Personal – Page 8 – Politics Plus

Open Thread September 21 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 212024

Yesterday, I was still working on organizing, but more on computers than IRL. That is less tiring physicall, but possib,ly even more time consuming, though of course it should save me time in the long run. I do keep swithching from one task to another so that each task can also be a break from the previous task, which helps keep me sane (at least as sane as I can be.)

I saved this story for the weekend. It’s not a typical good news story, but it is about living one’s life in one’s own way, about friendship and love, about grieving, anout a (now international) item called a “wind phone,” and more. (When you get to the point where you see the name “Kora” you may want to grab a hanky.) What an amazing woman Nancy Brockman was! (I also love Silverton, BTW.)

This is also a nice story for a weekend. We just need to not be overconfident about it, or about any other good nesws.

This HuffPo article explains universal medicare as an insurance agent should (but may not.) Some people have a mindset that insurance is a bad investment if you never get any money back from it. The truth is that in order to never get any money back from an auto or home policy over time, and given enough time, what it means is that you are incredibly lucky never to have had a loss. Good luck should be worth something. That, and the fasct that the bigger the pool is, the more fair it iis to everyone. I would much rather get no monetary return from my insurance then get lots of money with expensive and painful claims. But I’m pretty sure that thinking will not convince Republicans – not even the old fashioned kind.

Open Thread September 20 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 202024

Yesterday, I received a link to a printable flyer (3-page pdf) on Project 2025. It’s in plain English, and organizes the information by groups who will be most adversely affected, explaining how. (I am in all three of the top three groups, as I have realized for some time.) It could come in handy. I also received an email from my junior Senator (Hickenlooper) – of course it was just a newsletter, but for a newsletter it was very personal indeed. I had not known that the Senator an his wife could not have had their son Jack without IVF. Funny how much more real it becomes when it’s someone you know, even if you haven’t even met them face to face. (Apologies for the name of the newsletter. Hick, a Denver businessman, has always fancied himself as a cowboy.) Of course the last thing that would occur to Republicans (at least the crazy ones) is that getting rid of vaccinations for childhood diseases is only going to lower the birth rate when those unvaccinated kids grow up, and the nation will be even more dependent on immigrants than it is now.

I did see this poll, and it did upset me, and yet I’m not sure that it really sank in until I read Steve Schmidt‘s take on it. He’s right. It’s devastating.

The lead article is the one I am posting this link for. But feel free to read anything else below which catches your eye.

Open Thread September 19 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 192024

Ahoy, me hearties (today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.) Yesterday, I deliberately went looking for climate news becuse I wantedto use tis cartoon today. I realize that sounds pretty shallow. But it is true that the climate is getting pushed out of the news in favor of violence and other stupidities. And not finding any climate-related news in my ususal sources made me more aware that more attention needs to be paid to it. It’s enough to make a pirate say Aaarrrgh! And I may do it again before the election, though that’s not a promise.

The AP could not resist putting a few beautiful photos in among the more obviously disastrous ones in this photo-essay. But it’s still quite eye-opening. Something else that is eye-opening is that herein Colorado we are starting to have climate refugees who have been our neighbors. At 5000 feet ablove sea level, it’s not from sea level rise, nor is it from flooding, or heavy snowfall (which quite reasonably might happen here, as evaporation puts more water into the air. The last two blizzards here were IMO caused by that.) It is related to dryness though. There’s a fire in Larimer County (where Virgil grew up) which has taken a lot of homes and displaced a lot of people. Our wildfire seasons are not as bad as California’s yet, but we are headed that way.

And Reuters has a potpourri of snippet articles, some of which are as devastating as some of the pictures from the AP. Fortunately that’s not true of all of them.

Open Thread September 18 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 182024

Yesterday, Reading about all the crap that’s happening in Springfield, OH, it struck me that Republicans, at least MAGAts, don’t seem to have a lot of faith in their own candidates. If they actually had faith in Trump**, they would believe that if elected he would deport or murder any immigrants who are “eating pets: – maybe even citizens who are “eating pets.” But they apparently don’t. They apparently think they must take the bloodshed into their own tiny hands. So they can’t really have as much faith in Trump** as they think they do.

I really don’t know what to say about this. of course, concerning Trump**, the first question should always be, “Is it even a thing or just fantasy?” That said, even if it’s a thing, even if it makes any money, how long is he going to live to appreciate it? Ron Filikowski thinks it’s actually a Junior and Eric venture using Daddy’s name – well, maybe. Makes the most sense I have seen so far.

I get the morning newsletter from Talking Points Memo, but thatt’s all, so I often don’t see what else they have to offer. This was cited by Robert Hubbell. Of course it was Trump** who “started the fire.” But I serously doubt that “everyone knows it.” Republicans have been promoting that label that violence comes from the left, and olicing as if that were actually true, for my entire lifetime. A bit of truth is not going to wipe that out, no matter how obvious it has become, and no matter how much we wish it would.

Open Thread September 17 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 172024

Yesterday, I was still tidying up. I have been known to make the same mstake twice, but hopefully not in a two-day period, so this should be on time. Also, the New Mexico Political Report announced a week starting today of articles discussing exactly what impact Project 2025 would have in New Mexico specifically. I realize that probably none of us live in New Mexico, but even if your state has zip in common with it, seeing it applied to a particular state could get us thinking about how it would apply to our own. I’m providing a link to the introduction, which has more details. While there , I went to the home page by clicking on the logo in the upper left, and saw two stories already on how Project 2025 will affect the climate in New Mexico. The New Mexico Political Report is (or used to be and I hope still is) a creative commons site, which means that as long as you follow their rules, you can repost complete articles and not violate copyright. And then there’s this (watch the embed here – don’t go to YouTube – it is censoring VoteVets

TomCat referred to the Reichstag fire often, as I’m sure everyone recalls. The first “assissination attempt” may have been actually an intended attempt, but I still do not believe it as a bullet which caused his ear to bleed (my vote goes to shattered glass “shrapnel.”) But this really does look ridiculous to anyone with a functioning brain. Not that that precludes it from being very dangerous, as Rober Reich has also remarked.

This is a report from the Project on Government Oversight on what happens in one state – Texas – when the Census is not conducted to count every head. NOte that Texas deliberately conducted the 2020 Census so as to undercount its population. WEll, it cost them a lot of money to do that. Not that they care about that. Red states are states which turn down Federal money even if the count is correct.

Belle 18 mos

Cat

Open Thread September 16 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 2:28 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 162024

Yesterday was the first day of National Hispanic Heritage month. It will run through October 15. Also yestrday, I got so involved in cleaning up my work area that I forgot to pre-post this. Don’t worry, I’m fine – and I’m also making progres though i may be the only one who can really see it.

My district tried running a trans woman candidate a few elections ago … I suppose it was worth a try, after we failed twice to elect a moderate Dem white male veteran, but I never expected it to succeed, and it didn’t. It looks like Delaware has a much better chance of succeeding, and I hope it does.

Robert Reich apologizes for quoting Karl Rove. But I’d say no apology is needed. I felt no need to apologize for sharing quotes from Liz and later from Dick Cheney when they endorsed Harris. This article isn’t quite that good, but it’s good to know this is what he thinks.

Open Thread September 15 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:05 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 152024

Yesterday,as I mentioned, the opera was a double bill of “Highway 1 USA” by William Geant Still and “The Dwarf” by Alexander Zelinsky. The former is a sad (though it ends well) story of a married couple who have already sacrificed much to send the husband’s younger brother through college, to fulfill the promise he made to his dying mother. The kid has grown up to be a narcissist. He attempts to seduce the wife without success, and in a rage stabs her (not fatally, but everyone thinks so for a while, because she loses consciousness). And then it gets interesting. The younger brother will no longer be in their household. “The Dwarf” also includes a failed seduction attempt and it apparently is semi-autographical = Zemlinsky was one of the “Practically all the top creative talent in central Europe” (to quote Tom Lehrer) who fell in love with Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel. She did not return his feelings and must have been pretty blunt. The literary basis for the libretto was “The Birthday of the Infanta” by Oscar Wilde, who must have been thinking of the painting “Las Meninas” by Velasquez, because all the characters from it are in the opera.

The trial of the man who shot up the King Soopers in Boulder, CO is bring put all kinds of stories of how people react in situations like that. It will probably not surprise you that many, maybe most, are very unlike the police force of Uvalde, TX.

I’m not 100% sure that cruelty is the point is this behavior, but I am 100% sure that Republicans don’t give a flying continental whether it is cruel or not – as long as it riles up the base and wins elections. If it stops winning electins, they might change their tactics – or they might not. But it it doesn’t stop winning electins, they’ll only whip it harder. I do know this has been discussed here, but I also feel the Wonkette take is worthy.

Belle shutdown

Cat

Open Thread September 14 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:45 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 142024

The night before last, a wild hair got me strted clearing ut one of my desk drawers. This lead to my starting yesterday clearing off my desk. I actually made a lot of progress, but it was time consuming. And I also made enough time to look up the one of today’s double bill of short radio operas which is by William Grant Still (it should be very intense.) BTW the other opera on the double bill is “The Dwarf” by Alexander Zemlinsky, also from the 20th century. Anyway, I hope you’ll be kind to any typos today. Oh, I almos00t forgot to say, I did bake a another batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and they came out remarkably well. Thank you, Nameless for the tip.

Also, yesterday being Friday, Robert Reich‘s new series got another entry – which he is calling #2 and #2-1/2/

This is a long article about the Tina Peters case. It’s an interview with the DA who tried the case, and the interviewer asked a lot of very good questions which might not have occurred to most people and elicited some answers that were not exactly obvious. If you don’t have time for ir, that’s fine. The people who really should be reading it are mostly election workers, whether elected or appointed.

Yes, It does need to be noted. Thanks, Lincoln Project, and particularly Trygve Olson for pointing it out.

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