Politics Plus – Page 86 – Overcoming Republican insaniTEA, one day at a time.

Open Thread June 23, 2023

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

Jun 232023

Yesterday, I learned about the House voting to censure Adam Schiff for telling the truth. It probably came in the previous night, butit would have been after 10 pm my time, in one of the Substack newsletters. Ten pm is when I check for spam and close my email, even if i’m up later than that. I am actually less angry at the Republicans in the House than I am at the morons who sent them there. Adam’s full speech (a tad over 6 minutes is at his own website and also on YouTube, and one of my Substack sources provided a partial (but substantial) transcript:
“To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood. You who are the authors of the big lie about the last election condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you. Your words tell me that I have been affective in the defense of our democracy, and I am grateful.
“Speaker McCarthy would spend the nation’s time on petty political payback, thinking the censure or fine will force Trump’s opposition into submission. But I will not yield. Not one inch. The cost of the Speaker’s delinquency is high, but the cost to Congress of this frivolous and yet dangerous resolution may be even higher as it represents another serious abuse of power.
“I say this to Speaker McCarthy and others who wish to gratify Donald Trump with this act of subservience, try as you might to expel me from Congress or silence me with a $16 million fine, you will not succeed you might as well make it $160 million. The Speaker will never deter me from doing my duty no matter how many false justifications or slanders you level against me. You indict yourselves.
“Why were you silent, afraid, and unwilling to do your ethical, constitutional duty? Why did you cower? And why do you still? Will it be said of you that you lacked the courage to stand up to the most immoral, unlawful, and unethical president in history but consoled yourselves by attacking those who did?
“Today I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor knowing that I have lived my oath, knowing that I have done my duty to hold a dangerous and out-of-control president accountable and knowing that I would do so again in a heartbeat if the circumstances should ever require it. I thank you, and I yield back.”

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Politico – The sleeper legal strategy that could topple abortion bans
Quote – Revs. Jan Barnes and Krista Taves have logged hundreds of hours standing outside abortion clinics across Missouri and Illinois, going back to the mid-1980s. But unlike other clergy members around the country, they never pleaded with patients to turn back. The sight of the two women in clerical collars holding up messages of love and support for people terminating a pregnancy “so infuriated the anti-abortion protesters that they would heap abuse on us and it drew the abuse away from the women,” recalled Taves, a minister at Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood, Missouri, as she sat on a couch at Barnes’ stately church in this quiet suburb of St. Louis.
Click through for details. It seems to me fairly self-evident. MAGA “Christians” could use a mandatory “refresher” course in what religious freedom actually is.

Wonkette – Sam Alito Is Just Humble Fisherman Drinking $1,000 Bottles Of Wine Served By Billionaires
Quote – [Alito:] I stayed for three nights in a modest one-room unit at the King Salmon Lodge, which was a comfortable but rustic facility. As I recall, the meals were homestyle fare. I cannot recall whether the group at the lodge, about 20 people, was served wine, but if there was wine it was certainly not wine that costs $1,000. [Wonkette:] Okay, a) how would Alito know what the wine cost if he wasn’t, as reported by ProPublica, paying for his stay, and b) Sam Alito knows what a $1,000 bottle of wine tastes like, and it does not taste like whatever swill he does not recall drinking in Alaska.
Click through. I figured if anyone could manage to put a more colorful spin on this story, it would be Womkette. They did not let me down.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/22/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:04 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 222023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump gets a VERY speedy trial date; Hunter Biden pleads guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes

The Lincoln Project – Rick Reacts: We Made Trump Mad

Farron Balanced – Judge Slaps Down Conspiracy Spewing Capitol Rioter During Hearing

Liberal Redneck – Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty

After his family abandoned him, he didn’t want to live anymore.

Beau – Let’s talk about orcas and needing a bigger boat….

Open Thread June 22, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 222023

Yesterday, I learned that the SPLC’s latest report on hate groups took the time and space to recognize Faithful America as one of the antidotes to hate. Coming after decades of Christofascists associating the word “Christian” with hatred, this is a refreshing developmen – which would not have been possible without the actions of authentic Chriatians. Thanks, SPLC, andthanks to all who have signed/written/donated to make it kappen.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Washington Post (no paywall) – FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year
Quote – In the two months since the siege, federal agents had conducted 709 searches, charged 278 rioters and identified 885 likely suspects, said Michael R. Sherwin, then-acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, ticking through a slide presentation…. But according to a copy of the briefing document, absent from Sherwin’s 11-page presentation to Garland on March 11, 2021, was any reference to Trump or his advisers — those who did not go to the Capitol riot but orchestrated events that led to it.
Click through for full article. I suppose we could argue forever about whether the “bottom-up” method was the best way to go in this case. It is having results now, but it did take a long time. Too long? Certainly too long for the gut feelings of Democrats and others who value democracy. But we are not out of time yet.

PolitiZoom – Surprise! Judge Cannon Isn’t Running The Trump Documents Trial. Jack Smith Is
Quote – Look, Smith isn’t just running circles around Trump’s defense team, he’s running them around Judge Cannon too. Trump’s defense team wants endless delays and hearings. Smith just deprived them of that oxygen by not giving them any reasons to ask foe hearings on Trump’s bail conditions. And now, Judge Cannon hasn’t even set the preliminary hearing date to open discovery, and Smith is already handing over all of his non classified material for the Trump team to go through. Which makes it harder for the Trump team, 6-8 weeks from now at the preliminary hearing, to ask for 4-6 months for discovery when they’ve already 90% of the stuff for 6-8 weeks.
Click through for article. Murfster does tend to see things others do not, and while no one s perfect, he does have a track record. He sees this trial as a three-way battle of wits in which two of the parties are unarmed. And he does make a case. I hope he’s right -and I think there’s a good chance he is.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/21/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:01 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 212023

Glenn skipped a day and threw me off balance so I’m using this to gain it back
Talking Feds – BREAKING Hunter Biden News EXPLAINED

The Lincoln Project – When Dems Fight

PBS News – New report looks at the changing face of extremist groups in America

Puppet Regime – More unmanned attacks on the Kremlin?

Mama Cat Does The Cutest Thing While She’s In Labor

Beau – Let’s talk about the Dems ending the influence of MAGA Republicans….

Open Thread June 21, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 212023

Yesterday, it was reported that charges were filed against Hunter Biden. Also, Axios is reporting that a “prelimiary trial date” has been set in the Trump documments case (I suspect they mean a preliminary hearing) for August 14th. That date is just barely within the first half of August, which is the period for which Fani Willis requested that calendars be cleared, so she may get at least some of her licks in on schedule. Both stories are at the same link, just scroll down from Hunter to see the second story. (I’ll get to the Washington Post’s bombshell tomorrow.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

AP News – Biden strikes economic populist tone during campaign rally before exuberant union members
Quote – Biden spotlighted the sweeping climate, tax and health care package signed into law last year that cut the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums — pocketbook issues that advisers say will be the centerpiece of his argument for a second term. “I’m looking forward to this campaign,” Biden said to cries of “four more years!” before adding, “We’ve got a record to run on.” His choice of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania — and a friendly union audience — as his first official campaign stop reflected their crucial role in his reelection effort.
Click through for story. I see this as being a story about messaging.

Civil Discourse – Discovery in [Federal] Criminal Cases
Quote – What follows is a lot of procedural nitty-gritty, but the details matter. They’ll set the tone for everything to come. This order only covers discovery of unclassified material. The process for classified evidence will be defined consistent with the Classified Information Procedures Act…. Before classified discovery can take place, Trump’s lawyers will have to receive security clearances, so the timeline for that discovery to begin will be a bit longer.
Click through for full explanation. “Discovery” seems to me an odd word for it – but it has probably been used for hundreds of years and likely made more sense when first used. It is definitely critically important. Cases have been overturned for errors in discovery.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/20/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:01 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 202023

Glenn Kirschner – Republican witnesses like Barr, Esper, Bolton & others will SINK Donald Trump at trial

MSNBC – Atlanta area law enforcement preparing for possible Trump indictment in Georgia

The Lincoln Project – The Breakdown – No Labels Elects Trump**

Armageddon Update – Top Secret Moron

Cop Spends 8 MONTHS Trying To Catch An Escaped Beefalo

Beau – Let’s talk about questions on Trump’s other cases….

Open Thread June 20, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:12 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 202023

Yesterday was Juneteenth – a day to take a victory lap and celebrate one achievement in our history. And therefore today is a day to get back to work. Very few people can say that as well as John Pavlovitz (although the FFT, a cartoon originally published in 1876, is strong.) I hope your Juneteenth was pleasant and refreshing, since we all need to be refreshed periodically.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

John Pavlovitz – Are we there yet?
Quote – Yesterday, a friend who is a rabbi called to tell me that the Black Lives Matter flag in his yard had been ripped down, placed against their family’s car and set on fire. He and his family were of course devastated, but not just for his family but for what acts of violence like this represent and mean. In the fight against the cancer of racism, we are not there yet. But many people, like my friend and his family, people like you aren’t going to rest or be driven off course. We’re awake and alive in this day and that makes us dangerous to those still warring against equity…. Are we there yet? Not yet. Don’t let that truth dishearten you, let it move you.
Clck through for full column. Not much, if anything , I can add.

The 19th – What a teacher’s little red book taught the world about the Tulsa massacre
Quote – “Parrish’s work became a vital primary source for other people’s writings,” journalist Victor Luckerson wrote in his recently released book, “Built From the Fire.” “Yet her life remained unknown, even as the facts that she had gathered — such as several firsthand accounts of airplanes being used to surveil or attack Greenwood — became foundational to the nation’s understanding of the massacre. She was, quite literally, relegated to the footnotes of history.” Parrish’s great-granddaughter Anneliese Bruner is following in her footsteps as a writer and editor but didn’t learn of her connection to Parrish — or the events of Tulsa — until she was in her 30s.
Click through for story. Someone recently said that MAGA Republicans have the minds of toddlers – up to and including an obsession with genitalia. How many violent crimes have been based on lies involving genitalia?

The New Yorker – The Celebration of Juneteenth in Ralph Ellison’s “Juneteenth”
Quote – “We were owned and faced with the awe-inspiring labor of transforming God’s Word into a lantern so that in the darkness we’d know where we were. Oh God hasn’t been easy with us because He always plans for the loooong haul. He’s looking far ahead and this time He wants a well-tested people to work his will. . . . He’s tired of untempered tools and half-blind masons! Therefore, He’s going to keep on testing us against the rocks and in the fires. He’s going to plunge us into the ice-cold water. And each time we come out we’ll be blue and as tough as cold-blue steel! Ah yes! He means for us to be a new kind of human. Maybe we won’t be that people but we’ll be a part of that people, we’ll be an element in them, amen!”
Click through for details. I hope you can stand one more article about Juneteenth. Ralph Ellison is best known for “The Invisible Man.” When he died, he left a good deal of unfinished work, including “Juneteenth,” which was put together by an editor, but most of it is pure Ellison. If you are paywalled out, I’ll send it in an email if you let me know.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 6/19/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:10 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 192023

This is long – but he missed a day and has multiple topics.
Glenn Kirschner – Will Trump’s crimes at Bedminster, NJ, be the next federal indictment pursued by Jack Smith
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