Open Thread February 11, 2023

 Posted by at 6:50 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 112023
 

Yesterday, after reading about this development in Jackson County, MS, I decided it was time to resurrect and update a joke I first heard in somewhere around 1967. (If anyone has any fine tuning ideas before I start making it into a meme, I’m listening.) Anyway, it seems a brand new college graduate was trying to figure out how to get ahead the fastest, when he came upon an internet ad for BrainZinc, a company selling brains. So he sent off an email to ask what kind of brains were available, and what price range.
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad Just about any kind of brains. For instance, teachers’ brains are $45.00 a pound.
From: NewGrad To: BrainZinc That sounds reasonable. Do you have small business owners’ brains?
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad Of course. Those run $90.00 a pound.
From: NewGrad To: BrainZinc Golly. Maybe I can afford something even a little better. Do you carry billionaires’ brains?
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad Yes. Those run $10,000.00 an ounce.
From: NewGrad To: BrainZinc Ouch. Are they really that much better?
From: BrainZinc To: NewGrad No, it’s just that we have to put so many billionaires together before we come up with an ounce of brains.

A Black History event – the Theater of War presented on Zoom, and recorded, “The Frederick Douglass Project” and it’s now available on YouTube. The presentation portion comprises Keith David performing a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass at the National Convention of Colored Men in Louisville, Kentucky on September 24, 1883. After that there is community discussion, which can also be very revealing, but I’d call it optional. So don’t get scared off by the length. There is CC.

For anyone who plays cards with real cards, Banana Republic Cards has a satirical deck with TFG as the Joker and featuring 52 useful idiots. there’s a discount code, bananas!elPresidente45theflusherking, good for $5 off per pack up to 3 packs, through Thursday 2/16.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – The Website That Wants You to Kill Yourself—and Won’t Die
Quote – Most websites aren’t known for having a “kill count.” Kiwi Farms is. Its victims reportedly include Julie Terryberry, who in 2016 took her life after being targeted by users of the site. Two years later, after years of harassment from Kiwi Farms trolls, Chloe Sagal lit herself on fire in a public park. In June 2021, an American video game developer based in Japan, named David Ginder, took their life amid a campaign of Kiwi Farms abuse.
Click through for story. The site has been removed from Cloudflare, but it isn’t over.

Civil Discourse – They wanted to take down the power grid. Now they’re facing federal charges.
Quote – There is a long history of domestic terror in this country, much of it centered around white supremacist groups like the KKK that committed acts of violence to preserve what they saw as their way of life. That history includes people like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who wanted to topple the government and set off the Oklahoma City bomb that killed 168 people, including 19 children, injuring several hundred more. It includes Richard Poplawski, a white supremacist with anti-government leanings, who gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh. It includes Eric Robert Rudolph, responsible for three bombings in Atlanta, including one at Olympic Park and others at LGBTQ clubs, as well as one at a Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic that killed an off-duty policy officer. The shooting deaths of nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina. The deadly protest in Charlottesville. And it includes hundreds of others, both familiar names and acts, and lesser-known ones. But the point is, domestic terror is a pervasive problem in modern-day America, and instead of treating each crime as a one-off incident, it’s time to address it systemically, in the same way law enforcement  attacked foreign terror after 9/11.

Click through for details.This may be the end of this incident, but it’s very likely the start of a trend. Beau of the Fifth Column (whose videos appears on our Video Thread – not all of them as he makes three to four a day) is recommending that everyone in the US – literally everyone – prepare for an nearby attack as one would prepare for a natural disaster – evacuation plans, a bag packed in advance, deciding in advance where to evacuate to, etc.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 2/10/2023

 Posted by at 12:07 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 102023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Twitter executives testify at congressional hearing; make Jordan, MTG and others look foolish

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – February 7, 2023

Political Voices Network – Joyce Vance: Trump’s House of Cards Crumbling! New Twist in Navarro’s Trial, & Barr Exposed!

Robert Reich – The Dangerous Reality of Police Traffic Stops

2-Pound Great Dane Puppy Has To Start Walking Before He Gets Too Big

Beau – Let’s talk about the male scale….

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Open Thread February 10, 2023

 Posted by at 7:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 102023
 

Yesterday, I placed and received a grocery order. I had tried to place it the night before, but I couldn’t get the site to take my substitution instructions, and this morning was no better. So I switched stores, and got the order placed (not identical because there are things each carries that the other doesn’t – but close enough.) It had snowed, and it was pretty cold – there was wind, which would blow flakes around, but wasn’t going to help if the snow had gotten heavy by freezing up. Oh well, today and he next few days should be much warmer, and it will be mostly gone for Sunday when I go to see Virgil. Also, if you want to learn more about “the balloon,” other balloons, and what we were able to learn from this one, Heather Cox Richardson has more information that I expect the main stream media to present … since some brain cells are required to digest it all, and the MSM doesn’t generally cater to folks who have those.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Not Just Ginni: John Roberts’ Wife Prompts SCOTUS Ethics Questions
Quote – According to the letter, [Kendal] Price [a co-worker of Mrs. Roberts] was fired in 2013 and sued the firm, as well as Mrs. Roberts and another executive, over his dismissal. He lost the case, but the litigation produced documents that he sent to Congress and the Justice Department, including spreadsheets showing commissions attributed to Mrs. Roberts early in her headhunting career, from 2007 to 2014. Mrs. Roberts, according to a 2015 deposition in the case, said that a significant portion of her practice was devoted to helping senior government lawyers land jobs at law firms and that the candidates’ names were almost never disclosed.
Click through for details, which are not as dramatic as those surrounding the Thomases, but are every bit as unethical.

The Nib – Black and Red
Quote – [W]hen the Bolsheviks took power… America’s northern cities saw themselves transformed by the arrival of the black proletariat…. At least 500,000 black southerners migrated north between 1914 ans 1920.
Click through for graphic article. The title refers to black people and red politics (before the right commandeered the color red.)

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 2/9/2023

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 092023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Prosecutor Mark Pomerantz pursued racketeering indictment of Donald Trump, DA Alvin Bragg said “no.”

Meidas Touch – MAGA Governor UNLEASHES HELL on Her Own State as it CRUMBLES (did anyone listen to her response to the State of the Union address? I couldn’t. I was actually pretty wrung out after the SOTU.)

Politics Girl – To My Fellow White Americans… (I don’t know why she soometimes posts twice – I’ve been reposting the newer one.)

Liberal Redneck – State of the State of the Union

Guy Who Only Liked Dogs Cat-sits For The First Time

Beau – Let’s talk about the 5th Circuit Ruling….

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Open Thread February 9, 2023

 Posted by at 7:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 092023
 

Yesterday, of course, I received many emails including or linking to post mortems on the State of the Union address. Just about all of the ones I saw were highly of favorable. Robert Reich’s was reserved for paid subscribers, and in advance of the address he had expressed a wish to hear something which Joe did not say, so I’ll be looking for a more public message from him. I picked the one from the New Yorker, not because it was necessarily the most insightful, but because it speaks from an unusual angle. See what you think. The weather prediction was for snow last night – not a long storm but fairly heavy while it lasted. We shall see.  (I did manage to get trash and recyclables to the curb, BTW.)

Cartoon – 09 Quincy RTL

Short Takes –

Democratic Underground (True Dough) – Tricks that Cops use
Quote – I have been taught to yell “stop resisting” and “drop your weapon” after firing a gun, because bystanders will remember you said it and their memory will automatically reverse the order of these events to make it make sense. Their tstimony will support yours, because of this.
Click through for thread. Yes, it’s a Twitter thread, but it has been posted as screen shots, not as an embed, so no one should have any difficulty seeing it, and it’s extremely revealing. As are many of the comments.

The New Yorker – Joe Biden, Once Again, Lucks Out with His Enemies
Quote – Biden, it seemed, had carefully prepared for their antics. Had he scripted their reaction, he could not have asked for a better foil than Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former QAnon promoter who flirts with white supremacy. Greene arrived for the State of the Union dressed for the TV cameras in an all-white fur-trimmed outfit that made her seem like a villain in a Disney movie. “Liar!” she stood and shouted at Biden, after he accused some members of her party of wanting to “sunset” Medicare and Social Security in the name of fiscal discipline. Unfazed, Biden challenged her and the others who were jeering him to prove that Republicans did not actually support such a thing. When they then rose to their feet to applaud, alongside Democrats, his pledge not to cut either Medicare or Social Security, Biden claimed it as a victory for the bipartisan dealmaking that he wants to be remembered for. “We got unanimity!” he exulted.
Click thrugh for full opinion. Of course, speech writers are largely responsible for the wroding of any Presidental address. But there was a good deal which was unscripted in theis one. For some of them, alternatives may have been pre-planned depending on the audience. But not for all. We have a President who can think on his feet under pressure.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 2/8/2023

 Posted by at 11:54 am  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 082023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Chinese spy balloons, Jim Jordan, and the debasement of the House & Senate Judiciary Committees

The Lincoln Project – Built Back Better

Farron Balanced – Trump Threatens To Help Democrats If Republican Voters Reject Him

Armageddon Update – Book Banning

Bearded Dragon Comes Running When His Mom Calls Him

Beau – Let’s talk about a laptop and a change of strategy….

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Open Thread February 8, 2023

 Posted by at 6:55 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 082023
 

Yesterday, President Biden delivered the 2023 State of the Union address. For the first time, the mother of a black person shot and killed by police was present. Today the 19th has the story. Until I can get the link up, here’s the link to the back story. In case it takes me too long, here’s the link to The 19th front page, where it will surely be included.  I did watch the speech live.  I was a little surprised at how wek=ll the Republicans behaved – not 100% courteous, but at least they didn’t riot or do anything physical.  There were certainly some very touching stories.  Joe of course was 100% polite.  I thought he did well at hitting his accomplishments.  I hope it sinks in.  I didn’t hang around the the Republican response.  I was abit wrung out by the speech, plus I had a pretty good idea what she was going to say.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Hunter Biden Goes On Offense, Demands Rudy Get ‘Laptop’ Probe
Quote – Among the letters, which were obtained by NBC News, was one sent … asking the Justice Department’s National Security Division for an investigation into “individuals for whom there is considerable reason to believe violated various federal laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data,” including Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump’s lawyer at the time.
Click through for story. C&L basically says “It’s about time.” I would suggest that the action coming now was prompted by the fact that the House is now in a position to take action, as opposed to just spreading disinformation, so now it’s necessary. And I might add, just think how strong a person has to be to ignore all that crap for so long.

The New Yorker – Sending Help Instead of the Police in Albuquerque
Quote – In the southeastern corner of Albuquerque, near a wide mountain pass that opens onto an expanse of arid high plains, Sean Martin and Isaiah Curtis drove toward a Blake’s Lotaburger, a regional fast-food chain. Behavioral-health workers with Albuquerque Community Safety, a new city department, they respond to calls, mostly from 911, about nonviolent crises involving mental health, homelessness, or substance use. A.C.S. responders are trained to connect people from some of the city’s most vulnerable populations with professional help. In doing so, they also reduce those residents’ interactions with local law-enforcement agencies, which in recent years have had the second-highest fatal-shooting rate among major American cities.
Click through for details. THIS is the kind of police reform – defunding if you will, but actually reallocation of funding – that we have been agitating for. It’s been a pleasure watching New Mexico turn bluer after having Susanna Martinez for Governor (sort of like having Jeanine Pirro for Governor.) There are steps back of course, but the trend is positive.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 2/7/2023

 Posted by at 12:18 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Feb 072023
 

Glenn Kirschner – House Republicans FINALLY focus on what’s important to ordinary Americans – Hunter Biden’s laptop?! (I’ve seen the suggestion that it tells us they are trying to get Hunter to suicide. Let that sink in/))

NBC News – U.S.-China situation isn’t ‘1:1 comparison’ with last Cold War: Buttigieg

Twitter (shared by PoliticsGirl) White Comfort

Farron Balanced – Republicans In Congress Swap Out Flag Lapel Pins For AR 15 Pins

Cat Does The Funniest Thing When His Parents Get Him A New Brother

Beau – Let’s talk about legislation in Massachusetts and ethics….

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