Congressional Democrats Might Trade the Little Leverage They Have Left for Magic Beans

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment to the Last Post of the Week from the Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)

So, they got a guy in custody now. And I can just imagine the prosecutors already tearing their hair out and begging the president to keep his big yapper shut lest they have to answer a defense motion to change the venue of the trial to Mars. From CBS News:

President Trump said on Fox News that a suspect in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is in custody. "With a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody. Everyone did a great job," the president told "Fox and Friends" Friday morning. "Essentially, someone that was very close to him turned him in," Mr. Trump said, adding that the suspect's capture would be announced today. The FBI has not yet confirmed this. The president said the suspect's father convinced his son to turn himself in. "I just heard about it" five minutes ago, Mr. Trump said. The president told Fox News during an interview on "Fox and Friends" that he hopes the person who assassinated Kirk gets the death penalty. I hope he gets the death penalty," Trump said.

You just know that, as the legal process stemming from the arrest of Tyler Robinson grinds on, he's not going to be able to shut up about it. Any small victory for the defense is going to prompt a Truth Social barrage from the White House. The cyber skies over Utah then will be thick with flying monkeys. Judges in Utah must be headed for Canada. I wouldn't touch this case with a stick.

As far as I'm concerned, The Wall Street Journal was consigned to a lower ring of journalism hell for all the bullshit it pumped out during the Clinton administration. But the spirit of Robert Bartley walked the halls again this week when the paper ran with a rumor that the bullets in the magazine of the rifle used to kill Charlie Kirk were engraved with trans slogans. This has since been debunked, and the WSJ attached a half-assed editor's note to try and walk it back. If this isn't a story, and an administration, that fairly defines, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out,” I don't know what is. Hang your head, WSJ.

A brief appreciation of Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens who passed away last week.

Years ago, I outed myself as a lifelong fan of Les Habitants, and Dryden was an important part of that throughout the 1970s. As a rookie, he stood a very high-powered Boston Bruins team on its ear in the playoffs, frustrating Boston center Phil Esposito to the point where he smashed his stick on the arena's glass.

Dryden became a lawyer, a member of the Canadian Parliament, and the president of (of all things) the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also was an author. His The Game is one of the best first-person books about life as a professional athlete of all time. He was an athlete in the classic sense, someone who develops his physical gifts to the fullest so as to use them to live his life to the fullest.

The classic image of Ken Dryden is him standing in the goal crease, his chin resting on the butt of his goalie stick, his whole posture fairly saying, "Your efforts at playing ice hockey have become tedious." The ancient Greeks would have put that image on an urn.

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click

“Shake Ya Brass” – Smoking On Some Brass

Yeah, I still pretty much love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit to the Pathé Archive

Here, from 1933, is a jailhouse interview with Giuseppe Zangara, the man who tried to shoot FDR and killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak instead. I point out that if you follow the link back to the Pathé archives home page you will find a whole section entitled "U.S. Political Violence." It's pretty lengthy.

We're all going to have to keep a close eye on the congressional Democrats over the rest of the month because there are too many hints coming out of D.C. that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries may be considering trading what little leverage they have for a bag of magic beans. One indication that makes me nervous is that Schumer and Jeffries are butching up the old rhetoric. From The Hill:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) warned Wednesday that House Democrats are likely to reject a Republican funding package that keeps spending largely at current levels, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is forecasting. And across the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voiced a similar warning, saying none of the plans being floated by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) would have the Democratic support to pass through the upper chamber.

Alas, here's the joker in the deck:

Both Democratic leaders are hoping their threats of opposition will force Republicans to the negotiating table in an effort to forge a compromise that can clear both chambers with broad support from both parties—a bipartisan process, once routine, that’s faded as Washington has become more polarized.

And people say there are no laughs in politics any more. Meanwhile, the president is bellowing about no compromise whatsoever. From Politico:

“There is something wrong with them,” Trump said about Democrats in a rare in-studio “Fox and Friends” interview. “If you gave them every dream right now ... they want to give away money to this or that and destroy the country. If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it. Don’t even bother dealing with them,” he added. “We will get it through because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time."

Who do you suppose they're all listening to?

Discovery Corner: Hey, look what we found! From Space.com:

On Wednesday (Sept. 10), researchers presented a study that describes how Perseverance found intriguing minerals on the western edge of Jezero Crater, in the clay-rich, mudstone rocks of a valley called "Neretva Vallis." "When we see features like this in sediment on Earth, these minerals are often the byproduct of microbial metabolisms that are consuming organic matter," Joel Hurowitz, a planetary scientist at Stony Brook University in New York and lead author of the new study, said during a NASA press conference held on Wednesday.

Oh? Do tell.

"I want to remind everyone that what we're describing here is a potential biosignature that is a characteristic element, molecule, substance or feature that might have a biological origin but requires more data or further study before reaching a conclusion about the presence or absence of life," Lindsay Hayes, Senior Scientist for Mars Exploration in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters, said during the conference. Either way, the findings do demonstrate that notably complex reactions once occurred on Mars—organic or not—adding yet more layers to the planet humans have been trying to decode since the dawn of astronomy.

Okay, I'm reminded. Let me just say ... HOLY HELL, LIFE ON MARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, BBC. Is it a good day for dinosaur news? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!

Paleontologists have identified a new species of dinosaur—125 years after its fossil was found.

The team from the University of Bristol used modern digital scanning to reveal more detail on the fossilized jawbone, which was first found in Penarth, South Wales, in 1899 and has been on display at the National Museum of Wales. The fossil consists of natural molds left in limestone rock and students were able to use photo scanning to make a perfect 3D digital reconstruction.

The students say the new information has revealed details that point to Newtonsaurus cambrensis being a large, carnivorous predator that roamed what is now South Wales in the Triassic period. "We can now confirm that this specimen very likely belonged to a large predatory theropod dinosaur, that roamed the shores of South Wales during the latest Triassic," he added. "

I'll be back on Monday to see what fresh hell awaits. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line and wear the damn masks, and take the damn shots, especially the boosters and the New One. In your spare time, spare a thought for the victims of the unspeakable violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and for everyone touched by the mass shootings in Colorado, Minneapolis, NYC and Reno, and everyone recovering from the flooding in Charleston, and in the Roanoke Valley, and in Wisconsin, and in Texas, and in North Carolina, and by earthquakes in Myanmar and Thailand, and in Turkey and Russia, and by the tornadoes throughout the Southeast, and for everyone touched by floods in Kentucky and in West Virginia, and Nigeria, and by the crash in Washington, and by the measles outbreak in the Southwest, and in the wildfire zone around Dallas, and in the fire zones in Napa, and in Las Vegas, Nashville, and Queens, who who were visited by the Crazy before the year had hardly begun, and the folks in Dallas and Tallahassee, who were visited by the Crazy this week. And the people in drought-stricken north Alabama. And the folks caught in floods and tornadoes in Nebraska, and in Missouri. And the folks caught in “historic floods” in Kentucky. And in Oklahoma. And the folks in L.A., now fighting floods and mudslides exacerbated by the recent wildfires. And the folks in the wildfire zones in Pennsylvania, and in Minnesota. And the folks in Lahaina, who are still rebuilding. And the victims of the nightclub collapse in the Dominican Republic. And especially for our fellow citizens in the LGBTQ+ community, who deserve so much better from their country than they’ve been getting. And for all of us, who will be getting exactly what we deserve. Thank you for your attention to this matter.