Politics Plus – Page 53 – Overcoming Republican insaniTEA, one day at a time.

Open Thread October 20, 2023

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

Oct 202023

Yesterday – Will wonders never cease!

The story implies that the railroad cooperated, and also that we got some help from the federal government. Also that there will be intermitttent closures ehrn they start building the bridge back. We joke that Colorado has four seasons – almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction – but they could get to it during the winter – if we don’t have too much snow. At least CPR will let me know. Southbound opened yesterday, but they expect northbound to open today. In case it doesn’t, I will see that on the way down. So, if I do need a detour, now or in the future, it may only be one way. Gosh, I’m glad we have a Democratic governor!

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Short Takes –

PolitiZoom – Court Employee Arrested After Approaching Trump During Trial To ‘Assist Him’ MAGA Follower?
Quote – Judges and courtrooms are known for being sober individuals and somber places, but not when the Trump circus is in town. A court employee was arrested and subsequently put on administrative leave after she approached Donald Trump during his Trump Organization trial this morning at the 60 Centre Street court, shouting that she wanted to help him. It will certainly be interesting to get the details on what help she was offering. We will update when that information is available.
Click Through for more. This is a real doozy. Tina Peters in Colorado comes to mind. You gotta wonder how many there are of these.

Wonkette (Substack) – Woke Farmer Mob Converts Former MA Cranberry Bogs To Wetlands, Preventing Floods, Sequestering Carbon
Quote – Around the turn of this century,… the cranberry industry [in Massachuisetts] started being pinched by a worldwide cranberry glut…. But what to do with the former berrylands? Farmers could probably sell out to developers, but that wasn’t necessarily something they wanted to see. Fortunately, crazy environmentalist hippies and ecologists (same thing) had an idea: How about restoring the bogs to be wetlands again, like they were before getting covered in sand for cran-griculture?
Click through for details. There is a fair amount of science here, but it’s not terribly technical. It’s easy to grasp. Who knew sand could have such consequences?

Food For Thought

Video Thread 10/19/23

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:02 pm Open Thread, Politics

Oct 192023

Glenn Kirschner – Did Donald Trump ALREADY violate Judge Chutkan’s gag order? The answer might surprise you.

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican – October 17, 2023

Robert Reich – From Robber Barons to Bezos: Is History Repeating Itself?

Puppet Regime – Vladimir Putin travels time, everything is fine! | P

Rescuers Search Everywhere For Mother Of Kittens Found In Sewer

Beau – Let’s talk about surprising witness in the Georgia case….

Open Thread October 19, 2023

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

Oct 192023

Yesterday – actually the day before, but it was reported yesterday, a civil suit which the NAACP had filed in federal court against one Donald J. Trump** et al., for attempting to disenfranchise black voters, was reassigned – to Judge Tanya Chutkan. My, my. It really is normal to assgn cases with the same defendand in the same jurisdiction to the same judge. But it’s still very amusing.

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Short Takes –

Wonkette – Biden Campaign Joins Trump’s ‘Truth Social,’ Just To Be A [Troll]
Quote – The [Biden campaign regime] signed up using the “Dark Brandon” meme as their profile pic, and their first “truth” was “Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!” They typed “Well.” for their first word. Just like that. They told Fox News Digital that they’re “meeting voters where they are.” There is no part of this that isn’t trolling. This didn’t cost them money. There is not one inbred moron on Truth Social the Biden campaign is truly seeking out as a voter. But sure, converts welcome!
Click through (to Substack) for details. “Let’s see how this goes” indeed. ROTFL.

The 19th – Women donors are underrepresented in fundraising for state elections. The impacts are wide-ranging.
Quote – It’s a nationwide phenomenon,” Sanbonmatsu said. “It is an important form of participation, and we do find large imbalances in how much money women and men are giving to politics — and it’s less visible than looking at voter turnout.” The share of all money raised from women donors was as low as 14 percent in Nebraska and 18 percent in Illinois, the report found. Colorado led the nation in this time period with 46 percent of all money raised coming from women donors, as it became the second state to elect a majority-woman legislature.
Click through for details – There are some (though I wish there were more.) Yes, I’m proud that Colorado is leading the way here. I also noticed that, in Colorado, if you look at women’s tosal donations as a percentage of men’s total donations, that figure is 85% Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that close to the figure which represents the wages women earn as a percentage of what men earn?

Food For Thought
For another opinion., click on the image. 😀

Video Thread 10/18/23

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:02 pm Open Thread, Politics

Oct 182023

Glenn Kirschner – Judge Chutkan imposes gag order on Donald Trump in DC case to protect witnesses and others.

The Lincoln Project – The Choice is Clear

Thom Hartmann – This Army Aims to Stop Americans From Voting

Patrick Fitzgerald – Jackson (Johnny Cash Song Parody ft Donald Trump, Merrick Garland, and Jack Smith) [The song on which this parody is based, which was a hit for Johnny Cash and June Carter, was not a love song but a marital duel. It was loosely based on “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” If you llook up the lyrics, or watch a Cash/Carter video of “Jackson” you may find this even funnier)]

Guy Shows his Rescue Pittie the Wonders of Fall for the Very First Time

Beau – Let’s talk about much ado about $6 billion….

Open Thread October 18, 2023

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

Oct 182023

Yesterday, this paragraph was in the public radio newsletter: “Colorado said the bridge that collapsed near Pueblo in a fatal train derailment was owned by the railroad company, but the company says the state owns it.” It’s going to be a long wait. Sigh. “Photos and videos posted by authorities showed the partially collapsed bridge with the semi-truck caught beneath in the right lane. The images also show a pileup of train cars and wheels scattered across the scene and loads of coal covering a portion of the highway. Thirty-nine cars of the 124 being hauled derailed, the National Transportation Safety Board said.”

Also, my ballot arrived. I already knew how I wanted to vote on the two issues, but there is also a school board election. Five candiedates. Two vacancies. At least this time Ballotpedia came through on a couple of them (one yes, one no) and another candidate ‘s name was unusual enough that just her name brought up that she’s registered D. So I had two that I could vote for, and did. The other two should have filled out the questionnaires.

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Short Takes –

John Pavlovitz – The One Place to Stand in The Israel-Palestine Violence
Quote – As a person of faith, morality, and conscience, I don’t know where to stand in times like these—other than with squandered, brutalized life. That means I don’t get off so easy as to be able to make a tidy little declaration and walk away feeling good about myself. It means I have to leave the shallows of ambiguity and into deep waters of nuance and history and human nature. It means I have to read and learn, to listen and reflect, to pray and wrestle. It means I’ll end up with fewer answers and more questions and I might be sick to my stomach. But this place of staring at the ugly unfigureoutable is where I am, where many of us are.
Click through for full secular sermon – which is what I found it to be. Yes, John is a pastor, but he does his best to speak to everyone, and often succeeds. I think he succeeds here.

Colorado Public Radio – Navy honors sailor who helped stop Club Q shooting
Quote – During a ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 5, Rear Adm. Scott Robertson, director of Plans, Policy and Strategy for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command, presented the medal on behalf of the Navy…. “I myself can only hope that I would channel the courage in our Navy core values like he did,” Robertson said. “But, we don’t have to wait for crisis to apply core values. We can and should apply them every day. That’s what I am taking away from the lessons you taught us all.”
Click through for full story. This is a week or more old – I saved it until Pat got back. Thank God Tommy Tuberville didn’t have his way before this occurred – it could have been much worse.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 10/17/23

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:03 pm Open Thread, Politics

Oct 172023

Glenn Kirschner – Judge Chutkan to decide whether to impose gag order on Trump to protect witnesses/promote fair trial

The Lincoln Project – Strong in a Crisis

Farron Balanced – Jimmy Kimmel Torches Trump In First Monologue Since Writers Strike

John Fugelsang on Christianity (old but good)

Litter Of Kittens Found Living In Someone’s Wall

Beau – Let’s talk about the BBC report and Ukraine….

Open Thread October 17, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:50 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 172023

Yesterday, I received confirmation for my visit to Virgil. I also learned that, on Monday, a train derailed on I-25 “near Pueblo” and that I-25 is closed indefinitely. I looked deeper and discovered that in this case, “near Pueblo” means at about exit 106, and that, when it derailed, it took a railroad bridge with it, dumping the bridge remnants onto the interstate. I normally use the interstate from Exit 128 to Exit 99, so I expect to need an alternate route. (I suppose I can be grateful the train didn’t explode.) I’ve been looking at road maps, and it’s pretty clear that the safest route which I can depend on it being there is via Cañon City. Virgil was in Cañon City for a few montjhs last year, so I know the route, or most of it, and the part I don’t know is US 50, so it should be well marked. An extra half hour should probably do it. Of course that also means I’ll be home later than usual, so please don’t worry. I’ll do my best to be extra oprganized in advance as much as possible so I don’t have to cut into sleep time.

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Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Dad of Palestinian Boy Stabbed 26 Times in Chicago Reveals Last Words (hanky alert)
Quote – The Chicago landlord suspected of stabbing a Palestinian-American six-year-old 26 times had a “good” relationship with the boy and her mother before the killing, the child’s father told The Daily Beast on Sunday…. “[Wadea Al-Fayoume, the boy] “He is an angel. Basically a small angel in the form of a person. To this minute, I cannot believe how this could have happened,” the father, Oday El-Fayoume, told The Daily Beast. “My ex-wife and son knew him, and they had a good relationship. It is hard to picture this man holding a knife about to stab my son. I keep thinking that my son was probably running towards him before getting stabbed, trying to give him a hug.”
Click through for story – which you probably have heard, since it is egregious, so it’s all over. I should also provide a barf bag alert, because I can already hear the gun crazies yelling, “See! See! Guns aren’t the problem!”

The 19th – This Latinx geologist and TV show host is disrupting stereotypes of who can be a scientist
Quote – On a sunny day, perched on slanted beige rocks of the San Andreas Fault line, Michelle Barboza-Ramirez is dressed in a white sun hat, with retro sunglasses and dangly flower earrings, discussing how plate tectonics transformed the Los Angeles landscape as the camera rolls. “Take a look behind you. These rocks are tilted. Like hella tilted,” they tell Blake de Pastino, a fellow host of the popular PBS show “Eons.” The camera pans to the background. “If you didn’t know anything about geology, you’d see them and you’d be like, ‘Wow, that’s so weird that these rocks formed sideways.’” This conversational tone makes Barboza-Ramirez, who is a paleontologist and geologist, relatable to viewers.
Click through for article. Don’t get confused that Barboza-Ramirez’s pronouns are they/their. There is actually only one of them. (Not that there shouldn’t be more – Latinx scientists, that is.)

Food For Thought