden states, but I have my doubts even Trump was crazy enough to call Charlie Baker to “find” him 1.2 million votes in MA.)
Trump would be limited to states with Republican governors in which the race between Biden and Trump was very close, with Biden winning by only a small number.
Trump would be limited to states with Republican governors in which the race between Biden and Trump was very close, with Biden winning by only a small number.
I agree. But that begs the question of what constitutes a “small number.” 11K is a relatively narrow margin–and a recount was in fact conducted–but it’s way beyond the amount in which the race could be reasonably in doubt. The only limitations around Trump’s behavior are what he believed he could get away with. For instance, is it possible he gave Chris Sununu a call? Biden’s lead in NH wasn’t narrow in terms of percentage (about 7 points), but it involved a smaller raw-vote difference than in PA, one of the states Trump was attempting to overturn the results in, and where he might have given a call to the Gov. or Sec. of State had they been Republicans.
To add to my previous point, while it wasn’t widely reported, Trump did in fact attempt to challenge the results in New Mexico, a state Biden won by a double-digit margin and nearly 100K in raw votes.
I think in the case of New Hampshire, even Trump is aware that Chris Sununu loathes him only marginally less than does Charlie Baker. And Phil Scott of Vermont isn’t far behind Sununu and Baker in his distaste.
I think in the case of New Hampshire, even Trump is aware that Chris Sununu loathes him only marginally less than does Charlie Baker.
Sununu only emerged as a Trump critic well after 2020. In 2019 he called himself a “Trump guy through and through,” and he was the only New England governor to back Trump in that cycle. He didn’t just endorse him, but actively campaigned with him. He did ultimately accept Biden’s victory and dismiss Trump’s allegations of fraud, but months after Biden had already been sworn in.
What happens if a couple ignores the disclaimer, requests website design services from this vendor, and is refused on the grounds of their sexual orientation. The Court would have a real problem squaring those tensions with a fig leaf of ideological consistency
While I see what you’re trying to get at, I think you misunderstand the level at which conservatives GAF*F about ideological consistency. Then again, I’m looking toward the day when those 9 men and women, sold to the highest bidder good and honest, come back after your scenario above has played out to explain that Congress, succumbing to some sort of societal pressure, unconstitutionally included sexual orientation as a category** to revise “settled law” ala Dobbs.
*Flying
**I’m not even a lawyer or jurist and can still craft “original intent” to fit this issue in about 10 minutes. Given longer, I can make a case for the ADA itself being unconstitutional because of original intent. Then again, original intent is to conservatives what text failing from the weight of its own inconsistencies was to Derrida.
@Kingdaddy: You’re working exactly backwards. Roberts needs to “improve the authority of the Court” specifically so that it can take on fictional cases without causing an uproar.
Only men can lead churches. They probably are better qualified to oppose abortion and abuse minors, important roles for a lot of church leaders. Plus, if you let women think for themselves at church it might happen elsewhere.
Sununu was already distancing himself from Trump by at least February 2020.
His “distancing” comments in the linked article were pretty vague and anodyne, IMO. Would Trump have taken it personally? I’m sure of it. He takes the slightest disagreements personally. But I don’t think it was far enough that it would necessarily have convinced Trump there was no chance of bullying him into going along with the attempts to overturn the election. Besides, we now know he tried to pressure Ducey, and Ducey was definitely distancing himself from Trump that year, not just on policy but specifically on the subject of voter fraud. Trump thought he could get him to go along anyway.
My point is that there’s still a lot we don’t know about what Trump might have been doing behind the scenes. The fact that the Ducey convo wasn’t reported until now makes that very clear.
I don’t understand how Roberts’ stated desire to improve the authority of the Court squares with taking on fictional cases.
As others before me have pointed out, it takes four justices to grant cert, and five to issue a binding opinion. The five justices to the right of Roberts have control. At best he can vote with them and assign the opinion writing to himself to try to tone things down.
As I understand things, the fictional part wasn’t taken up. The Court is now in the business of letting hypothetical injury be sufficient for standing. This certainly isn’t the first time. In Massachusetts v. EPA the (then four) liberal justices plus Kennedy granted standing for injuries that hadn’t occurred and wouldn’t occur for decades. I was happy with the outcome on the merits, but was concerned about the standing thing at the time.
I took the last few days off from the interwebs in general, but the whole thing yesterday had me thinking about when this crapola first reared its ugly head.
I’ve done a lot of wedding (and other shots) over the decades. I’ve knowingly shot gay celebrants, straight celebrants, a couple of pagan events, as well as restaurant/cart openings, and a lot of local and bigger music acts. I’ve been asked a number of times over the years if there were people I wouldn’t shoot with my Canon. My response was, only the ones who won’t pay the bill.
Even in retirement, it’s still true – if you’re a friend or family member, I’m happy to contribute images to the celebration/restaurant opening/whatever. If you’re not, and you’re buying my services, I don’t care what your orientation may/may not be. Freebie/gratis head shots for “exposure?” Nah, passe del tempo.
Apparently, I’m not a “good” Christian, by the standards of the “good folk” who filed and bankrolled the underlying complaint. That’s fine, I’ve already got enough on my conscience without that additional burden.
Sure, but Trump ran 7.4% behind Biden in 2020, which amounts to 85,000+ votes for Biden. Even Trump would have figured that was too much to contest.
No. Biden’s raw-vote margin in NH was 59,000, whereas in PA it was over 80,000–narrower in terms of percentage, but greater in terms of raw votes. Yet he did try to overturn the results in PA. And he even tried to overturn the results in NM, a double-digit-percentage margin and nearly 100,000 votes separating him from Biden. Given what we know, it’s not implausible that he might also have gone after NH. It hasn’t come out that he did yet, but it would fit within the pattern of behavior we do know about.
TL;DR a means of obtaining electricity out of thin air.
Yeah, that sounds like fantasy, right along perpetual motion machines and pyramid power (don’t ask). But the effect seems real, there are a few papers out there in science publications, and lower down in the link they expound on costs, research, and the time it will take to obtain useful energy in larger scales. Pseudoscience tends towards grandiose claims without regard to cost or difficulties.
We’ll see. It will take years, if anything ever comes out of it, and no way the word “hygroelectricity” will ever be a common, everyday term. Still, it may see service, if it ever does, first as a means to supplement intermittent sources like wind and solar. Air with moisture is always around everywhere in the world.
The raw-vote margin in Pennsylvania was greater–80,555. Yet he tried to overturn the results there. It’s true he didn’t call the governor or Sec. of State as far as we know, though both were Democrats. He did make a plea for the Republican Speaker of the House to do so, however.
Someday, we’ll all be working for Amazon.
A piece in The Atlantic (paywall), and a note in Axios (no apparent paywall), describes a program where Amazon subcontracts small businesses to deliver packages.
Not businesses involved in the delivery or logistics business, but any small business. Hair salons, florists, dry cleaners, etc. The businesses get paid by Amazon, but the actual employees who undertake deliveries are not. Any additional compensation would come from their employer.
I’m reminded of totalitarian societies where just about everyone is an informant for the secret police, spying on everyone else.
In early 2021 James Joyner questioned Trump’s sanity due to the infamous Brad Raffensperger phone call, on the grounds that altering Georgia’s electoral votes wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the election. I replied at the time: “What makes you think this is the only state where he’s had a conversation like this with a state official? It’s just the only one where a recording of the conversation was released.”
Well, it’s now being reported….
@Kylopod: You make a good point and I find this is all too common on how people react to things. For instance, I’ve seen a number of people reacting to Alito’s trip with the billionaires as if it is an isolated event. Considering what it took to gather evidence and document, it is not surprising that only one has come out. But given Alito’s justifications on why he didn’t report the trip, it would be naive in the extreme to assume that it was a one off. Not just naive, but improbable. If this was a one off trip, it is very likely he would have said so, and made caustic comments about dredging up 15 year old news.
The Blue Bird seems to be sort of partially half-assed working again.
https://twitter.com/MikeDrucker/status/1675218867520405508
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0B3d6dXgAAC__N?format=jpg&name=900×900
@Kylopod:
We also know that the legislatures in Wisc and PA, enthusiastically signed on to vote fraud scam. That was trump’s plan to overturn the election and he was counting on the supremes to validate it all.
What stood in the way of the 2020 election being more than a cluster than it was, turned on the patriotism of Ducey and Raffensperger.
@MarkedMan: Nor is there any reason to think it’s just Alito, Thomas, and Robert’s wife. As you say, these aren’t isolated incidents, these are isolated glimpses of a system.
@Sleeping Dog:
Credit where due. But only where due. As with Pence, less a matter of principle than a reluctance to commit crimes in broad daylight.
US ‘mom influencer’ guilty of falsely accusing Latino couple of trying to kidnap her children
No need to quote the article, it’s exactly what you think it is. At least she gets a 30 day taste of prison.
@gVOR10: Don’t forget Gorsuch and his sale of property to some rich f for a very kind price.
So I see a potential trainwrecks with the SCOTUS ruling on the Website designer.
They’ve established the right for the designer to hang a NO GAYS disclaimer. However, sexual orientation is still a protected class.
What happens if a couple ignores the disclaimer, requests website design services from this vendor, and is refused on the grounds of their sexual orientation. The Court would have a real problem squaring those tensions with a fig leaf of ideological consistency
@Kathy:
I’m dreading the day when Amazon and Walmart are the only two shopping options we have.
@Jim Brown 32: “The Court would have a real problem squaring those tensions with a fig leaf of ideological consistency”
Talk about assuming facts not in evidence!
What makes you think the YOLO six — all credit to Strict Scrutiny there — gives a damn about ideological consistency? They rule for whatever outcome they want, and then they send a pissy note whining about those ungrateful citizens who don’t worship their every decision.
The latest DeSantis ad is jaw-dropping, in so many bad ways. I had to double-check that it was real.
https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/status/1674899610379116546
A mix of homophobic and homoerotic imagery. Comparisons of DeSantis to famous movie psychopaths and criminals. (Vote for me, the American Psycho?) “Messages” that flash so fast that they’re unreadable. The look and feel of a video made by a 19 year old who just watched an Adobe Premiere tutorial on YouTube and snorted Adderall.
The acme of cruelty and stupidity, which unfortunately may make it a good ad for his target demographic.
One can only hope that Twitter’s recent self-own (including making denial of service attacks on itself) will limit the impact.
@Kingdaddy: I cannot believe the ad did not include a single shot from this incident.
Ron is such an amateur. One thing Trump understands well is that when attacking a political opponent, you need to make them look ridiculous. The “pudding” ad a couple months ago got that down to a tee. That old skit with Rudy would have served that purpose for DeSantis and triggered the reptile brains of queerphobes everywhere. Instead, all he’s left with is showing Trump pandering, which literally nobody cares about.
@Jim Brown 32:
The Court took up a case that didn’t exist, there was no harm because it was purely hypothetical, and the supposed guy who allegedly wanted a cake was never involved in anyway.
This is a truly fuqed up Court.
@Daryl:
I don’t understand how Roberts’ stated desire to improve the authority of the Court squares with taking on fictional cases.
@Sleeping Dog:
I’m still far from sure we won’t be finding out about yet other state officials he tried to bully–though, I should mention, Raffensperger was the only Republican Sec. of State in a state Biden won, and Kemp and Ducey were the only Republican governors among the key battleground states that went to Biden.
(Of course there were Republican governors in some other Biden states, but I have my doubts even Trump was crazy enough to call Charlie Baker to “find” him 1.2 million votes in MA.)
@Kylopod:
Trump would be limited to states with Republican governors in which the race between Biden and Trump was very close, with Biden winning by only a small number.
@CSK:
I agree. But that begs the question of what constitutes a “small number.” 11K is a relatively narrow margin–and a recount was in fact conducted–but it’s way beyond the amount in which the race could be reasonably in doubt. The only limitations around Trump’s behavior are what he believed he could get away with. For instance, is it possible he gave Chris Sununu a call? Biden’s lead in NH wasn’t narrow in terms of percentage (about 7 points), but it involved a smaller raw-vote difference than in PA, one of the states Trump was attempting to overturn the results in, and where he might have given a call to the Gov. or Sec. of State had they been Republicans.
To add to my previous point, while it wasn’t widely reported, Trump did in fact attempt to challenge the results in New Mexico, a state Biden won by a double-digit margin and nearly 100K in raw votes.
https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/12/14/trump-campaign-files-suit-to-overturn-nms-election-results-even-after-they-were-certified-and-electoral-votes-were-cast/
@Kylopod:
I think in the case of New Hampshire, even Trump is aware that Chris Sununu loathes him only marginally less than does Charlie Baker. And Phil Scott of Vermont isn’t far behind Sununu and Baker in his distaste.
@CSK:
Sununu only emerged as a Trump critic well after 2020. In 2019 he called himself a “Trump guy through and through,” and he was the only New England governor to back Trump in that cycle. He didn’t just endorse him, but actively campaigned with him. He did ultimately accept Biden’s victory and dismiss Trump’s allegations of fraud, but months after Biden had already been sworn in.
@Kylopod:
Sununu was already distancing himself from Trump by at least February 2020.
http://www.wmur.com/article/sununu-puts-distance-between-himself-trump-in-2020-election/31049804
@Jim Brown 32:
While I see what you’re trying to get at, I think you misunderstand the level at which conservatives GAF*F about ideological consistency. Then again, I’m looking toward the day when those 9 men and women,
sold to the highest biddergood and honest, come back after your scenario above has played out to explain that Congress, succumbing to some sort of societal pressure, unconstitutionally included sexual orientation as a category** to revise “settled law” ala Dobbs.*Flying
**I’m not even a lawyer or jurist and can still craft “original intent” to fit this issue in about 10 minutes. Given longer, I can make a case for the ADA itself being unconstitutional because of original intent. Then again, original intent is to conservatives what text failing from the weight of its own inconsistencies was to Derrida.
@Kingdaddy: You’re working exactly backwards. Roberts needs to “improve the authority of the Court” specifically so that it can take on fictional cases without causing an uproar.
Only men can lead churches. They probably are better qualified to oppose abortion and abuse minors, important roles for a lot of church leaders. Plus, if you let women think for themselves at church it might happen elsewhere.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/14/us/southern-baptist-convention-annual-meeting/index.html#:~:text=The%20annual%20meeting%20of%20the,to%20its%20having%20women%20pastors.
Steve
@CSK:
His “distancing” comments in the linked article were pretty vague and anodyne, IMO. Would Trump have taken it personally? I’m sure of it. He takes the slightest disagreements personally. But I don’t think it was far enough that it would necessarily have convinced Trump there was no chance of bullying him into going along with the attempts to overturn the election. Besides, we now know he tried to pressure Ducey, and Ducey was definitely distancing himself from Trump that year, not just on policy but specifically on the subject of voter fraud. Trump thought he could get him to go along anyway.
My point is that there’s still a lot we don’t know about what Trump might have been doing behind the scenes. The fact that the Ducey convo wasn’t reported until now makes that very clear.
@Kingdaddy:
As others before me have pointed out, it takes four justices to grant cert, and five to issue a binding opinion. The five justices to the right of Roberts have control. At best he can vote with them and assign the opinion writing to himself to try to tone things down.
As I understand things, the fictional part wasn’t taken up. The Court is now in the business of letting hypothetical injury be sufficient for standing. This certainly isn’t the first time. In Massachusetts v. EPA the (then four) liberal justices plus Kennedy granted standing for injuries that hadn’t occurred and wouldn’t occur for decades. I was happy with the outcome on the merits, but was concerned about the standing thing at the time.
I took the last few days off from the interwebs in general, but the whole thing yesterday had me thinking about when this crapola first reared its ugly head.
I’ve done a lot of wedding (and other shots) over the decades. I’ve knowingly shot gay celebrants, straight celebrants, a couple of pagan events, as well as restaurant/cart openings, and a lot of local and bigger music acts. I’ve been asked a number of times over the years if there were people I wouldn’t shoot with my Canon. My response was, only the ones who won’t pay the bill.
Even in retirement, it’s still true – if you’re a friend or family member, I’m happy to contribute images to the celebration/restaurant opening/whatever. If you’re not, and you’re buying my services, I don’t care what your orientation may/may not be. Freebie/gratis head shots for “exposure?” Nah, passe del tempo.
Apparently, I’m not a “good” Christian, by the standards of the “good folk” who filed and bankrolled the underlying complaint. That’s fine, I’ve already got enough on my conscience without that additional burden.
@Kylopod:
Sure, but Trump ran 7.4% behind Biden in 2020, which amounts to 85,000+ votes for Biden. Even Trump would have figured that was too much to contest.
@CSK:
No. Biden’s raw-vote margin in NH was 59,000, whereas in PA it was over 80,000–narrower in terms of percentage, but greater in terms of raw votes. Yet he did try to overturn the results in PA. And he even tried to overturn the results in NM, a double-digit-percentage margin and nearly 100,000 votes separating him from Biden. Given what we know, it’s not implausible that he might also have gone after NH. It hasn’t come out that he did yet, but it would fit within the pattern of behavior we do know about.
@steve: Wait…
You didn’t know this ?
@Kylopod:
http://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/new-hampshire
@CSK: According to that link, Biden was exactly 59,277 votes ahead of Trump in NH.
@Kylopod:
Still too many for Trump to pressure Sununu.
This seems legit.
TL;DR a means of obtaining electricity out of thin air.
Yeah, that sounds like fantasy, right along perpetual motion machines and pyramid power (don’t ask). But the effect seems real, there are a few papers out there in science publications, and lower down in the link they expound on costs, research, and the time it will take to obtain useful energy in larger scales. Pseudoscience tends towards grandiose claims without regard to cost or difficulties.
We’ll see. It will take years, if anything ever comes out of it, and no way the word “hygroelectricity” will ever be a common, everyday term. Still, it may see service, if it ever does, first as a means to supplement intermittent sources like wind and solar. Air with moisture is always around everywhere in the world.
@CSK:
The raw-vote margin in Pennsylvania was greater–80,555. Yet he tried to overturn the results there. It’s true he didn’t call the governor or Sec. of State as far as we know, though both were Democrats. He did make a plea for the Republican Speaker of the House to do so, however.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/12/08/trump-calls-pennsylvania-house-speaker-for-help-overturning-election-loss/?sh=2fdaf42c4f91
@Kylopod:
I’m certain he thought that PA was much more important. I’m surprised he even knew where NH is. I’m sure he didn’t before 2015.
This post needs a laugh today.
A different kind of Brexit:
Orkney is considering leaving Great Britain for Norway.