SpinnyNuNu

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WBMA) – A statue of former KKK leader and Confederate soldier Nathan Bedford Forrest that has been in the Tennessee capitol for over 40 years could be replaced by another famous Tennessean. 

Local lawmakers are considering options to replace Forrest and according to reports, Dolly Parton is one candidate. 

The Tennessean reported in December last year that Republican state Rep. Jeremy Faison was the first person to bring up the idea of removing the statue that's been in the capitol building since 1978. Faison said he could "think of 100 other people deserving of that post" before suggesting Parton because of her popularity and status as a local and national role model.

More on this story at WBMA (Birmingham).  Those unfamiliar with Dolly should read this 2019 post and listen to at least part of the podcast (start at 01:30 to skip the ad and promo).

President Trump on Monday downplayed concerns of a rising number of coronavirus cases in states across the country, indicating that the increase was due to more testing. 

"If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any,” Trump said during a White House event highlighting administration actions to help senior citizens.

If this is true for coronavirus, it would also be true for STIDs, colon cancer, breast cancer, hyperlipidemia...

Related:  Please define "cases" of coronavirus

NASCAR trucks driver Ray Ciccarelli announced on Facebook he intends to leave the sport after NASCAR announced it was banning Confederate flags from its racetracks

Lots of comments from persons with legal training at the via, including:

I mean, that’s literally the job of lawyers lol. They have substantial control over the manner and an ethical obligation to not pursue frivolous claims, but that’s a very high bar to meet (frivolity). 

My state bars (I’m in 2) require that any demand letter, when there is a direct or implied threat of future legal action, be based on the facts as we know them to be at the time and the law as it is at the time. If the client’s case fails at either of those and we know it, no letter. If we do go ahead and send the letter without a good faith basis, we can get into a load of trouble with the bar. 

The point wasn't to get CNN to retract a correct poll or go to court, it was to create doubt in people's minds ("Well, the president said it was fake and even sent a letter! He wouldn't do that unless he had a good reason"). Then the next time CNN says or does something, people will think "CNN? The same people who put out that fake poll on Trump? I can't trust them". 

That's how the misinformation war is fought. It's the same story with all of the "fake news" statements.

Here's Trump's demand.  And CNN's quit your bullshit reply:

"To my knowledge, this is the first time in its 40-year history that CNN had been threatened with legal action because an American politician or campaign did not like CNN's polling results," Vigilante wrote in his response. "To the extent we have received legal threats from political leaders in the past, they have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media."

Hunters will soon be allowed to venture into national preserves in Alaska and engage in practices that conservation groups say are reprehensible: baiting hibernating bears from their dens with doughnuts to kill them and using artificial light such as headlamps to scurry into wolf dens to slaughter mothers and their pups. 

With a final rule published Tuesday in the Federal Register, the Trump administration is ending a five-year-old ban on the practices, which also include shooting swimming caribou from a boat and targeting animals from airplanes and snowmobiles...

The move was praised by members of the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Michael J. Dunleavy (R), who called it “a step toward acknowledging Alaska’s rightful control over fish and wildlife resources all across the state.” 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the decision “protects Alaska’s hunting and fishing traditions and upholds long-standing states’ rights,” and she thanked Interior Secretary David Bernhardt for encouraging and signing the rule.

Text and image from the Washington Post, where there is additional information re the justifications offered for the rule changes.

As reported by the BBC:

President Donald Trump's eldest son and grandson took a hunting trip to Mongolia last year that reportedly cost US taxpayers over $75,000 (£59,000). 

Most of the money went to their Secret Service protection, the group said. 

Researchers say the Trump family take 12 times as many trips as the Obamas. 

The Crew report accuses the Trump family of draining the Secret Services' finances with their average of 1,000 more trips per year, many for leisure, than the previous first family. 

"This trip is just one example of the expenses the Trump family is incurring with American taxpayers, and if just one of Don Jr's trophy hunting trips cost more than $75,000, it's staggering to think how high the total bill must be," the report's authors conclude. 

An employee of Mr Trump Jr told CNN that the eight-day trip last August was privately paid for, with the exception of his security detail.
Mr Trump Jr is permitted, but not required, to use the Secret Service for his protection... 

According to a ProPublica investigation released late last year, Mr Trump Jr killed a rare Argali mountain sheep and only retroactively secured hunting permission from the Mongolian government. 

The Argali sheep, famous for its long horns, is considered near-threatened, according to the Red List of Threatened Species... 

Unlike his sister Ivanka Trump, Mr Trump Jr holds no official government position.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will “not even consider” changing the name of any of the 10 Army bases that are named for Confederate Army officers.

The nation's top military officer says it was a mistake for him to have been in Lafayette Square with President Donald Trump last week.

"​The NFL is growing our social justice efforts ... to combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans," the league said.

Anytime Fitness spokespeople have issued an apology after a Wisconsin location offered an "I can't breathe" workout.

Via.

"On an early summer evening... Donald Trump walked out of the White House, where he’d been hiding in a bunker. Military police had just fired teargas and flash grenades at peaceful protesters to clear his path, so that he could wave a Bible in front of a boarded church."

"For Trump, the time is always ripe to throw kerosene on his own dumpster fire. .. 

Faced with a threefold crisis of racial, health and economic disasters, we have a three-year-old in the Oval Office.  

Our get-tough president started his day by telling the nation’s governors that the world was laughing at them – a recurring nightmare that he loves to project on to everyone else... 

“I am your president of law and order,” he said in the Rose Garden, as thousands of Americans protested against the nation’s agents of law and order. Trump said he would mobilise “all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting” to protect “your second amendment rights”.  

If you’ve missed all the protesters seizing weapons from NRA members, you’re not alone. That last bit was a call to arms for every vigilante to escalate the violence. We have somehow devolved from dog whistle to foghorn politics. 

There is no end of Republican arsonists who have happily torched their lifelong support for states’ rights and their diehard opposition to an all-powerful central government."

More at The Guardian.

This crochet booties tutorial is adorable. I have to say the rainbow effect is really grabbing my attention.

This little bootee is made with the old-fashioned Daisy Stitch. It is not at all lacy so is just as suitable for little boys as little girls.

In Texas, Liberty Tree Tavern owner Kevin Smith decided that while he would change seating arrangements, he would not allow mask-wearing individuals into his bar. Under the impression that safety measures were being overdone and not necessary, Smith decided to post a sign outside of his bar’s door stating, “Sorry, no mask allowed.”  

“If we’re only allowed to be at 25 percent capacity, I want them to be the 25 percent of people that aren’t p-----, that aren’t sheep,” Smith said. “Being scared all the time isn’t good for your health. It suppresses your immune system.” Smith argued that not only was wearing a mask unnecessary but that it prevents bartenders from properly doing their job, including seeing an individual’s face to verify their identity. 

According to The Washington Post, in California, a flooring store not only prohibits customers from wearing a mask but encourages physical contact including hugs.

More at The Daily Kos.

Via, where there are no useful comments.

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne will force attendees to sign a waiver saying they won't sue his church if they get sick.

YouTuber Myka Stauffer and her husband, James, revealed they "rehomed" their adopted son after two years because they found it too difficult to parent a child with autism.

George Floyd's death has raised new questions about a potentially dangerous method of restraint: the knee-to-neck maneuver.

Officers are investigating a shooting that happened Wednesday afternoon in Lincoln, officials said.

A more detailed explanation is available in an editorial at The Washington Post:

IN THE 2016 presidential race, then-candidate Donald Trump often deflected questions about his shortcomings by hyping those of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. The point was to make his behavior seem no more abhorrent than his rival’s. 

Mr. Trump is trying the same tactic against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, latching onto a new diversion: “Obamagate.” This one is totally untethered from reality, despite the credulous or cynical efforts of senior Republicans and conservative media to advance it. 

Mr. Trump’s precise allegation is hazy. But the apparent accusation is that, following Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory, Obama officials plotted to ensnare the incoming Trump administration in a Russia scandal...

Backstory:

"Trump administration officials spent the weekend scrambling after two staffers tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the pandemic closer to President Donald Trump even as he works to reopen parts of the country. On Saturday and Sunday, aides attempted to conduct contact tracing for Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary who tested positive for coronavirus last week."

The discussion thread indicates that some of these bottles are outrageously expensive, but I note that the owner doesn't have a bottle of my favorite Evan Williams bourbon, which he could find at his local Target store.

And I bet he would disapprove of my mixing the Evan Williams with Diet Coke.

Artistic or photographic credit to Skurk.

This one resonated with me because in my junior year at college 50+ years ago, my term paper for Bio10b was entitled "Visual Adaptations of Deep-Sea Teleosts," an in-depth analysis of retinal adaptations (rod/cone elongation, transmutation, concentration, summation), tapeta, sighting grooves etc etc.  It was the type of paper for which one spends literally hundreds of hours mastering subject matter that will never have even a smidgeon of relevance to one's future career, but that one can still look back at with a measure of satisfaction.

For those interested: more on anglerfish.

Discussed at the WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit.

"Several articles online state that the design was made to prevent people from running/making loud noises, however turns out that the tile company addressed this matter here. Turns out they "needed to have an entrance that would make our customers really remember their visit to and something that showcased what can be achieved with tiles." 

(view from the other direction).  Via.

4 U.S. Code § 8.Respect for flag

(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

The image is a screencap from a video of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arriving for a visit in Israel.  The topic is discussed at CNBC.

See also:  Flag Etiquette (Sarah Palin), "Embroidered American Flag on Sleeve" (Trump/Pence website)

It looks like there are plenty of people ready to head to sea.

The owner of a home under construction in the Georgia neighborhood where Ahmaud Arbery was killed says he had reported no crime after surveillance video seemed to show the young man on the property.

I'll defer personal commentary and just offer some excerpts from The Guardian:

... So she decided to try something totally different. One day, she created “a mess”. For an assignment, she painted her model with black, aggressive scribbles, green cartoonish snakes, blurry orange lips and spiky, Twiggy-esque lashes. “I was under the impression my look was awful,” she says. But on Instagram, it took off.  

Meikle didn’t realize it at the time, but she was joining a movement that has been slowly gaining momentum – the ugly makeup revolution, a term coined by the Berlin-based makeup artist and activist Eszter Magyar, who began working on the project in 2018. “Ugly makeup revolution is a community,” she says, as is her other hashtag, makeup brutalism... 

The work of these artists is frequently derided – for being both too ugly and not ugly enough. “It’s not about ugliness,” Magyar says. “It’s about irregularity. Ugly is just a word, which makes you pay attention.”.. 

While strangeness can be very sexy, the purpose isn’t to be sexy (which, paradoxically, is why it’s can be so sexy, I think). The purpose is to please the wearer... 

It’s a compliment – a word that makes people sit up and pay attention. Ugly exists for ugly’s sake. It’s an underrated aesthetic, one that more people should embrace.

The artist is Szilajka Erzsebet.  A tip of the blogging pebble cap to reader Drabkikker for locating her.