Lawful Disobedience

 It is not only permissible to disobey an unlawful order, it is your duty.  I believe that precedent was established at the Nurnberg War Crimes Trials, if not sooner.  The sticky part is, how do you know whether or not an order is unlawful?  The rule of thumb is, when in doubt, obey the order under protest and report it to a higher authority.  The exception is, if obeying the order would result in death or bodily harm to an obviously innocent person.  Then you can disobey the order outright but realize that you might have to prove your case in a court of law later.  

Okay, that's the theory, but it seldom works that way in real life.  What usually happens is both the person issuing the unlawful order and the person obeying it keep their mouths shut and try cover for each other if somebody makes a fuss about it later.  Personally, I prefer the theoretical approach, which is why I never achieved greatness in the military or corporate world.  That's okay, I never went to jail either.  Not everybody can say that.

I don't know what to think about gerrymandering.  Michigan changed their system to where a bi-partisan committee of carefully selected volunteers draws up the map instead of the legislature.  At least one lawsuit was filed by two previously Black districts who lost their dominance in the process.  I never heard how that came out.  Last I heard, the committee members were saying that they couldn't be sued because the committee no longer exists, having disbanded itself after its work was completed.  

As for Trump, we have already agreed that he is an asshole, so there's not much I can add on that subject.

burning issues

 University of Illinois is a land grant college and because of that all freshmen coming in had to take two years of ROTC.

I did not like it.  Shining shoes, polishing brass, marching.  Mostly I did not like saluting.  If you passed an officer and you were in uniform you had to salute them.  If you were looking off the other way and didn't see him they generally let it pass.  But one time some clown that I had been looking the other way on a few times called me out on it.  Chewed me out a bit.  Fucker.  I changed my route so that I never passed him again but still.  Fucker.

Anyway in the early days of the blog Beagles and I frequently debated the Vietnam war and I was going on about My Lai or something about being ordered to shoot people and Beagles said you didn't have to obey an unlawful order.

What?  I had never heard of that.  I admit that I was a little skeptical, like is Sarge going to let you get away with that, but Beagles said if he didn't like it you could appeal it all the way up.

Well I was still skeptical but just the fact that there was such a rule and that rank and file enlisted men were told about it impressed me quite a bit.

And now we have had a group of vets making a statement to our soldiers that they do not have to obey an unlawful order.

And the prez is saying that it's treason and reminding us that death is the penalty for treason, and his toadies are all lining up to back him up on his bold threat.

Fuckers.

So did you hear that the Texas gerrymander was given the thumbs down by the judiciary?  

Okay every state gerrymanders, some more, some less.  We have a census every ten years and then according to that data new districts are mapped out.  Of course most states cheat but that is the rules.

But at Trump's behest Texas did it at the halfway mark.  Dirty pool.  In response California has voted to join in the dirty pooling, you know, to make things nice and even like.

But now Texas' map has been thrown out.  So will California drop their remap.  Not bloody likely.  Well you know that would be complicated because a lot of changes will have to be made and that will cost money and maybe be unconstitutional and time is short and they may not be able to make the change before the election and because those Republican fuckers have been punching below the belt for a long time and it's time they got a taste of their own medicine.

But should California drop their map.  Absolutely.  One man, one vote is like basic Man.  Gerrymandering fucks with that, makes it so that the votes of the many are meaningless and discourages people from taking part in the democracy.

If it were up to me I am a little sorry to admit that I would let the California remap stay, because well I know if that if the shoe was on the other foot the Republican's would go all in for gerrymandering.

But that's me.  I admit I am pretty partisan.  But how do the American people feel about this?

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/21/poll-redistricting-partisan-gerrymandering-midterms-00663612

A majority of Americans support partisan map-drawing

Percentage of Americans who support redrawing congressional districts to neutralize the other party — and those who support doing so to gain a midterm advantage.

A stacked bar chart showing the percentage of Americans in both parties who support redrawing congressional districts to neutralize the other party — 68% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans — and the percent who support doing so to also gain an advantage in midterms — 54% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans.

Neutralize other party

answer

Support or strongly support

Oppose or strongly oppose

No position

Democrats

68%

6%

27%

Republicans

57%

10%

33%

Gain advantage in midterms

answer

Support or strongly support

Oppose or strongly oppose

No position

Democrats

54%

10%

36%

Republicans

52%

12%

                       35%

So what do you think about that?

Weather or not

Shitty summer, indeed; I don't envy you guys.  I'm a pretty regular guy most of the time but I seem to be more sensitive to certain foods, just got to keep an eye on things.  Had a visit from a nurse practitioner recently, courtesy of the health insurance provider, and things were fine.  I think it's more to check up on us geezers to make sure we still have our marbles, don't have any mobility issues, and to answer any questions we may have.  So far so good, but I sometimes get bamboozled by all the health information available these days, some of which is useful, but not much.  Consider the source, I say.  Everybody is selling something, it seems, and thank Zeus for ad blockers.

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There's a lot to be said about our current socio-political reality but I ain't gonna say it.  I'm not saying that I don't trust the bots, AIs, or algorithms but I don't want to be flagged because of certain words taken out of context.  It's like that old joke about a guy seeing an old friend on an airplane and he yells, "Hi, Jack!"  Maybe more on this, later.