The Day in Screen Scrapes

 Well.  Today has been interesting.  Much has happened.

This morning, there was this headline.  FDA had planned to release tomorrow, but the orange ectoplasm wanted it today.  Way to establish credibility of the science!

The orange ectoplasm got a magazine cover - in Germany.

The ectoplasm did not make ectoplasm of the year in Time magazine.  These two did!  Yay Biden/Harris!

Finally, the lawsuit filed by the Texas AG seeking to over turn the election results in four swing states, signed on to by 126 or so Republican congressworms, a few state AGs and a partridge in a pear tree was dismissed by the Supreme Court nine to zip.

It was a bad day in the ectoplasm neighborhood.  That's it!  All I have is schadenfreude.

The Return of Spam and Birds on the Feeder

I saw this article on Slate today.  The subject hasn't gotten much attention in the press, actually this is the only reference I've seen to it. Basically, the Supreme Court appears to want to limit restrictions on spam phone calls.  Yup, they seek to enhance our lives by allowing MORE SPAM.  Below are three paragraphs.  The article is not long and is worth reading because it sheds light on the convoluted wrong-headed thinking we're going to be stuck with for the next few decades.

The case in question is relatively sleepy, with no protesting crowds or eager reporters waiting in the wings. Facebook v. Duguid asks whether a 29-year-old law, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, applies to all telemarketing calls or only governs calls made using technology that was available in 1991 when the law was originally passed. This seemingly small point carries widespread consequences. If Facebook prevails, telemarketers everywhere will be freed from the TCPA’s most effective restrictions, which ban live calls to your cellphone. This means more spam calls (and you thought it was bad already).

But perhaps more relevant to the future of the court is the ideological battle raging beneath the surface in Duguid. Everyone involved agrees that the operative sentence in the TCPA was poorly drafted and is open to multiple interpretations. It says the law applies only to telemarketing devices that can “store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator.” As one judge concluded after struggling with this language, “Clarity, we lament, does not leap off this page of the U.S. Code.” If you prefer to look solely at the grammar of the sentence (what could be called the grammatical view of textualism), the TCPA would restrict only devices that produce or store numbers using a random number generator. But that makes no sense—how can a number generator “store” anything? Meanwhile, if you choose to read the sentence in context (the contextual view of textualism), the law would apply both to devices that produce numbers using a random number generator and ones that store numbers generally.

Six months later, it appears very likely that many of the justices who endorsed the contextual approach in Bostock will flip to a strict grammatical view in Duguid. The appearance that policy preferences may be driving that migration undermines one of the principal rationales Scalia theorized for textualism: that it offered a neutral benchmark for judicial decision-making. What we saw taking hold on Tuesday looks far more like a regressive variant of judicial activism. If so, the TCPA’s junk call provisions may be the first of many cherished protections whose reach is diminished under this new flag of textualism.

So, there you go.

I have spent the better part of the afternoon in my recliner throwing my socks at the window blinds.  Why, you wonder?  There is a Verdin attempting to feed from the hummingbird feeder. The male, very territorial, hummer comes and buzzes him, but the Verdin will not leave.  So I throw the socks to rattle the blinds and he flies off, but he comes back.  After the level of the sugar water goes down a little he can't drink, but until then he'll return. 

We don't have the Annas hummingbirds that we did at the Rincon RV park.  We have Black Chins.  They're sort of a drab looking hummingbird.  The male is hysterical.  If we walk out the front door he buzzes us.  He flies around my head.  We walked across the street to get the mail, and on our way back he flew at us in the driveway.  I guess this is his house and we're merely here to feed him.  Here he is in the palm tree protecting his territory.

It did rain starting last night, through the night and off and on all day.  It's cold, too.  OK, it's 57, but it feels cold because of the cloud cover.  Rain is good, we need more.

This is from Nextdoor.  This person is not the only one to hold this view.  It's disheartening.

So, the US enrolled 30,000 people in stage three trials, and they all died, and nobody noticed?  It's an amazing statement here.
 

A Rant and Some Scenery

Aaaaaaargh.  I truly have hate in my heart for many red states.  The Texas AG, Mr. Paxton, who has been under investigation for multiple crimes for the past five years has filed a lawsuit with SCOTUS to overturn the election results of four swing states.  Today, seventeen red states have signed on as amici curiae in support of this.  Think about it.  Texas wants to disenfranchise all of those voters in the swing states because he doesn't like the way they voted.  To its credit, Ohio, is not participating in this charade.  Maybe California would like to challenge the way the Texans voted.

What else am I pissed off about?  Well there is the gestapo-like raid on Rebekah Jones' home by Florida police.  The warrant to enter the home was signed by a judge appointed 30 days ago by DeathSantis.  Said judge was in civil court, signing off on a criminal warrant.  The police took all of her computers.  DeathSantis is mad because she has continued to post current Covid numbers even after firing her for doing her job.  They're trying to charge her with "hacking" a system that is available to the public.  I hope she's able to sue everybody.  More is here, including her video of the police. Update to post 12/11/2020:  Apparently the police did not have the warrant in hand when they entered the house, it came three hours later.

Meanwhile, in Idaho, public health officials' homes are being surrounded by people who think Covid is hoax.  They're banging on the doors, scaring the kids, shining lasers through the windows and banging garbage cans to make noise.  All of these people who end up with Covid should not be allowed in a hospital.  More is here on this subject.  In general, if you don't mask, wash hands, and distance, then I think no health care for you. 

Lastly, there is the murder of Casey Goodson by the police.  He was shot in the back three times as he prepared to enter his home with a bag of Subway sandwiches.  He died in front of his grandmother and two toddlers.  This has to stop, police should not be murdering Black men because they can.  More on this here.

So, there is so much more I am pissed about, but I guess I will stop there. 

We have had some sunsets, not a lot but some.

We rode this afternoon, there was not a cloud in the sky, making us doubt the forecast for rain tonight and tomorrow morning.

Then, out of nowhere, clouds rolled in.  Currently it's getting darker, and the wind has picked up a little.  So maybe.

Ok, one more thing.  Yesterday was Safe Harbor.  All states have certified, some more than once.  ENOUGH with the stupid lawsuits that have already been dismissed because they're stupid.  Also, there is the fact that five early voting polling places in Black and Brown areas have been closed in Georgia.  The election official said it's because she doesn't have staffing.  Oddly enough, no polling places in the white areas have been closed.  Why don't they close some of them, and move the poll workers to the poorer areas.  In addition to not having enough polling places, there is virtually zero public transportation to get the voters to the ones still open.

This is funny, it's from twitter.

So, that's really it, that's all I've got.

A Disjointed Post

Today was a halcyon day - warm with light breezes.  It was the kind of day we didn't have very frequently over the last two winters.  It's a La Nina winter, we're hoping for warmer weather and less wind.  One is not allowed to hope for no rain, since we're in extreme drought.

The bougainvillea seems to be shutting down for the winter.  Last year at this time, it was covered in blossoms, this year, not so much. 

The weight bench I ordered arrived.  It was a simple assembly.  I love it when vendors do their small parts like this.  They're shrink wrapped to the cardboard, and very clearly labelled.  The instructions contained not one word, only pictures.

 

The totally, and completely, fake Christmas tree.  This is year three for it, so far it has only dropped three branches.  Moving in and out of the box is hard on the wire.  The first year we had it, the lights on the top third wouldn't come on.  We add a string of lights to that section.  This year I had planned to replace it, but since we can't shop, we can't replace.

We put net lights on the palm next to the patio.  It may be the last year for it, it's getting tall and we hate ladders.

The rabbit has been back visiting us.  He's a cute bunny, he's also the reason why I can't have any flowers in the yard.

Rudy Giuliani has Covid.  Apparently there have been cases reported starting at the Gettyburg airing of grievances.  One wonders how many other people will get it.

The Opening of Christmas Season

Ho Ho Ho! We spent yesterday installing Christmas because it was too dang windy and cold to do anything outside.  There was even a wind advisory in effect.  Anyway, here is a really cute picture of the bears and the Department 56 village.  Notice how cute the bears are, and how tiny.  Someone stitched the bear parts, turned the parts inside out, and fully articulated the arms, legs and heads.  Cute, Cute, Cute.

 
That's it!  That's all I've got.

The Flailing Continues

Well - it has been a day in litigation.  As of very recently ago, five new law suits were filed in Minnesota.  The campaign people for the orange ectoplasm are calling legislators in Michigan, telling them to send electors that will vote for the ectoplasm, rather than President Elect Biden.  The thrashing and flailing continues unabated.  Forty nine days remain.

Sidney Powell is one of the more delusional lawyers involved in these cases.  This was the argument she made in court today or yesterday.  They're all running together.  Anyway, give this a read and revel in the marvelous legal mind that is Ms. Powell.

Recall, if you will, that Chavez died in 2013.  I want to keep this as a momento of how crazy the cult is, and the steps they are willing to take to over turn this election.  Personally, I think it will be ok, but it would be nice if it would be over and these people would leave.

Ivanka was deposed yesterday by the DC Attorney General's office.  She's part of the investigation into excessive billing carried out by the Trump Hotel in 2017.  She'll look good in orange.

Today Angus linked to a youtube from 2010.  It was filmed in the National Building Museum.  It's a red brick facade with a Roman temple on the inside.  Annie Lenox sang there at Christmas, and she was, as always, breath taking.  The columns become visible at about 2:50.  Also visible, is footage of the Obama family, looking like normal people, out for an evening.  Seeing them, and thinking about the past four years and their awfulness made me cry.  Please let it be over.