Politics Plus – Page 96 – Overcoming Republican insaniTEA, one day at a time.

Open Thread May 19, 2023

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

May 192023

Yesterday, I received an email from Right to the City announcing an online course (8 sessions) in “Fascism 101.” It is being streamed, in English, with translations in Spanish and Ameslan. They don’t mention closed captions, but it is on Zoom, which is pretty good with CC, so they may be available. Ir appears to be free. They do want you to have a Zoom account, but that is also free. The link for registration and some information about the presenters is here. In other news, a special election in Pennsylvania allowed Democrats to remain in control in the state House. News like that is always good. Also, I finally figured out how to make a picture here link to another site. If you clisk on today’s FFT it will take you (in a new tab!) to the video the quote is from.

Cartoon – 19 0519OilFraud.jpg

Short Takes –

Civil Discourse – A Little Optimism in the Middle of a Lot of Mess
Quote – A First Amendment lawsuit got filed in Florida [Wednesday]. It’s not a First Amendment lawsuit over the new Florida law we discussed earlier this week—the one where Governor Ron DeSantis stripped academic freedom out of the classroom in Florida’s public colleges and universities and banished consideration of diversity. But it’s still a First Amendment lawsuit. Likely not the last one a unit of government in Florida will see this year. The lawsuit was brought against the Escambia County School Board by the publisher Penguin Random House, PEN America, five authors, and two parents after the school district removed books about race and LGBTQ people from shelves. The lawsuit alleges that banning books in school libraries violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause.
Click through for full article. It includes a couple of other developments. I needed a little optimism today. In fact, I could have used more, but it is what it is.

The 19th – ‘They came for blood’: Protesters and witnesses win settlement 7 years after violent clash with police
Quote – The scene looked like a combat zone. It was July 10, 2016. A wall of police officers dressed in riot gear lined East Boulevard at the corner of France Street in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Blair Imani and at least 100 other protesters stood opposite the officers in the front yard of Lisa Batiste, a resident who had invited the demonstrators onto her property for their safety…. Nadia Salazar Sandi, another protester in Batiste’s yard, had seen her fair share of protests working as a grassroots organizer; however, she did not expect the level of aggression she saw from police that day. “I was a police liaison in my work,” Sandi told The 19th. “I could have talked to cops all day and all night because I was trained to help de-escalate situations. But I remember seeing the look in their eyes. They were not willing to negotiate.”
Click through for story. No, this won’t bring anyone back to life, nor will it magicallly erase all the PTSD. It probably won’t even deter future fascists from similar actions. But it is something.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 5/18/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:09 pm Open Thread, Politics

May 182023

Glenn Kirschner – Rudy Giuliani allegedly offers to SELL PARDONS for $2 million a pop & split money with Donald Trump

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party May 16, 2023

Alliance for Justice Action Campaign – Justice Thomas Must Resign!

Robert Reich – In Conversation with TN State Representative Justin Jones

Cat Tries To Cope With Unrequited Love

Beau – Let’s talk about the SCOTUS shadow docket case that could make waves….

Open Thread May 18, 2023

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

May 182023

Yesterday, like most of the rest of the world, I learned about Martha Stewart being on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition. Having cordially disliked Ms. Stewart for decaded for personal reason (she stiffed my cousin’s boyfriend), I can’t be impartial, so I’ll leave it at that. It’s not that important. But Jesse Watters saying the quiet part out loud – yes, he really said that the GQP needs to be able to blackmail the FBI – that’s noteworthy.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – GOP Oversight Chair Says He’s Lost Track of His Biden Corruption Informant
Quote – On Wednesday, Comer—the chairman of the House Oversight Committee—held a much-hyped press conference in which he promised to expose the preliminary findings of four months’ worth of scrutiny into the Biden family’s business dealings. Publicized as a “judgment day” for President Joe Biden, the conference ultimately proved anticlimactic, largely consisting of Comer throwing around vague, unsubstantiated accusations and failing to link the president to any of his relatives’ alleged “influence peddling.” But on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures, Comer offered up what appeared to be a partial excuse: The probe’s primary informant had flown the coop.
Click through and try to keep a straight face. IMO it’s not hard to see that this “informant” never existed.

Crooks & Liars – Ukraine Sending Messages On Their Bombs Too (hanky alert?)
Quote – This has been going on for a while now but seems to be getting a lot more organized…. As always, check out any organization first before sending your $50 or whatever…. Thousands of messages have been sent, ranging from the sardonic to the bitter, among them one from Valentyna Vikhorieva, whose 33-year-old son died in the war. “For Yura, from Mom,” Ms. Vikhorieva asked an artillery unit to write on a shell. “Burn in hell for our children.”
Click through for story. I don’t know whether ths will hit everyone the way it hit me, but I put up an alert just in case. The funds raised are going to support Uktaine and that’s a good thing. But the human suffering and the waste of life represented just got to me.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 5/17/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:06 pm Open Thread, Politics

May 172023

Glenn Kirschner – Georgia DA Willis files 22-page smackdown of Trump’s motion to quash/throw out grand jury report

The Lincoln Project – Wrongump

Thom Hartmann – Hate or Fascism: Which Came First? History Of Fascist Hate Revealed

Randy Rainbow – Welcome to DeSantis!

This Baby Goat Is Smaller Than A Cat

Beau – Let’s talk about the SCOTUS shadow docket case that could make waves….

Open Thread May 17, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 172023

Yesterday, Crooks & Liars (probably along with every other news outlet, paper or on line, TV and all kinds of video) published some details of Noelle Dunphy’s lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani. It definitely needs a barf bag warning. She does have receipts too. If only there were a way to know exactly what is missing from these Republicans (and somehow put it into them) that they think they can do anything imaginable (or unimaginable to normal people) with absolutely no consequences whatsoever. Sigh. In the short takes, I am sharing two articles about Jordan Neely, because they are so different in their outlook and details. This was not a case of a bad cop, but I’m not inclined to expect much if any accountability – certainly not without a lot of protesting demanding it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

New York Magazine “The Cut” – The Cost of White Discomfort
Quote – In the wake of Jordan’s murder, Kenneth Jones’s and Tema Okun’s definition of the “right to comfort” haunts me: “The belief that those with power have a right to emotional and psychological comfort … I have a right to be comfortable, and if I am not, then someone else is to blame.” When Daniel Penny was not comfortable on the F train, he single-handedly decided that Jordan was to blame.
Click through for article. This rage is justified. Is any other white person as humiliated as I am that people with our skin tone are so fragile as to kill out of discomfort – and so privileged to get away with it? White Americans who whine about the excessive privilege of the British royal family need to look in a mirror and see their own. (But they won’t. That would be uncomfortable.)

The New Yorker – The System That Failed Jordan Neely
Quote – There are more than two hundred thousand residents of New York City living with severe mental illness; roughly five per cent of them are homeless. That’s thirteen thousand people with schizophrenia, major depressive and bipolar disorders, or other significant mental- or behavioral-health diagnoses, all of whom regularly spend the night at a shelter, in the subway, on the street. They’re the ones you recognize—the people whom, for the past fifty years, every mayor has either tried to help, harass, or hide from view. Rudy Giuliani’s cops were known to chase people out of midtown, forcing them into the Bronx and Queens. Michael Bloomberg largely avoided public initiatives that addressed mental illness. Bill de Blasio allocated almost a billion dollars for a mental-health plan, but it was criticized for failing to track outcomes or prioritize treatment for those who needed help the most.
Click through for details. What we had before Ronald Reagan became Governor of California (and then President) was far from perfect, but it was better than this. Constantly reading about people, many in disadvantaged groups besides being mentally ill, killed publicly with no consequences – particularly since the disadvantage is often the cause of the illness (e.g. lead in drinking water) and is itself the result of apathy or malice on the part of the demographic doing most of the killing. It’s like beating someone up, and then killing them because their bruises make us uncomfortable.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 5/16/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:09 pm Open Thread, Politics

May 162023

Glenn Kirschner – Republican billionaire & Clarence Thomas’s bestie Harlan Crow says he won’t provide info to Senate

MSNBC – Fred Guttenberg on gun control: ‘stop listening to the liars’

Ring of Fire – DeSantis Hit With Lawsuit Over Bogus ‘Election Fraud’ Arrests

Parody Project – Should Old Offenses Be Forgot?

Rescue Kitten Begs To Go To Sleep So She Can Snuggle Her Dad In The Morning

Beau – Let’s talk about a Tuberville quote and readiness….

Open Thread May 16, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 162023

Yesterday, Andy Borowitz was doing straight news again: “Florida Teacher Arrested for Showing Disney Movie Featuring Boy Character with Girl’s Name.” Actually, I kind of wish the news from Florida were that mild. Joyce Vance has the real details.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The 19th – Meet the women working to grow local food systems on U.S. island territories
Quote – Through working on their presentation, the students learned of a national initiative … called the National Farm to School Network, and it’s a nonprofit organization that works to connect local farms with school cafeterias — a model that both bolsters local food systems and provides healthier school lunches for kids — a win-win for farmers and their communities. But the network didn’t reach the U.S. Virgin Islands, and [teacher Sommer] Sibilly-Brown remembers one of her students asking: If the program was national, why didn’t it reach their territory? “That question has been the question that has driven my work,” Sibilly-Brown said. “If we are the United States, why not here?”
Click through for story. Good for them. But this is another huge reason why our territories should be granted statehood. Far too much of the country thinks residents there are “not American.” And that just isn’t right.

In The Public Interest – Should we talk about the government?
Quote – I would also argue that some of the criticism of government—from the left and right–makes it harder for it to do the things that can only be accomplished if we do them together– through public action. In my book, The Privatization of Everything, I argue that, while people are understandably skeptical of “government,” many of the things Americans don’t like about government actually stem from too much corporate influence in politics. It’s important we continue to make that distinction clear.
Click through for full discussion. In a free and democratic society, the government is all of us. So, yes, we should talk about it. If you don’t provide cnstructive input, you really have no right to complain when you don’t like the result.

Food For Thought