Yesterday I was pretty well behind with everything. I did learn that Mitch got back from his trip safely, but he now cannot get in to PP. So it may be a while before we hear from him. But he’s fine. Does anyone else here know anything about Apple/Mac systems and Safari? If so, would you consider allowing me to send your email to Mitch? If you aren’t getting my emails weekly, the “Contact me” link under “Other Links” on the bottom right, second to last section, above “WordPress.org links, now comes to me. If your email client is not set to pop up, right-click on it, select “copy email address,” and then paste it into your address line. I don’t swear that will work in every browser, but hopefully it will. If it doesn’t, you could leae a comment and let me know it’s OK – you don’t have to put your address in the comment, as WordPress will record your email in a place that only Administrators can see.
Cartoon –
There’s a typo in it – it was 11 seconds, not 0.11.
Short Takes –
Democratic Underground – Mary Trump: the most cogent description ever of our current peril as a democracy
Quote – McConnell is the greatest traitor to this country since Robert E. Lee (with the difference that McConnell has been trying to take our country down from within). He has always been expert at using existing rules and procedures in ways they weren’t intended to be used, and yet—whether it was denying Merrick Garland a hearing, pushing through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation, or ending the filibuster as it applied to Supreme Court nominees but employing it to block legislation that would expand voting rights—his anti-democratic maneuvers have been performed within the bounds of the system.
Click through for the rest, and then, if you like, click through again to the meta-source.
PolitiZoom – WATCH: COVID ‘Shedding’ Theory Is More Deranged Than You Can Possibly Imagine
Quote – It is astonishing to me that as a species we have done remarkable things like send mankind into outer space. We’ve built technological marvels. We’ve extended life expectancy and the quality of life with surgical procedures and medicinal interventions of one kind or another. We’ve invented communication devices and transportation that were beyond imagining a century ago. Yet despite all that, there are people who listen to this level of ignorant witchcraft fear mongering and believe it to be true. “Don’t go near the vaccinated. They’ll contaminate you. They’ll shed on you.” Shed how? Hair, skin, cooties? Frankly, I’d rather listen to tales of witchcraft and sorcery than this non-intellectual make believe hooey.
Click through for story. I could go on quite a rant here, but I’ll restrain myself.
Washington Examiner – Rachel Maddow reports sign of life in Georgia criminal investigation of Trump 2020 election efforts
Quote – Prosecutors began the investigation in February, following Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked the official to “find” the 11,780 votes sufficient to reverse his loss. Maddow told her audience on Friday that she had an “exclusive” with new information regarding a top official at the Justice Department that will help the process move forward.
Click through for story, and then through again to Maddow Blog if you like.
Food for Thought –
13 Responses to “Open Thread for August 16, 2021”
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Cartoon: One for the team.
DU: Excellent comments and summation, from Ms. Trump. I enjoy listening/reading from her.
PZ: Good grief. This is why I don’t/can’t/won’t listen to these ‘out of focus’ folks.
WE: Love Rachel. Thank the Lord that this is getting traction and on-going investigation re: the TOT. He’s as evil as can be, throw in his cronies to the pit too.
FFT: Pretty much every.single.day. ugh!
I hope that MM gets his computer fixed (resolved). He asked me in a message, and I couldn’t help him, sadly.
Hope that he gets it fixed though. Good Luck, Mitch.
This just in: TJI – “In recent days, Republicans have taunted Democrats over Andrew Cuomo, and accused them of hypocrisy, and engaged in much Trump-related whataboutism. Thing is, Dems called for Cuomo to resign.And he did. Republicans never called on Trump to resign. And he didn’t. ~ Mehdi Hasan ~
2. “Broward Co. School Board votes 8-1 to keep mask mandate, defying DeSantis’ order.” ~ Scott Dworkin ~
3. “Telling me you are proudly unvaccinated is like telling me you’re a drunk driver. You’re not a patriot. You’re not a freedom fighter. You’re a menace.” ~ George Takei ~
4. “What a pleasure to have a President who actually knows how to govern.” ~ Rob Reiner ~
5. “As Kubul falls and the evacuation occurs, this is so reminiscent of the fall of Saigon in 1975. May all our troops, civilians and allies get out safely. Prayers for the Afghan people too.” ~ Jeanie M. ~
TJI #1 – NO ONE does Double Standard like Rethuglicans do. They’re in a league of their own!
TJI #2 – Good for them!
TJI #5 – Let’s be honest – Biden botched this withdrawal.
Monday Morning Quarterbacking is always easy, and he was boxed in by TFG’s terrible deal w/ the Taliban and the date he set. But if Biden was going to extend it, he should have pushed it till winter, rather than pick the artificial of 8/31 so as to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The war in Afghan has always been seasonal, and it would have significantly slowed the Taliban’s progress to wait till winter.
And there could have been much better planning. True, 70% of Americans wanted us to withdraw (even a majority of Rethuglicans) – but not like this.
While this will be a black mark on Biden’s presidency, one good thing is that elections are very rarely decided by foreign issues – and it’s over a year away.
You have some points. I appreciate that he did give consideration to our translators and their families and is working to get them out. And I do feel (I’m not a veteran of that war, but I have listened to some) that any time we left, after the first year, the Taliban would have been back in power ina New York minute For a short period we had them in disarray, but they used their time wisely and reorganized promptly
TJI #1: I’m terribly worried about a good friend of our Care2 time, Mostapha Zaher, who lives in Kabul with his family and with whom I’ve kept in contact with until recently. The take-over of Kabul by the Taliban has happened so quickly that I didn’t get the chance to inquire how he was and now I don’t dare to do so out of fear of endangering him. If there is still e-mail possible, of course. What to do?
Lona, I know prayer is not how you communicate with the universe. But I will be praying for Motapha, and urge those of us who do to join me … and those who don’t to engage in, as TC used to say, “however you communicate with thte universe.”
I suggested that if Mitch is a Mac person, he might try a different browser – like Chrome or FireFox.
My “Contact Me” location is on the left-side. But here is what it looks like:
Mary Trump: the most cogent description ever of our current peril as a democracy
Not sure why the link goes to the middle of the Comment section, but here’s a link to the article itself:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215737120
And I have to disagree w/ Mary Trump – I think the greatest traitor to our country since Robert E. Lee is her UNCLE: TFG.
COVID ‘Shedding’ Theory Is More Deranged Than You Can Possibly Imagine
Out of all the things that never happened, this never happened the most!
(Who ARE these people?)
Rachel Maddow reports sign of life in Georgia criminal investigation of Trump 2020 election efforts
The “Washington Examiner” is very right-wing – but every one in a while they find the truth.
PERSONAL NOTE:
Yesterday I spent three hours emptying out my fridge. Based on the 25# of Hill’s cat food I get from Chewy, I’m sure I threw out over 75# of food. I will say, some of it DESERVED to be pitched. One of those hours was devoted to giving it a thorough cleaning – and it needed it, even before the thaw!
I have two boxes of goods left – one that is definitely good, and one that is on the iffy side. Like I have a relatively new (but opened) jar of Claussen pickles that I love. On the one hand they’re even in the refrigerator section of the grocery store to begin with; but on the other, it’s a PICKLE in a brine.
I hope to line someone up to come this week. I use Angie’s List (which is now free) and have had good luck with it.
Obviously I am perfectly capable of looking left and saying (or typing) right. D’oh. Thanks for the correction.
Yes, there’s a case for Trump**, but I think she is comparing strategy rather than individual, and we all know Trump** could not grasp a strategy if it bit him in the butt. The link to the comment section was my fault. Clearly I was not only running late all day but also distracted.
Thanks Joanne and Nameless and Pat for rising to the occasion for trying to help Mitch. Thanks Joanne for Mary Trump’s bottom line understanding of her uncle and related consequences.
Perhaps Earth Science shouldn’t be the first HS science class–maybe it should be a biological science that supports the Health Education requirement, etc. so People at least get exposure after middle school to biological science even if they aren’t college bound–harder to swallow shedding if it landed on a foundation of knowledge.
Rachel’s news adds another glimmer of hope–still think there should be office pools, like football pools, for which case leads to the first criminal indictment or arrest of DT.
And perhaps a second pool for whether Fox gets rid of Laura or Tucker first.
Cartoon: Well done, Usain Bolt!
DU: Appreciate Mary Trump’s honest opinion about mItch the bi*ch and his evil ways of screwing the people/country with his constant “nay” votes against important/urgent matters. I too feel that her uncle is the number 1 traitor.
PolitiZoom: Insane.. where the heck are they getting their crazy thoughts?
W.E.: Love listening to Rachel regarding finding out that they’re going to do more investigating of tRump. Hopefully they’ll come up with enough dirt to lock the sucker up for life.
Food for Thought: Glad I never got into watching faux news. All they speak is fake news.
Sorry to hear about Mitch having problems with logging on. I’ve never own or used an Apple/Mac computer, hopefully with everyone giving him suggestions he’ll be able to be back on tomorrow.
Hope you’ve had a nice day.
Take care. Thanks Joanne
Yesterday, I was so late back from doing shopping/running errands that it was too late to comment. Today it was the (announced) blackout most of the day, that will keep me from doing much in that respect. But rest assured I read every article and watch every video, Joanne.
Cartoon: I don’t understand the added typo remark, Joanne. Bolt set the 100m dash world record in 2008 to 9.69 seconds and then shaved off 0.11 seconds of his own record in 2009 to 9.58 seconds, which is still the world record today. An amazing feat since new measuring technology saw increasingly smaller margins broken for new world records.
DU: As a psychotherapist and relative familiar with the family history, Mary’s history/analysis of her uncle Donald were quite insightful, though not exclusive enough to warrant buying a copy of her book. Now she has expanded into political analysis for which she shows an aptitude to edit what others already have said/written into easy-consumable soundbites. She really has the knack to combine things in a convincing and eloquent paragraph.
PZ: Try to see the positive side of this utterly ridiculous ‘shedding’ myth (please never give it any status by calling it a theory). If it keeps the unvaxed away from the vaccinated, this is a bonus for the latter as no vaccination can give you 100% protection, especially not against new, more virulent strains.
WA: Thanks and keep us posted, Rachel.
FFT: You mean Ingraham and Carlson both died during the weekend?
Monday was crazy and I made numerous mistakes. You can see several of them here. Hopefully I will do better.
Dearest Joanne, at no time do I want to criticize your efforts, grateful for all the work you do here. What you call mistakes are little prods for me to read again and go and look for what I’ve missed. It is always a point of learning for me as I have to delve deeper into the matter.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be so pedantic about it which makes it look like I’m correcting your mistakes. Which isn’t my intention, only to share something I’ve learned from that myself. As I’m always the last one to enter a comment, sharing with anyone else but you may not really be the case. So please ignore my remarks or rather see them as a “thank you” for your efforts.
It certainly wasn’t just you, or just that error. And it wasn’t just here, either – one or two of my emails rose to the level of gibberish. It was just – some days are like that. Honestly, I welcome constructive criticism, and have never seen any other kind from anyone at PP. I’m the one who should learn to respond more graciously.