Afghanistan – Page 2 – Politics Plus

Open Thread for August 29, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:19 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 292021

Yesterday, I listened to the opera on the radio. WFMT Chicago fills in the weeks when the NY Met is dark. They collect recordings of performances all over the world. Today it was Wagner’s “Parsifal,” in German, recorded in Toulouse, France. Wagner was a sexist along with his other failings, like being anti-Semitic and a grifter. But the music is lovely (I swear, though, if I hear one more time someone spout that “Music is ennobling,” I think I may scream.) I also put my meds together for the next two weeks, morning and night both. I can see Virgil again on Friday September 3, so I won’t want to be dealing with pills that weekend.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Dem Underground – New CDC: Anatomy of a school superspreader event
Quote – Unvaxed Marin County, Calif. elementary school teacher continues to work for 2 days with symptoms, reading out loud to class unmasked (contra school policy). 50% of class gets covid — with risk highest in front rows near teacher.

Click through for more links to more evidence. Insanity is everywhere. Sigh.

Crooks and Liars – AR Jail Treating COVID Inmates With Horse Dewormer Ivermectin
Quote – The Daily Beast also reported that [the jail’s head doctor, Robert] Karas has cited a discredited study to support his use of ivermectin. When Schnekloth exposed the doctor on Facebook, he pushed back, saying “I got experience and don’t really need more studies.”
Click through for story, and through again to Daily Beast if you like. Can you imagine what TC would have said about this! “Crooks and Liars” is going to have to change its name to “Crooks, Liars, and Maniacs” if there’s much more of this.

The Hill – Five things to know about ISIS-K
Here are the five, phrased as questions – 1. What does ISIS-K stand for?
2. Who are its enemies?
3. Where did it come from?
4. Where is it located?
5. What attacks has it claimed?
Click through for the answers.

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 8/28/2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:14 pm Open Thread, Politics

Aug 282021

Glenn Kirschner – Florida Judge Rules Gov. Ron DeSantis CAN NOT Stop Schools From Requiring Masks to Protect Children

Don Winslow Films – #TheTruthAboutIvanka

Meidas Touch – Texas Democrat: Greg Abbott is a Psychopathic Murderer

The Lincoln Project – Pro-Life

Really American – Republicans Taking Horse De-Wormers

Trump’s the Disease That Keeps on Spreading, by Mangy Fetlocks

Al Franken on The Only Former U.S. Senator on Tour Tour (Yes, it’s a promo. But he’s funny.

Let’s talk about civilians, equipment, troops in that order….

Saturday Smile: And His Wall Came Tumbling Down

Posted by SoINeedAName at 9:12 am Politics

Aug 282021

When Trump announced his run for president in 2015, he (in)famously boasted:

“I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

https://time.com/5499391/donald-trump-border-wall-mexico-pay/

RIIIGGGHHHTTT …

Sadly, the courts had allowed Trump to ignore environmental laws during the wall’s construction, and that mistake proved to be its undoing. As the old Chiffon margarine ad goes: “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”

Trump’s US-Mexico border wall was no match for the heavy rains and accompanying flooding that happened this past week in Southern Arizona. They destroyed a large section of TFG’s wall along the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge.

Rain measurements near Douglas, AZ (closest town to the wall) showed 290 cubic-feet of water moving through the area every second – that’s equivalent to 112,200 gallons of water every minute. And it was calculated the storm surge could have reached a height of 25 feet!

Flood gates are common across sections of the wall along the Arizona-Mexico border. Agents must manually raise the gates to protect the steel barriers from thousands of gallons of floodwater laden with sediment, rocks, and tree limbs that can otherwise pile up to create a dam, with the power of the water overwhelming and toppling parts of the border wall.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/082121_border_wall_damaged/monsoon-floods-damage-border-wall-near-douglas/

Gizmodo blamed the failure on rushed construction and an alleged bypassing of environmental regulations. “Who could have predicted this? Ah yes, just about everyone,” author Brian Kahn penned in the article.

https://gizmodo.com/trumps-border-wall-torn-apart-by-arizona-monsoon-rains-1847535174

[Not sure why, but this video showing the results of the flooding cannot be embedded. You have to click on it to view it.]

https://youtu.be/rvPVYHeVaYc

I want to close on an upbeat note. While things have not gone as well with our exit from Afghanistan as we would have hoped, there were some bright notes.

America’s men and women in uniform have, once again, covered themselves in glory with displays of care and compassion – particularly with Afghani children.

I could not find attributions for these – but I want to include them anyway:

Of course it wasn’t only with children that they displayed their compassion. And I’m sure you join me in thanking them for their service – they did us proud!

Open Thread for August 28, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:27 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 282021

Yesterday, I mostly rested. And thought. And crocheted some. I do have a small tip to share – if you are looking for a product and want to order online, either because of CoViD or any other reason, and would really rather not give money to amazon, consider Chewy. Yes, they’re for pets. But there are products which are needed or useful for pet care but which also have household uses completely unrelated to pets. Like, for instance, a “rug rake.” I am the only one who is shedding around here – but the rug rake I got from them is great and came fast. Other things too – cleaning items – you might be surprised. And they are the customer service polar opposite of amazon. I’ve heard stories of their going above and beyond what anyone might think of, let alone expect – like refunding for an automatic delivery upon the death of a pet -and then also sending flowers! They aren’t going to stock everything under the sun … but what they do stock can be surprising.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Dem Underground – Just click through (NSFW)
This could help get male MAGAts vaccinated with Pfizer – eat your heart out, Moderna and J&J!

The Hill – Supreme Court blocks Biden’s eviction moratorium
Quote – Some 15 million people are currently behind on rent in the U.S., according to one recent estimate, though it was not immediately clear how many tenants could be placed at greater risk of eviction as a result of the court’s move. A patchwork of state and local eviction freezes were unaffected by Thursday’s ruling…. The measure aimed in part to provide an additional layer of protection while emergency federal rental aid made its way to tenants. But the Treasury Department on Wednesday said only some $5 billion of the roughly $46 billion allocated for emergency rental aid had been distributed by state governments.
Click through for more. What I think pisses me off the most is that the moratorium might not even be necessary if the states government would get off their posteriors and distribute the over $40 BILLION on rental aid which they are still sitting on.

Wonkette – Texas’s Law Against Critical Race Theory Is Why Kids In One District Can’t Have Nice Things
Quote – Texas’s dumb law forbidding the teaching of “critical race theory” has led the school district in McKinney, Texas, to eliminate a popular elective program that gave students the chance to participate in a mock legislature and learn how bills are written. The district’s Youth and Government program had been a matter of pride for the schools, touted by the district as a “perennial standout” in its middle and high schools. But an attorney for the district advised that the program might fall afoul of the new law, House Bill 3979, which will go into effect September 1. Beyond banning anything that might make white parents uncomfortable about America’s history, HB 3979 also bars classes that require “political activism” or awarding grades or course credit for any classes “involving social or public policy advocacy,” and puts strict limits on classroom discussion of current events, requiring that “both” sides of any issue be presented equally and “fairly.” That must make science classes a load of fun, too.
Click through for story. Look, I’m not trying to dog on Texas (or Florida or Missouri or Alamaba or any other state where readers live). But some things really can’t be ignored. Or shouldn’t.

Food for Thought –

Open Thread for August 26, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:22 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 262021

Yesterday, I put together a pdf on everything I know about my mother’s relatives, for my second cousin, the amateur genealogist. Much of it is family lore, and there are a lot of gaps when it comes to actual information, like names and dates. But he’ll be insterested. He recently passed on (through his sister) that my great-grandfather August, who served the Union in the Civi War (a fact which he, and I, had known for over 20 years) only enlisted after getting drunk with some old army buddies (I assume from some German army – “Germany” didn’t exist as a unified state at that time.) But that’s OK. He served honorably, and did it on the right side. I also did some shopping, including making a grocery delivery order for today.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Guardian – Tennessee woman drowns seconds after filming rising floodwaters
Quote – Victoria Almond said her brother and mother held on to a utility pole but let go when they saw a house floating towards them. When her brother emerged after being pulled briefly under the water, she said, their mother was gone.
Click through for story. It’s also a story, in a way, that it’s not American media in which I found this. (Apparently the Washington Post did carry it.)

Common Dreams – 63% of US Veterans Support Afghanistan Withdrawal: Poll
Quote – “Veterans know the cost of war, so it should come as no surprise that they strongly back President Biden’s decision to end the war in Afghanistan,” Mary Kaszynski, director of government relations for VoteVets, said in a statement. “Veterans strongly believe President Biden is right—it is time to go.”
Click through for details. There is also a link to VoteVets own coverage.

Vox – What full FDA approval for Covid-19 vaccines really means
Quote – Full approval grants the vaccine manufacturers permission to advertise their products and allow them to continue selling them after the public health emergency around Covid-19 ends. For doctors, full approval also allows them to use vaccines off-label, potentially as booster shots.
Click through for other technicalities, implications, and hopes.

Food for Thought –

Open Thread for August 25, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 252021

Yesterday, I finished helping a friend get a post up at another blog, and received an email from a second cousin asking for some family info. I answered,, we had a little back and forth, and I will be scraping my memory for what I can and looking for paperwork for a while. I promise not to get overtired or frazzled doing this. I also finished the second sleeve on my crochet project, and, since I make up as I go, the last seam – all that’s left is the bottom border, which can be worked in the round.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Don’t Worry, Rachel Maddow’s Not Going Anywhere
Quote – As re-upping negotiations dragged on, sources said, she expressed interest in possibly leaving the cable channel and moving into the streaming and podcasting space, in part to have more time with her family.
Click through for more. Looks like we just dodged a bullet that I for one did not know was coming.

The Hill – Lawsuit uses Jan. 6 to challenge secrecy of Congress
Quote – The panel ruled that the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause prohibited such lawsuits against Congress. But one of the judges, Karen LeCraft Henderson, wrote a concurring opinion in which she said, “I believe, in the right case, the application of the Speech or Debate Clause to a common law right of access claim would require careful balancing.” [Kel] McClanahan, [a lecturer at the George Washington University law school], said he saw Henderson’s opinion as an opening to raise the issues around legislative branch transparency in court.
Click through for details. The suit is not being brought by a known watchdog group like POGO or Roots Action or others, but by a “public interest law firm,” whatever that is. This could be interesting.

Law & Crime – North Carolina Court Immediately Gives Former Felons Right to Vote in ‘Historic’ Ruling Against Law with Racist Origins
Quote – “The court as of today is granting plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction that prohibits the state defendants from refusing to register to vote any person on community supervision, whether a state felony conviction or a federal conviction,” Bell said during the phone call announcing the court’s history-making ruling. The text of the opinion itself was still pending as of this writing.
Click through for story. You may have seen this – it is definitely an eyebrow raiser, especially in North Carolina.

Food for Thought –

Video Thread 8/24/2021

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

Aug 242021

Glenn Kirschner – Giuliani Criminal Associate Igor Fruman to Plead Guilty; Phone Subpoenas for Members of Congress

Don Winslow – Is It Fake News (He uploaded a large number over the weekend – some are likely recuts, and some are very short, but I’ll be posting some gradually because they are good.)

Meidas Touch – DeSantis ad

The Lincoln Project – DeSantis Lies

Really American – Vaccine Conspiracy Theories Making Variants Worse

Now This News – Maj. Danny Sjursen on His Experience in Iraq and Afghanistan

Beau – Let’s talk about balance and advice for the unvaccinated….

Video Thread 8/23/2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:54 am Open Thread, Politics

Aug 232021

Glenn Kirschner – A Colorado Election Official, A Security Breach, An FBI Investigation & My Pillow Guy’s Safe House. Oh, sure, it’s funny to Glenn – it’s not his state.