Stuff is piling up on the blog like it’s piling up at my home. At least here I have a solution…
1. The Democratic Senators were right to kill the House GOP Mayorkas impeachment, and they did it for the right reasons. Being incompetent isn’t a high crime, and the House can’t end around the Constitution to fire an executive appointment: it is a breach of the separation of powers.
What a waste of time…
2. Canary dying in the public education mine tale: This is a depressing story. Short version: Last March, a Hispanic school principal physically stopped a female student whom he concluded was about to attack another student. The student he physically restrained accused him of assault—she is black, and with the help of her parents blew the incident into a racial one.
Now the principal Columbia High School in New Jersey, Frank Sanchez, has been arrested and charged with assault and endangering a minor. The family’s lawyer is telling the news media that the encounter exemplifies how black students are discriminated against and mistreated. But some parents are saying that the student was a known bully and a disciplinary problem, and the incident has been exploited by a black parents advocacy group to get rid of Sanchez.
Grace and I finally decided to home school grant when he reported that in all of his freshman high school classes (at Alexandria City High, long known as T.C. Williams until the name was changed because a bad cop either negligently, recklessly or intentionally killed a lifetime petty crook who was overdosing on fentanyl in Minnesota. That butterfly causing a typhoon by flapping its wings has nothing on George Floyd.) classes were almost uniformly 15-20 minutes late because the teachers had to settle down the black students goofing around, talking and refusing to take their seats. He said the teacher were afraid to do anything but keep repeating, “OK, now, that’s enough.” Columbia High had to pay the Black Parents Workshop, which formed in 2014, damaged after it sued the district charging that black students were suspended more frequently than white students for the same acts. Occam’s Razor would suggest that this was not because of discrimination, but because black kids engaged in those acts more frequently. Now, if that was the real reason, they are still behaving like that, but get away with it. Problem solved!
3. Paul Harvey Dept. “The rest of the story:”
- It looks like Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter really was the culprit, stealing $16 million from his friend and employer to cover his gambling debts. I’m sorry I doubted you, Otahnisan.
- Oh look! The grifter who got another star Dodgers pitcher, Trevor Bauer, blackballed out of Major League Baseball has been charged with fraud! Good.
- Beating my estimate by weeks, NPR whistle-blower Uri Berliner quit today shortly after being suspended. Of course he was going to have to quit eventually, as it is no fun being the metaphorical skunk at the picnic. (Ironically, being an actual skunk at a picnic is fun.)
4. Funny and harmless? Unfairly confusing to legitimate legal clerkship-seekers? The job listing for a clerkship in the courtroom of Northern District of California Magistrate Judge Robert M. Illman included this requirement: “Applicants should be able to distinguish between Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron giganteum, and articulate the superiority of sempervirens.“
5. When, do you think, will enough young women stop tolerating stuff like this…
…and unite to both stop it and punish the cowardly officials and politicians who have allowed it to happen?
That’s all male McDaniel High School sophomore Aayden Gallagher speeding past the all- female athletes as she heads to the finish line, crossing at the 25.49-second mark. The girls didn’t cross the finish line until around the 31-second mark. it’s OK, though, because current policy in the Oregon School Activities Association “endeavors to allow students to participate for the athletic or activity program of their consistently asserted gender identity while providing a fair and safe environment for all students…” Once a transgender student has notified their school of their gender identity, “the student shall be consistently treated as that gender for purposes of eligibility for athletics and activities, provided that if the student has tried out or participated in an activity, the student may not participate during that same season on a team of the other gender.” Oh. That makes no sense, however, except in Woke World. The runner is a guy in every possible way. Never mind, though: he’ll do something about it eventually. Aayden said he was going to take hormone replacement therapy “because right now I’m just going to keep on getting more and more masculine — more facial hair, stuff like that. And I don’t want that.”
No, he just wants to win races.
Ethics Alarms 
4. After looking up both trees and viewing the job listing, I’m going to go with “making sure a prospective law clerk knows how to follow instructions, do research, and think on their own.” I assume they’ll be asked about those trees during the interview. What I don’t get is why the judge specified one of them as “superior” without specifying for what purpose(s) it is supposedly superior. I hope the judge doesn’t use that level of reasoning in any official capacity.
Your explanation makes sense, EC. Sort of a variation on what road managers for rock stars put in contracts with venues: bowls of M&Ms separated by color, that sort of thing. They don’t care about that stuff, but they want to know if the staff is really going to do the important stuff without having to be told why.
It might be to test a candidate’s ability to advocate for one side over another, no matter what side the candidate is assigned. That is a good legal skill.
A bold candidate might choose to argue against the assigned superior tree’s superiority.
These questions/assignments are quite similar to one’s asked in US college admissions, at least when my son applied. There is no correct answer.
Agreed. But, as EC wondered, why is one superior to the other? One is one tree; the other is a series of big-ass trees. Is the one tree better because it is one living organism spread over acres, which is some sort of metaphor for one goal promotes and preserves society? If so, where does diversity come into play? Does not this single big-ass organism show that homogeneity is preferable under the laws of nature, much like a pack of zebras is a much better disguise than a single zebra standing out in the Serengeti?
But, to take the other side, isn’t diversity better – here many separate, distinct organisms forming a system is more efficient better because, even though there are competing or different desires (the Maples want more sunlight but the lofty Oaks ignore their pleas) those individual goals make for a stronger society that allows for more freedom?
jvb
#1. According to DHS, “Under the Secretary’s leadership, DHS is responsible for counterterrorism, cybersecurity, aviation security, border security, port security, maritime security, administration and enforcement of our immigration laws, protection of our national leaders, protection of critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, detection of and protection against chemical, biological and nuclear threats to the homeland, and response to disasters.”
Pray tell, how has Mayorkas performed in this arena? He has been beyond incompetent and the fact that all Democrats would support him shows how little they think of the importance of carrying out the above-mentioned duties. He has ignored border security as well as the enforcement of our immigration laws.
At his swearing in, Mayorkas stated, “The mission of the Department of Homeland Security is to safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values. The United States is a welcoming and empathetic nation, one that finds strength in its diversity. I pledge to defend and secure our country without sacrificing these American values.”
If one can’t be impeached for totally ignoring the duties and oath “to protect and defend the United States from enemies foreign and domestic…” the Dept of Homeland “Security” should be abolished.
If a Trump official had performed as “well” as Mayorkas has, that individual would have rightfully been out the door without question.
No. He serves at the pleasure of the President, who defines what “success” and “competence” is. It’s his job to fire the hack (along with several others.
Then maybe we need a federal, presidential recall regime. Radical lefty functionaries brazenly refusing to discharge their duties for nonsensical policy reasons or to simply retain power is a problem I seriously doubt the Founders ever contemplated, never mind anticipated.
I may have mentioned this before, but I posted “Has Joe Biden ever fired anyone, ever?” to Quora.
Most answers consisted of “why are you asking?, Putin lover, & Of course he has; he’s had contractors work on his house, and he must have fired a few of them.”
I have a house and have hired contractors; I never even thought to fire any of them.
That y’all aren’t readily able to articulate the differences between Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron giganteum, let alone be able to explain the superiority of the former shows everything wrong with our faltering republic.
Geez
Second.
Gabby will be here all week, folks.