1. I worry about sounding like Andy Rooney or George Costanza’s father, but I have a lot of problems with these people!
- One of our medical insurance carriers who is paid automatically from our account sold its customers to another company. It didn’t tell us, didn’t write us, didn’t alert us at all. The new company wrote a letter, which got tossed because we assumed it was junk mail. Of course, the new company wasn’t getting the automatic payment, so after three months, it cancelled the coverage. I learned about this when a drug that typically cost three bucks for 90 pills was suddenly 12 times that when I went to the pharmacy to pick it up.
- A certain bar association that will not be mentioned alerted me to a dues issue and some missing information. The letter said, “Do not hesitate to call [this number].” When I called that number, I got a message that said that the office was temporarily closed “due to Covid 19” —I guess they meant the Wuhan virus—and there was no opportunity to leave a message.
- Having switched to Comcast from AT&T, I have discovered that when you call Comcast information at 411 and ask for “Comcast customer service,” the computer says that there is no record of that number.
2. Admittedly, pointing out that Kamala Harris is shockingly dim is like shooting fish in a barrel, but her comments about the Jacob Blake shooting are so frighteningly unethical—incompetent, irresponsible.
First, she said in a CNN interview that based on the video of Jacob Blake’s shooting, the white police officer who shot him should be charged, insisting that it was “very clear” that the charges should be “considered in a very serious way and that there should be accountability and consequence.” (And why does she talk like that?) First, as we have discussed here regarding episodes like Barack Obama impugning George Zimmerman before the facts were known and the various officials pronouncing Officer Chauvin guilty, as well as Wisconsin’s Governor and Lt. Governor doing the same regarding Blake’s shooters, this kind of mouthing off by elected officials robs defendants of the right to a fair trial. When President Nixon said, in 1970, that Charles Manson was “guilty, directly or indirectly, of eight murders without reason,” Manson’s attorneys immediately demanded a mistrial, saying Nixon had irredeemably tainted the jury pool. It was just moral luck that the motion failed.
Then Harris decided to visit Blake’s family with Blake himself participating by phone, and gushed, “I mean, they’re an incredible family.And what they’ve endured, and they just do it with such dignity and grace. And you know, they’re carrying the weight of a lot of voices on their shoulders.”
Blake broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend in May, allegedly raped her, stole her car keys and debit card and fled the scene. Wisconsin issued an open warrant for Blake’s arrest for third-degree sexual assault and a restraining order which Blake violated, thus prompting the fateful police confrontation, where he resisted arrest and placed one officer in a headlock.
Blake’s father, meanwhile, has posted racist and anti-Semitic rants on social media.
What an incredible family!
3. This is good news! (Pointer: Willem Reese). From FIRE:
The Department of Education released new, final regulations today providing crucial free speech and religious liberty protections for students at our nation’s public college campuses. Institutions that violate those core rights will risk losing access to federal education grants. Put simply, the regulations require public institutions of higher education to do what they are already obligated to do: protect the First Amendment rights of their students.
The new regulations also require from private institutions what many courts already require: that the institutions comply with their stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech and academic freedom. If a court finds that a private institution violated its policies, it risks losing access to Department of Education grants.
Under the new rules, religious student organizations must also have equal access to the benefits colleges afford to recognized secular organizations. This means that public institutions of education may no longer discriminate against religious student organizations by denying them access to campus facilities or student fee money available to secular student organizations “because of the religious student organization’s beliefs, practices, policies, speech, membership standards, or leadership standards, which are informed by sincerely held religious beliefs.”
4. Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias! What in the world has happened to The Atlantic? Over the weekend, a press pool report and a video recorded Biden walking out the front door of his church after Mass over to the parking lot as reporters pleaded with him to stay and answer questions. Francis Brennan, the Trump campaign’s director of strategic response, mocked the candidate’s avoidance of the press on social media, prompting The Atlantic’s Edward-Isaac Dovere to respond that the mean Trump campaign was attacking Biden for being preoccupied with visiting his son’s grave, which is in the church’s cemetery.
5. And speaking of Bo, “What’s going on here?”
Yes, CNN used an old photo of Joe Biden with his now deceased son Bo in a documentary called “Fight for the White House: Joe Biden’s Long Journey.” The Washington Redskins logo on young Bo’s cap was airbrushed out. Republicans pounced!
- “Wow — this is Pravda-level manipulation of news,” replied Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies.
- “Is @CNN now like the old USSR or 1984 where they airbrush out inconvenient history so that no one will remember it? When does CNN register as a campaign org?” asked John R. Lott, the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center.
In this case, however, it appears that all CNN did was publish the photo as it was sent to them by the Biden campaign. Joe’s campaign decided to flush the fact that he had once embraced that racist team name and logo, now just victims of the George Floyd Freakout, down the memory hole.
The campaign swore, after CNN fingered it as the culprit, that the logo was covered up due to “copyright” concerns.
Yes, someone really came up with that.
Ethics Alarms 
Re: White Washing the Redskins.
I don’t think CNN was worried about the hat. They liked the photo of a dad and his son, especially because dad is Joe Biden, and son is Bo, so the viewers’ heart strings would be playing a lullaby.
By the way, did you see the Don Lemon segment on Tuesday night where Don corrected himself after stating when Kamala Harris is president things would change? It was beautiful. Joe is serving as a foil to take the heat of Harris, so when the Biden/Harris ticket wins in November, and is sworn in January, 2021, Joe will have some incident, will be declared incapable of continuing in his role as president and Harris will replace him.
jvb
No, the Democrats spent four years trying to declare a vigorous septuagenarian incompetent. They cannot admit they nominated one of their own. Even Democrats recognize that would open Kamala to debilitating accusations of illegitimacy.
No, Biden will be carefully staged to serve out his term, competency notwithstanding – barring a stroke or other condition that makes the charade impossible.
You may be right. But I am going to agree with John. The Democrats spent four years pounding the 25th Amendment into our heads for a reason. They only care about the U.S. Constitution when they can use it to further their agenda.
If Biden is as far gone as he seems, he cannot be propped up for four years. It’s going to be noticed.
They either have a deal with Biden to step down after a few quiet months or they will pressure him to resign after the same. If that doesn’t work, they will force him out of office with the 25th Amendment and then let their allies in the news media crow about how the Democrats were willing to get rid of an impaired President when the Republicans weren’t.
The kicker is that is that if they were to push Biden out, it would be after months of Fox News, etc, speculating that Biden would be pushed out.
They would have to admit the Republicans were right about Biden’s decline. I cannot see that happening.
When you accept removing something from a photo you are on the path to accepting something that is added.
“Kamals Harris” in the title.
Her friends call her “Kamals”…
It was her very unimaginative undercover name from her time on the best.
Regarding your unsatisfactory customer service experiences: our city water department, nearly four months ago, tore up our driveway to fix a minor water leak. When asked when we could expect the driveway to be replaced, we were told it wasn’t their job, and to call the streets department.
Naturally, a call placed to the streets department was met with a recording telling us to call back during business hours. Regardless of what time, day or night, that this number is called, the message is the same.