For those worn out by politics, you might want to check out the G.I. Joe videogame developer blog (yes, there will be Stormshadow. Yes, there will be the collectible file cards. Yes, there will be Public Service Announcements…wha?).
Once you’ve done that, listen to Neil Gaiman read The Graveyard Book in its entirety. Newbery!
You may have seen that our politicians don’t always agree.
The legislature of Arizona approved a budget June 4. We can start planning for the school year, right? Not yet.
We have three branches of government (checks and balances still rock, even if we don’t wear powdered wigs anymore).
The legislature is holding onto the budget. It’s like a game of keep away, where they keep looking like they’re going to give the paper to her, and then they pull it back quickly.
It’s actually more like a game of chicken. We’re waiting to see who’s going to be responsible for shutting down parts of Arizona government. Who will flinch?
Who will have the stinky hot potato budget in their hands when the June 30 Catch Phrase buzzer goes off?
One branch of government is suing another branch of government and asking the remaining branch of government to mediate.
“I’m not speaking to you. Judicial Branch, will you tell Legislative Branch to give me the budget?”
“Judicial, you tell Executive that we can do what we want. I’m going to hold my breath until she says that she loves me.”
I think we may have a possible cause for low voter turn-out. There’s an attitude that politicians follow their own interests and not the interests of the people of the Republic – that the population doesn’t feel represented/that their vote affects policy. Intriguing…
And then we see goofy school districts doing stuff like this. I feel like mentioning that not all of us subscribe to the rubber room philosophy.
While I was looking up the details about the Arizona Supreme Court, seeing if I could find anything in the Supreme Court online records about the budget case…imagine my surprise at what I stumbled across.
The Public Access Case Lookup.
I searched myself and thankfully none of the atrocities committed under the Booyor banner were listed, but one guy who shares my first and last (but not middle) name should probably lay off the alcohol – forever.
Look up your name. Tons of fun for the whole family. Gotta love public access court documents provided by our government.
I know that we’ve been very focused on the Iranian elections (which I’m glad that crimes normally ignored are being brought to light) but I find it interesting that people haven’t been intrigued by what’s going on with North Korea, Myanmar, and China.
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A cargo ship, the Kang Nam, is heading to Yangon, Myanmar but may have to refuel at Shanghai.
Here are the complications: there’s a U.S. destroyer (the USS John McCain, ironically enough) following the ship to see if it has illegal cargo. After North Korea tested nuclear weapons and launched a missile in May, the UN has sanctioned North Korea from shipping nuclear weapons-type stuff. If they have that junk, the ship is to be redirected to a port of Pyongyang’s (North Korea version of Washington, D.C.) choosing to be searched.
North Korea has been saying that this would be an act of war.
We’ll see what happens with the port authority of Shanghai. I wonder if North Korea’s testing the sanctions like a one year-old tests if you’ll make them finish lunch (not like I have any experience, right?) or if they’re just waiting for the U.S. destroyer to slip up.
I should be careful with my comparisons to big news events with immature acts. I don’t want to pull a Hoekstra. He posted an exaggeration on Twitter:
Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.
and an entire site was born:
