Video Thread 12/11/22

 Posted by at 11:59 am  Open Thread, Politics
Dec 112022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Federal judge REFUSES to hold Trump and his team in contempt. Here’s why the judge was right

The Lincoln Project – Gold Medal Ceremony

Ring of Fire – A Fight Is Brewing Between House And Senate Republicans Over Biden Impeachment

Brent Terhune – They’re Trying To Distract Us

Woman Finds Stray Mama Cat And Kittens Outside Her Office

Beau – Let’s talk about running the country like a business…. (I’ve been saying this for decades, but not NEARLY so well. And notice how the Socratic method really brings this home.)

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Open Thread December 11, 2022

 Posted by at 7:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 112022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera – from the Met – was “The Hours,” by Kevin Puts, which premiered this season, prior to today (so this is a premier production rather than a premier.) It’s based on a book by Michael Cunningham which was also made into a movie. The Met’s webside was down, apparently having suffered a DDOS, so there’s little information available about the actual opera, but it was suggested to Puts by soprano Renée Fleming, and the three leads were cast before he stated writing, so there is some writing for the voices. Renée Fleming, who plays the most recent character, may be familiar to many people outside opera lovers, particularly to veterans – does anyone remember a few years ago when a severely wounded veteran sang at the annual Memorial Day concert with his voice coach, Renée Fleming, who had been a huge part of his rehabilitation program? Virginia Wolfe is played/sung by Joyce DiDonato, one of those few mezzo-sopranos who can out-soprano many sopranos (need I say she is one of my favorite singers.) She has done a fair amount of a somewhat different kind of rehabilitative work, in prisons. Kelli O’Hara comes to opera from Broadway (her first role was with Fleming in “The Merry Widow” at the Met.) The premise of “The Hours” is that, in different time periods, Woolf is writing “Mrs. Dalloway” in the 1920s, another woman in the 1950s is reading “Mrs. Dalloway,” and in the 2000s a third woman is somehow an incarnation of Mrs. Dalloway. Puts is not the only contemporary composer to have discovered that opera is a medium with the useful ability to convey mixed messages – “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” also used, in different ways, the ability to convey different time periods at a single moment. Others have too, but if I tried to list all of them (let alone operas who have used the medium to convey different kinds of mixed messages) we’d be here all week. And the same would be true if I started to write about Puts’s first opera, “Silent Night” – so I’ll just drop the name.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Democrats Should Listen to Newt Gingrich. Seriously.
Quote – When words of praise come from such an unexpected source, they land with impact. Democrats should listen to Gingrich…. The new [primary] map beginning in South Carolina, the state that helped make Biden president by roundly backing him in the 2020 primary, is the clearest signal yet that Biden is running in 2024 despite his advancing age…. It looks like a moment for a leader who solves problems, and there’s nobody waiting in the wings on the Democratic side who can match Biden’s track record.
Click through for article. Eleanor Clift used to be on The McLaughlin Report on PBS, and (the little that I watched it) I used to wonder why, since she semed sane. She sheds some light here on a move that some have questioned.

The 19th – How Instagram and TikTok hashtags highlight gendered hate toward women candidates
Quote – TikTok and Meta, Instagram’s parent company, have terms of service and community guidelines prohibiting hate speech, bullying and harassment, including abuse based on protected characteristics like gender, race and sexual orientation…. “There have been lots of commitments to helping protect women online during elections and at critical times,” Simmons said. “But what we found is that platforms are really falling short of enforcing their own terms of service.” One major revelation from their study was that platforms recommended abusive hashtags referencing women officials even with very few posts — sometimes fewer than 10 or 15 — associated with those hashtags. “It was quite unclear why these hashtags were prominently featured,” Simmons said. “This is where there is a sort of lack of understanding and lack of transparency from platforms about the curation of content and how certain content is recommended to social media users.”
Click through for details. I hate this, as I am sure everyone else here also does. But we do ourselves no favors if we attempt to proceed, or encourage our party to proceed, as if it were not so.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 12/10/22

 Posted by at 12:18 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Dec 102022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Prosecutor at Giuliani’s ethics hearing: Rudy “weaponized his law license to undermine Constitution”

MSNBC – A Largely Symbolic Move’: Jan. 6 Committee Plans Criminal Referrals

Ojeda Live – Trump’s Organization is Found Guilty on More Counts Than Donald Trump Can Count

Ring of Fire – Rudy Giuliani Gets Torched During Disciplinary Hearing

‘Bubble Puppy’ Decides She’s Ready To Live In The World

Beau – Let’s talk about the secret in Trump’s statement….

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Open Thread December 10, 2022

 Posted by at 7:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 102022
 

Back in the day, when I was in my teens, there used to be a daily syndicated cartoon called “Dondi.” Dondi was a pre-teen refugee from IIRC eastern Europe. He was in America with a foster family. Except that he found that a difficult word, so he referred to his “frosted” family. My Mom and I picked up the term to describe those folks – you know everone has at least one – who are not actually related by blood or marriage but whom you come to consider family. Yesterday, Virgil called all twitterpated to tell me he had rewceived a Christmas card from my frosted sister (of about 64 years standing now.) I think she may be the only person who even knows his address maiing address besides me. She has sent him cards in the past, and (especially with his memory issues) he is as thrilled each time as if it were the first time. I can hardly tell you how grateful I am for her. Aside from that, it was a pretty normal day – spent some time wondering whhether I had the energy to tackle this ir that, and mostly deciding I didn’t.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Trump Losing To Liz Cheney In Red State Utah Poll
Quote – Apparently, Utah Republicans are tired of Trump, and truth be told, probably never liked having a fornicator-in-chief anyway…. In the poll, Rep Cheney, who has built her brand of politics over the last few years around taking swipes at the twice impeached president for his conduct inside and outside the Oval Office, placed second[.]
Click through for story. Don’t get too excited – both are trailing DeSanctimonious bigly – but that does put Trump** into third place.

PolitiZoom – The Perfect Gift For the MAGA In Your Life...
Quote – There is a new MAGA puzzle out and it’s a trick puzzle. It’s got Trump’s face on the box but when you put it together, you get Joe Biden. And MAGA is not amused. No, Sir, they are not.
Click through for a good laugh. I would really have to be angry at someone before I would spend money to demonstrate it – but if anyone is that pissed, this would be great.

Mother Jones – Dem Dysfunction, Tabloid Hellscapes, Crime: How New York Almost Went Red
Quote – [Lee] Zeldin [who lost the Governorship to Kathy Hochul], a 42-year-old Long Island congressman first elected in 2014, and Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid were aligned on the idea that only one issue really mattered this year: crime. At rallies, Zeldin told crowds that he’d use his first minutes in office to declare a “crime state of emergency”…. If the legislature didn’t cooperate, Zeldin promised to unilaterally repeal New York’s 2019 bail reform law, along with other criminal justice measures passed by Democrats. He spent seven figures on a television ad mostly featuring Black men committing violent crimes.
Click throuh for story. The irony here, if one can call it that, is that when a good prosecutor is voted in, one who actually does address crime and public safety, they recall (Chesa Boudin) or impeach (Larry Krasner) him or her. Which makes everything far more dangerous.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 12/9/22

 Posted by at 12:13 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Dec 092022
 

Glenn Kirschner – MORE stolen classified documents found at Trump’s Florida property

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – December 6, 2022

MSNBC – German Police Arrest Dozens Who Allegedly Plotted To Overthrow Government

Farron Balanced – Legal Troubles Increase For DeSantis Administration Over Migrant Flights

This Rescued Cat Has The Most Unusual Toy Ever!

Beau – Let’s talk about what the Senate can learn from Roman roads….

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Open Thread December 9, 2022

 Posted by at 7:20 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 092022
 

Yesterday, I was glad to see that we finally found someone acceptable to swap for Britney Griner, who is now on her way home. About time, too.  Of course Republicans are screaming bloody murder.  But there are a few other good news items which got me through the day. and I got to see my BFF, who ca  me by to bring me a prescription so I don’t have to go into a store and get exposed to heaven knows what.  The three items which I think really command attention concern Lizzo, Biden, and Kamala Harris.

Cartoon

Short Takes –

Wonkette – Germany Arrests 25 In QAnon-Fueled Coup Plot, Proving America Does Too Still Export Stuff
Quote – The plot included a plan to attack Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, to kill members or take them hostage. By golly, we have seen that movie…. In addition to the plan to storm the Bundestag, the group allegedly planned to attack Germany’s electric grid and use the resulting chaos to foment a civil war. All told, while only 25 people were arrested, a total of 50 have been accused of involvement in the terrorist organization.
Click through for story. This appears to be a bit of a scoop – there was a short clip on MSNBC and that was all I found (it’s in the video thread.)

Crooks & Liars – ‘Religious Freedom’ Bites Forced-Birthers Where The ‘Son’ Don’t Shine
Quote – Jewish people, for instance, don’t believe the fetus has a soul until it draws its first independent breath. We prioritize the life of the pregnant person above the life of the fetus for the entirety of the pregnancy, including in situations that put the pregnant person’s emotional health at risk. With the imposition of the GOP’s fetus-fetish laws all over the nation, however, Jews and others whose religions don’t subscribe to the ideology of these nutters are fighting fire with fire.
Click through for details. I applaud this work. I’m so tired of people claiming to be Christians saying abortion is murder when the Bible does not say so, but implies it is not. What clearly IS murder is failing to treat pregnancy issues and thereby causing death. If you’re going to outlaw abortion, you might as well also outlaw the Heimlich maneuver.

Food For Thought – OMG, this is beautiful!

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Video Thread 12/8/22

 Posted by at 11:47 am  Open Thread, Politics
Dec 082022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump Org GUILTY! Will Donald Trump be next? Plus, J6 committee to make criminal referrals to DOJ

The Lincoln Project – Trump Against The Constitution

MSNBC – Harry Dunn: ‘I’m Not Letting Anyone Steal The Joy I Feel’

Liberal Redneck – Liberal Redneck – Kanye, Nazis, Etc

Bird Loves To Annoy His Dog Brother

Beau – Let’s talk about Sweden, Finland, and cold weather gear….

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Critics Agree: MTG Greene’s Latest Question About COVID Stinks!

 Posted by at 8:35 am  Politics
Dec 082022
 

MTG Greene seems to be in a never-ending battle with Lauren Boebert and Louie Gohmert for the Congressional Olympic Gold Medal of Abject Stupidity.

But her latest pungent foray into the Stupidity Olympics battle really stinks.  No, really … it STINKS!

COVID has been plaguing the world for a couple of years now and this is NOT the first time this question has been raised and answered.  You would think that before posting a question like this that anyone would do a minimum bit of research – especially someone who serves the people as a Representative in Congress.

But noooo – not MTG!

I’ll try doing my best Bill Nye the Science Guy imitation to help her out.

Let’s start with a brief overview of the chemistry of farts (a topic you’ve probably wondered about a time or two, but never felt it worth your while to delve into.)

There are three different types of gaseous sulfur compounds that cause the stinky odor of our farts:

  • Hydrogen sulfide, which is very common, will produce a rotten egg smell.
  • Methanethiol will produce a smell similar to rotting vegetables or garlic.
  • Dimethyl sulfide is often described as smelling like cabbage but might add a sweetness to the overall smell of gas.

To understand why masks truly DO WORK to protect against COVID (but not preventing MTG from smelling her own farts) it turns out size actually DOES matter.  (Given MTG’s lurid history of multiple extramarital affairs that led to her recent divorce, you’d think she’d have at least a passing familiarity with this concept.)

Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty:

The main sulphur-containing flatus component was hydrogen sulphide (1.06 (0.2) μmol/l), followed by methanethiol (0.21 (0.04) μmol/l) and dimethyl sulphide (0.08 (0.01) μmol/l) (means (SEM)).

https://gut.bmj.com/content/43/1/100

I agree – that’s way too much chemistry.  Here’s something a little bit easier to understand:

NOTE: Remembering that “orders of magnitude” is a logarithmic term based on power of 10 – so from the Tweet:

3.8 x 10⁻¹⁰ m = 0.00000000038 m.

1.25 x 10⁻⁷ m = 0.000000125 m.

Realizing that MTG is severely “intellectually challenged” – let’s go for something more graphic to help her grasp why masks work against COVID but not farts:

And even more akin to her Saturday morning cartoon-watching (I’m sure MTG enjoys animated graphics) something even simpler

But that doesn’t mean MTG wouldn’t be ruthlessly mocked for this level of stupidity, so let’s enjoy a few.

(To save space, rather than posting each individual Tweet in full, I’ll just post the response to MTG’S question with a link to its author.)

And don’t forget her stinky question:

“If a pair of underwear, really thick ones, high quality cotton, can’t protect you from a fart, then how will a mask protect you from covid??”

No surprise that beloved George Takei would come up with the perfect analogy to help her understand the concept using tools that she’s more familiar with:

If you wear a white hood, really thick, with eye slits, it still can’t protect you from being identified as a white supremacist.

Kristina Wong:

She’s comparing COVID to a fart smell. Because that’s what idiots do.

Lock Them Trumps Up:

Mainly because I don’t wear my underwear on my head. Next question.

Ralph Toivonen:

The same way socks aren’t designed to be used as condoms.

Bruno in the Bay:

Behold. A sitting Congresswoman thinks farts are highly contagious.

Chris D. Jackson:

How the hell did we go from leaders like John Lewis to MTG in just one generation.

How very sad.

TheLastAnemone:

Why is it any of your business if people choose to mask up to protect themselves and their loved ones from the flu or covid19 or smelling your stinky farts?

MYOB, stop being a bully and leave folks to decide for themselves what’s best for them.

Pithier variation from RsLie:

It’s called free choice, Marj!

FREE CHOICE!

Cartoonist Steve Bensen thought that maybe if MTG were provided a bespoke mask, she might actually be enticed to wear it.  He’s got a point:

Others had a more … hmmm … aromatic approach to mask customization:

When it comes to MTG regularly displaying her ignorance via Twitter, I think we’d all agree with Sunday Claus on this:

Of course, the actual reason MTG is not having any success with blocking out the smell of farts is easily explained with this one graphic:

 

So if MTG does not want to be known as the absolute DUMBEST person in Congress, she had better hope that Boebert and Gohmert don’t die!

 

 

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