Yesterday, I received an email that my ballot has been received by the County Clerk’s office. I’ll get another email to confirm it’s been (or will be) counted, but I trust the clerk’s office, so I’m relieved. Full disclosure: As a veteran, I receive lots of free return address labels from veterans’ organizations, and most have patriotic imagery. I don’t use those that much, but I always make sure when I mail my ballot that it has a return address label with a big ol’ flag. I figure any GQP along the way who might be tempted not to deliver it will not be tempted when there’s a big ol’ flag on it. That may be paranoid … but these days …
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
CBS News – Manslaughter conviction of 21-year-old Oklahoma woman who suffered miscarriage sparks outcry
Quote – [W]hile Poolaw’s case has garnered national attention, [National Advocates for Pregnant Women] says that her case is not unusual. The organization says it has documented over 1,600 cases involving the criminalization of pregnancy. More than 1,200 of those cases occurred in the past 15 years. “These cases include pregnant women who have been arrested for falling down stairs, drinking alchol, giving birth at home, being in a ‘dangerous’ location, having HIV, experiencing a drug dependency problem, or attempting suicide,” the organization tweeted. “The majority of women subjected to pregnancy-based prosecutions are low-income women, drug-using women, and women of color.”
Click through for details. I should hope to shoot a brick it would spark outrage. It certainly sparks mine.
Pro Publica – Oath Keepers in the State House: How a Militia Movement Took Root in the Republican Mainstream
Quote – Dozens of Oath Keepers have been arrested in connection to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, some of them looking like a paramilitary group, wearing camo helmets and flak vests. But a list of more than 35,000 members of the Oath Keepers — obtained by an anonymous hacker and shared with ProPublica by the whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets — underscores how the organization is evolving into a force within the Republican Party. ProPublica identified Clampitt and 47 more state and local government officials on the list, all Republicans: 10 sitting state lawmakers; two former state representatives; one current state assembly candidate; a state legislative aide; a city council assistant; county commissioners in Indiana, Arizona and North Carolina; two town aldermen; sheriffs or constables in Montana, Texas and Kentucky; state investigators in Texas and Louisiana; and a New Jersey town’s public works director.
Click through for story. There have been crazies in the Republican Party for decades (and there also used to be people of honor, and I miss them). Now the crazies are organized.. and gaining ground.
HuffPost – New York City Declares Racism A Public Health Crisis
Quote – New York City’s Board of Health listed several specific actions tied to its declaration in a press release. These include working with other agencies to beef up data by reporting deaths, injuries and health conditions by race; pinpointing and amending policies that have contributed to racial health disparities; and plans and budgets on a wide range of matters that affect health like transportation, education, housing and economic opportunities.
Click through. This took a couple of days to reach me and another day to get it posted, but it is so cool – and the best part is that it provides a model for other bodies to act.
Food for Thought –
9 Responses to “Open Thread for October 22, 2021”
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Good/glad that you use your veteran ‘return address’ labels, I do too.
Cartoon: Good !!
CBS: OMG! Unreal ! How sad, and so tragic. Sentenced to 4 years in prison? WTH? Crying shame for Ms. Poolaw, how depressing and sad for her.
HP: Great article. Glad to read post, with NYC being the leader for these actions, and in acknowledging racism for what it is.
Cartoon: oh, ick!
THIS JUST IN: “Waiting for GOP leaders to condemn Trump’s statement on the passing of former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Anyone? ~ George Takei ~
2. “Happy Birthday! Vice President Kamala Harris!” ~ The Democrats ~ A little late, her B.D is 10/20/64.
3. “Mr. Trump’s privilege arguments do, however, appear to reveal one thing: they suggest that President Trump was personally involved in the planning and execution of January 6, and this committee will get the bottom of that.” ~ Rep. Liz Cheney ~
4. 18 hours ago – “Seattle Fire and Police, discharged for noncompliance with the vaccine mandate, turn in their boots at the city hall.” ~Disclose TV~ “They had a choice, they made it.” ~ Reed Galen ~
5. “What you see here are a group of men… who have kind of surrounded President Trump and who have given him this sort of loyalty that President Trump has never given anyone else. We’ve seen him turn on so many different people.” ~ @Yamiche w/@NicolleDWallace ~
6. I’m looking at you, supposed Christians, in your obstinate refusal to wear a mask or get vaccinated or make the smallest of sacrifices to keep people from getting sick and dying—and I’m wondering just what Jesus you’re telling me you follow.” ~ John Pavlovitz ~
TJI #1 – Don’t hold your breath, Mr. Sulu. We need your voice.
TJI #2 – That’s why they make belated birthday cards. I do hope it was happy.
TJI #3 – I know everyone wants to say “of course he was” – but she was the first to point out (out loud) that that is evidence.
TJI #4 – Frantic Qnuts – “What should we do about this?!!?!” Beau – “Give them a nice going-away party.”
TJI #5 – Michael Cohen has talked about how persuasive he can be when he turns on the charm. And we see people who have at least on occasion been reasonable come “underhis spell” (also a term used by Cohen.) Maybe he is a better actor than we give him credit for, But he still turns my stomach.
TJI #6 – Republican Supply-side Jesus, of course. I suspect he knows that but is trying to be kind, or appeal to their reason (as if.)
TJI #1 – Just to provide context, this is what TFG had to say on Gen. Powell’s death:
https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1450455394107727878
WRT the rest, I endorse JD’s observations!
Comment from Mitch –
Paranoid? These Days? No, wise, might be a better adjective.’Toon: Minister Miller, had figured out, by studying his bible, probably thoroughly, like the clown who “knew” that the world was going to end on May 21, 2011, that the world was going to end on 10/22/1844. Well, he recalculated a couple of times after that failed to happen, and, of course, he really had no idea regarding what he was talking about. However, the 7th Day Adventists grew out of his delusions.
CBS: CRAZY! And, of course, the law hurts the poor, and people of color most!
ProPublica: Be afraid! Be very afraid! These clowns are driven, obsessively so, I would guess, and obsessives do not go quietly.
HP: A good start!
FFT: Of Course! POS!
Mitch
Manslaughter conviction of 21-year-old Oklahoma woman who suffered miscarriage sparks outcry
Please … remind me again what country we live in?!?
I mean, WT-ACTUAL-F?
Oath Keepers in the State House: How a Militia Movement Took Root in the Republican Mainstream
If you love America, this is truly very, VERY frightening!
New York City Declares Racism A Public Health Crisis
Certainly that’s true.
But not just limited to NYC, I think Climate Change is a “Public Health Crisis” affecting EVERY person on earth.
CBS: Totally Insane. She had a miscarriage, she didn’t deliberately kill the unborn.
HuffPost: Good for New York. I feel all states should follow suit.
Food for Thought: Kiss off Anti-Vaxxer.
I like the way they notify you when you mail in your ballot; letting you know when it was received and when it’s been counted. As for using the label you receive from the veterans’ organizations, you should be proud using it, for all the years you served for us, Thank you.
Take care. Thanks Joanne
The email service is optional – but anyone can look oneself up on line any time and see just where it is. I am proud of my service, but I feel that the flaghas been sto;e from true Americans. Other organizations (and some vets also) send labels with florals, landscapes, and/or cats (and Native Americans send some with Native American imagery) and those are the ones I tend to use. But not for a ballot. Better safe than sorry.
I’m glad your ballot is in, Joanne. But it reflects rather sadly on the country if you feel you have to embellish the envelope with some vaguely Republican symbols to make sure it gets delivered. I’m glad you did it though because it isn’t paranoid by a long shot.
Cartoon: That Jesus has a habit of not showing, hasn’t he?
CBS:
Not only do these ‘men’ refuse women their right to abortion but they turn every miscarriage into an attempted abortion. That speaks of a cruel, misogynistic male-entitled mindset beyond words. Homebirth is still the norm in The Netherlands, but I can imagine that poor women in America don’t go to a hospital because they can’t afford the bills or simply because they couldn’t reach the hospital in time. Having them investigate their miscarriage when it might well have been a much-wanted pregnancy, is unconscionable. I’m far beyond outraged, but that doesn’t do American women any good.
PP: 48 state and local government officials on the list of arrested rioters are identified as Oath Keepers; how many more were there on Jan. 6 near the Capitol and how many Oath Keepers are working out there as state and local government officials? Oath Keeper should be made a terrorist organisation and membership forbidden. Their members will, of course, then join other such groups, but it’ll be harder to organise an insurrection any time soon.
HP: Excellent idea to start collecting data this way. When handled well, it is the only way to show how systemic racism is and what it does to the population of a city and/or state. Keep Republicans away from the databases, though. They wouldn’t mind meddling with it, just as they tried with ballots. And resist the temptation to connect too much information from different databases and have people lose their privacy.
FFT: To be more precise: it only counts when coming from a Republican male mouth.
Yes, locking them up for manslaughter is even worse than requing them to have funerals, which has also been done. I can see a victim of a miscarriage of a much-wanted pregnancy might want to hold a funeral, or the family migh, or both, and I think it should be permitted (In fact, a friend had exactly that situation many years ago, and ran into multiple snags, which is also cruel). But requiring funerals is an entirely different thing.
I skimmed an article recently about Malleus Maleficarum, and noticed something I hadn’t realized (though probably should have) – that midwives were particularly under suspicion. No words.