Statewide here. With the exception of sparklers. IIRC. The fireworks bans in Houston were because of the amount of houses with wooden shingles. I might be remembering that incorrectly though. It's been 30 years.
They warn they will cite people in Houston without warning, but have been saying that for years. It's pretty much evident they don't. People shoot them for hours all over the streets for miles right in the middle of residential neighborhoods.
Yes even though illegal here. Vermont and Massachusetts are each only a 30 minute drive from here. Lots of booms in my area last night. PS. Until last year I had to go to Massachusetts to legally buy weed. But it never deterred me.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/07/have-you-had-specific-cognitive-tests.html "Have you had the specific cognitive tests, and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination?" by noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) George Stephanopoulos pushed Joe Biden, in the big ABC interview that aired last night. Biden had just wafted the theory that the job of being president is itself, inherently, "a full neurological test every day." As if we can just watch him. But we can't watch him. He's been hiding, and he's insulated by others who can cover for all his shortcomings. Pushed — about "specific cognitive tests" by "a neurologist, a specialist" — Biden said "No. No one said I had to. No one said. They said I'm good." Well, then, Stephanopoulos asked again, "Would you be willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation that included neurological and cognitive tests and release the results to the American people?" And Biden repeated the theory that the job itself is the neurological test: "Look. I have a cognitive test every single day." He elaborated, wordily: "Every day I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I'm running the world" — running the world! — "not-- and that's not hy- — sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world.... I'm workin' on what we were doin' with regard to-- in Europe with regard to expansion of NATO and whether it's gonna stick. I'm takin' on Putin...." In short, he adamantly refuses to take the specific tests from a specialist and show us the results. Because he's in the difficult job and attempting to do it, shielded from public view, we're supposed to feel assured that he's capable of doing it. I don't feel reassured. But at the same time, I wouldn't trust medical specialists to perform this task of testing the mental competence of political candidates. The specialists are human beings with preferences, who may deploy their expertise to mystify. I actually believe Biden's theory that the test is in the performance of the job. But the big problem is that we haven't been allowed to observe him doing the job. He has not exposed himself in action and his hiding gives rise to an inference that he lacks competence.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/07/people-should-be-ebullient-and-happy.html 6 minutes ago "People should be ebullient and happy.... you have to sit back and enjoy this particular period in our history...." by noreply@blogger.com (Ann Althouse) "A senile man refuses to abdicate the presidency. He's being encouraged to stay in the race by his wife, a woman who at 55 years old got a doctorate of education and makes people call her doctor. She's not a doctor. She's no more of a doctor than I'm a doctor. His son, a crack addict... is encouraging him to stay in the race. His wife is saying stay in the race. Everybody else is pulling out... and he still refuses to leave. The senile president refuses to leave. You must enjoy it. You must sit back and enjoy it.... The media has been covering for Biden... and the campaign just dribbled him out for a press conference here a state of the union there — very scripted, very tightly controlled appearances.... They juiced him for the state of the union and it worked and drugs don't always work... so whatever they shot him up with, whatever... Pulp Fiction adrenaline shot they gave him through the... breast plate.... I'm not a doctor — Jill is — but whatever — that didn't work here...." In case you want to sit back and enjoy the Biden debacle, there's no better companion than Tim Dillon....
To be fair to Jill Biden, PhD's were the original people called doctor (coming from the Latin docere, to teach). Medical doctors are a more modern usage. It is a bit pretentious to insist on it, but there is nothing wrong with calling PhD's doctors.
When you are 55 and a millionaire and insanely politically connected, and doing it just so you can demand to be called doctor whilst taking an opportunity away from someone else, yeah it is.
You seem completely unhinged. How did you determine her motivation was simply to demand to be called doctor? Who didn't get the opportunity for PhD because she got one? Your posts in this subject lack facts. The opinions expressed are seem unfounded and having no basis in rational thinking.
Good Lord, just when I thought I'd heard it all, we now have a troll bit*hing about someone calling themself by Dr. when they have a PHD. We called our professors by Dr. In grad school. They earned that respect and the title.
so . . . exactly how would a president go about "suspending laws", for any purpose? and if that's possible, which specific laws would a president have to suspend "to go after political enemies"? serious question(s).
Article II, section 3: He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
A question for the more experienced and disciplined Trump and his creative team. Who holds the POTUS accountable for that? The SCOTUS granted absolute immunity for official acts, which goes against this statement of "laws be faithfully executed."
I brought this up in another thread but John Yoo, who is working on Project 2025, has argued that when it comes to national Security the Executive branch is not under the purview of other branches. He counseled the GW Bush Admin to put this in practice regarding the use of torture and bypassing granting Constitutional rights to those considered “enemy combatants” even when not captured on a battlefield. Under the latest USSC rulings it does appear that a President could break laws and argue that they cannot be prosecuted as they were done for “official acts”.
'[ProPublica] Inside Ziklag, The Secret Organization Of Wealthy Christians By ProPublica — July 14, 2024 by Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump. These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups. ProPublica and Documented obtained thousands of Ziklag’s members-only email newsletters, internal videos, strategy documents and fundraising pitches, none of which has been previously made public. They reveal the group’s 2024 plans and its long-term goal to underpin every major sphere of influence in American society with Christianity. In the Bible, the city of Ziklag was where David and his soldiers found refuge during their war with King Saul. “We are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness,” says a strategy document that lays out Ziklag’s 30-year vision to “redirect the trajectory of American culture toward Christ by bringing back Biblical structure, order and truth to our Nation.” Ziklag’s 2024 agenda reads like the work of a political organization. It plans to pour money into mobilizing voters in Arizona who are “sympathetic to Republicans” in order to secure “10,640 additional unique votes” — almost the exact margin of President Joe Biden’s win there in 2020. The group also intends to use controversial AI software to enable mass challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of voters in competitive states. In a recording of a 2023 internal strategy discussion, a Ziklag official stressed that the objective was the same in other swing states. “The goal is to win,” the official said. “If 75,000 people wins the White House, then how do we get 150,000 people so we make sure we win?” According to the Ziklag files, the group has divided its 2024 activities into three different operations targeting voters in battleground states: Checkmate, focused on funding so-called election integrity groups; Steeplechase, concentrated on using churches and pastors to get out the vote; and Watchtower, aimed at galvanizing voters around the issues of “parental rights” and opposition to transgender rights and policies supporting health care for trans people. In a member briefing video, one of Ziklag’s spiritual advisers outlined a plan to “deliver swing states” by using an anti-transgender message to motivate conservative voters who are exhausted with Trump. But Ziklag is not a political organization: It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, the same legal designation as the United Way or Boys and Girls Club. Such organizations do not have to publicly disclose their funders, and donations are tax deductible. In exchange, they are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” according to the IRS. ProPublica and Documented presented the findings of their investigation to six nonpartisan lawyers and legal experts. All expressed concern that Ziklag was testing or violating the law. The reporting by ProPublica and Documented “casts serious doubt on this organization’s status as a 501(c)(3) organization,” said Roger Colinvaux, a professor at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law. “I think it’s across the line without a question,” said Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a University of Notre Dame law professor. Ziklag officials did not respond to a detailed list of questions. Martin Nussbaum, an attorney who said he was the group’s general counsel, said in a written response that “some of the statements in your email are correct. Others are not,” but he then did not respond to a request to specify what was erroneous. The group is seeking to “align” the culture “with Biblical values and the American constitution, and that they will serve the common good,” he wrote. Using the official tax name for Ziklag, he wrote that “USATransForm does not endorse candidates for public office.” He declined to comment on the group’s members. There are no bright lines or magic words that the IRS might look for when it investigates a charitable organization for engaging in political intervention, said Mayer. Instead, the agency examines the facts and circumstances of a group’s activities and makes a conclusion about whether the group violated the law. The biggest risk for charities that intervene in political campaigns, Mayer said, is loss of their tax-exempt status. Donors’ ability to deduct their donations can be a major sell, not to mention it can create “a halo effect” for the group, Mayer added. “They may be able to get more money this way,” he said, adding, “It boils down to tax evasion at the end of the day.”
