Black History – Page 8 – Politics Plus

Open Thread for February 11, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:31 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 112022

Yesterday, I overslept – which is a good thing because I had not slept well the prior two noghts. But between that and the Zoom presentation (which was WELL worth the 2+ hours it took), I ran late and didn’t get a lot done. Well, I had expected not getting a lor done, and it really doesn’t all need to be done at once. I did get a couple of bills paid, which is a plus.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Colorado Election Conspirator And County Clerk Arrested, Kicks Cop
Quote – Tina [Peters], Trumper, election conspirator and GOPer clerk and recorder in Mesa County, Colorado, is currently being investigated by a grand jury for election tampering. She was arrested on unrelated charges yesterday of illegally recording a criminal hearing Monday. During her arrest, she appears to have kicked an officer.
Click through for story, and for even more, through again t CPR. She is a real piece of work. She has been barred from overseeing the 2022 election. Want to bet she’ll try anyway?

Speaking of Colorado and elections, the above story sent me to search engines looking for what our districts will look like.

Colorado Public Radio – If The Redistricting Commission Doesn’t Agree On Something Else, This Is What Colorado’s New Congressional Map Will Look Like
Quote – Colorado’s Congressional Redistricting Commission still has a few more days to reach a super-majority agreement on a new map. But if commissioners can’t hit that deadline, we now know what the state’s congressional districts will look like…. Politically, the map creates four Democratic seats, three Republican ones, and a swing district that leans just a hair to the left.
Click through for tha map and a comparison of the districts 2011-2020 with all proposed maps if you like. Sadly, we did not get the map that takes away Boebert’s residency inn the district she represents. So we may be stuck with her unless our SoS can get her disqualified unser the 14th Amendment. CPR can be counted on.

The Hill – House passes bill to reform Postal Service operations
Quote – bipartisan agreement to overhaul the Postal Service had long eluded lawmakers, until last year when House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and the panel’s top Republican, Rep. James Comer (Ky.), unveiled the proposal the House passed on Tuesday. “Today’s historic bipartisan vote brings us one step closer to finally putting the Postal Service on a sound financial footing so it can continue serving all Americans for years to come,” Maloney said.
Click through – This is clearly good news, but it comes at a time which concerns me. We are still stuck with DeJoy, and there are things obstructing getting rid of him. I fear this bill, while doing good, will also give him more leeway to steal/

Food For Thought:

In case you missed it, Ms. Taylor Greene recently qas widely quoted as saying “gazpacho” when she meant “Gestapo.”

Open Thread for February 10, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:28 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 102022

Yesterday, I got the trash and recyclables out, emptied the mailbox (most of which went straight into the recyclables), sent a couple of ecards, made a couple of cartoons, and called it a day. Today I am sgned up for a Zoom presentation on Walt Whitman by the “Theater of War” (which uses ancient, old, and sometimes modern literature to help people heal from various traumas. They started with Greek tragedy but have nranched out considerably.) That probably means I won’t get much more done today than yesterday.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Mother Jones – Why It’s So Hard to Get a Defense Lawyer Confirmed to the Supreme Court
Quote – The last time the Supreme Court had a justice who’d worked as a criminal defense lawyer was 1991. That’s the year Thurgood Marshall, the legendary civil rights advocate, retired after 24 years on the court. Since then, the court has suffered from a dearth of justices with any sort of criminal defense backgrounds. Both Democratic and Republican presidents have stacked the court with former prosecutors, who are overrepresented on the court—people like Justice Samuel Alito, who had previously served as the US attorney for the District of New Jersey. Even Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s most liberal member, spent nearly five years working as an assistant district attorney for the legendary New York County DA Robert Morgenthau straight out of law school.
Click through for story. And for why it matters.

HuffPost – Man Arrested For Storming The Capitol While Out On Bail For Attempted Murder
Quote – Federal authorities have arrested Matthew Beddingfield for his role in the Capitol insurrection, which he attended with his father while out on bail for a first-degree attempted murder charge…. HuffPost revealed Beddingfield’s identity more than 10 months ago, on March 26, in a story that built off the work of a network of citizen-sleuths. They used facial recognition software to match footage of Beddingfield at the Capitol to his publicly available mug shot from a 2019 arrest for attempted murder.
Click through for background. there’s a catch phrase going around – “Tell me you’re [blank] without telling me you’re [blank].” I have mostly seen it with the blank filled in by “white.” I’d say that applies here.

Black History
Biography – Otis Boykin 1920-1982 ( JL)
Quote – Boykin, who took a special interest in working with resistors, began researching and inventing on his own. He sought and received a patent for a wire precision resistor on June 16, 1959. This resistor would later be used in radios and televisions. Two years later, he created a breakthrough device that could withstand extreme changes in temperature and pressure. The device, which was cheaper and more reliable than others on the market, came in great demand by the United States military for guided missiles and IBM for computers…. His most famous invention was a control unit for the pacemaker.
Click through – it isn’t long. It’s safe to say that there are people waling around today who would not be alive had Boykin not existed. It’s also not too farfetched to suggest that without his work on computers, we might not have thos blog today.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for February 9, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 092022

Yesterday, I got confirmation from LinkedIn that they received they received documantation, closed the account, and send condolences to all of is. I also put together the documents Twitter asked for – I say documents, but just as I had them all together, and went to upload them, it said I only gor one upload to do it all. So I regrouped, got everything into one Word Doc, printed it as a PDF, and then uploaded it. That was late enough in the day that I have not heard back from them yet.

Cartoon – 09 Quincy Loaded

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Neofascist Patriot Front: Clownish Operations With A Military Edge
Quote – The Vanguard America organization marched at Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, where one of its members, James Alex Fields, mowed down an antifascist counterprotester, Heather Heyer, with his car afterward. Patriot Front’s founder, Thomas Rousseau, was photographed standing with Fields and other Vanguard America marchers. He was a Vanguard America member at the time.
Click through for details, and through again for all the data if you’re up to it. Idid manage to get the accompanying video into yesterday’s Video Thread – it gives yu an idea.

Miami Herald – Black lawmakers blast plans for monument to Justice Thomas
Quote – [State Sen. Emanuel] Jones, a Democrat, cited opinions by Thomas that he said would hurt African Americans. “We’re not here talking about Justice Thomas as the man,” he said. “We all have a great deal of respect of his many accomplishments. It’s his policies. It’s his rulings. It’s his decisions that we find extremely offensive.
Click through for story. Jimmy Carter has a statue already, and they are trying to use that as a precedent. Barf.

The 19th – More Black women are leading U.S. law schools and changing the conversation on race and gender
Quote – The reality she faced, which is common for many women of color, can create feelings of isolation, insecurity and frustration. For years, Nelson was conscious of how her actions might affect Black women who wished to follow. “The sense that one possible mistake will reverberate beyond oneself and impact the ability of future generations coming up behind me to have the same opportunities weighs heavy,” she said. But she is less alone now. Last year, the number of Black women leading American law schools reached a high of 28.
Click thrugh for story. Seema to me that now is exactly the right time to put a progressive black woman constitutional scholar on the Supreme Court. We’ve never had so many qualified.

Food For Thought:

Just a small extra. I note that Democrats have a sense of humor strong enough to be able to laugh at ourselves, and isn’t that wonderful.

Video Thread 2/8/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:30 am Open Thread, Politics

Feb 082022

Pence Says “Trump is Wrong” About his Ability to Overturn Election.

The Lincoln Project – Mark Will Be Fine

Unicorn Riot – Massive Leak Exposes Neo-Nazi Group Patriot Front

CNN – More than 140 Republicans condemn RNC’s censure of Cheney, Kinzinger

Ring of Fire – Ivanka And Jared’s New Florida Neighbors Are Already Sick Of Them

Corey Ryan Forrester – This Week in Southern History February 1

Beau – Let’s talk about Republicans getting sue happy….

Open Thread for February 8, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:45 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 082022

Yesterday, I confes I pretty well laid back all day. I did get a few things accomplished – but very litte. I hope I can get moving today.

Cartoon:

Short Takes –

Mississippi Free Press – Black FedEx Driver Says White Men Chased, Shot At Him During Deliveries
Quote – [His attorney, Carlos] Moore compared the incident to the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was jogging when three white men, including a father and son, pursued and killed him in Glynn County, Ga., in 2020. “It’s just sad that it happens. It seems to be a copycat duo copying off the Ahmaud Arbery case. …. They saw this man was a Black man, and they just hauled off and shot at him multiple times, at least the younger son did. The older guy tried to entrap him. They were working concertedly to try to entrap and kill this man. I mean, they shot at him several times. It’s amazing that he survived.”
Click through for details. Not that the details are all that unique. As Lona said, we’re so tired of racism, but the GQP will never be tirned of it.

Crooks and Liars – Clarence Thomas Must Resign: Ron DeSantis Regular Contact Edition
Quote: But now American Oversight has obtained evidence that Justice Thomas is in regular, direct contact with Florida’s MAGA governor, Ron DeSantis. In a pitch to his scheduling office in June, 2021, Ginni Thomas requested DeSantis’ attendance at one of her “coalition” meetings, saying: “Gov. DeSantis will be acquainted with me, as I video-interviewed him for a Leader series with Daily Caller years ago when he served in Congress, saw him at a state dinner in the Trump White House and my husband has been in contact with him too on various things of late.”
Click thrugh. This is what happens when a nation takes it for granted the its Supreme Court Justices will not be out-and-out gangsters, because the mostly haven’t been. But now they are. And our hands are tied. Unless we can get a strong majority in both Houses and the Presidency, the future is looking bleak.

The Nib – Black and Red (The History of Black Socialism)
Quote – Throughout 1919, more than four million workers went on strike. Big business came up with a plan it would use for decades… To divide workers along RACE. That same year, race riots broke out across 25 cities in what would become known as THE RED SUMMER.
Click through for full graphic article. The Nib is a “cartoon” site, but so much of what they do I just can’t call a cartoon.

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for February 7, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:43 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 072022

Yesterday, I accidentally went into “Tom@7thStep.org” instead of “TomCat@politicplus.org” Trunsout there were about 1400 emails there too. Including some from subscription which also need to be closed. I had asked Nameless to close TC’s Daily Kos membership for us, and he CC’d me on th beautiful email he sent and CC’ed me on the almost equally beautiful reply, sending ondolences to all of us. I started the process to close TC’s Twitter an d LinkedIn accounts – I gave LinkedIn everything they asked for and I think they will close it – Twitter wants a little more, but I have it. But there are more accounts. Sigh. It’s Ok, it will get done.

Cartoon – 07 Portland Loaded

Short Takes –

Crooks and Liars – Beyond Banned Books: Wingers Are Destroying A Library System From The Inside
Quote – In some instances, the communications between appointed public officials betray an ulterior motive shared by several board members, who characterized their positions, as well as their reason for seeking them, as being more about changing the library’s governing policies than serving as trustees of a community resource. As a result, morale has plummeted within the public library’s leadership ranks…
Click through. This is a mayor, but library boards are being targeted exactly like school boards now, and for exactly the same reasons. (Smewhat off topic – the CEO of Wonkette and her family live in Montana, but have made an offer on a home in Michigan, and things like this are why.)

Twitter Thread Reader – Mueller She Wrote – “Open and Shut” (not)
Quote – All told there were over 790 documents for this ONE GUY ALONE. Did you hear about Costello getting interviewed? Not until now. Did you know about the 2703 orders for phone and email records? Nope. So you see, these cases aren’t as “open-and-shut” as we might think.
Click through for details. You don’t need to belong to Twitter and you don’t need to read endless repetition. (There is a little swipe at skeptics which I consider a bit unfair. Not everyone – well actually, no one – is an expert on investigations and/or court proceedings unless actually involved in the process – and maybe not even then.)

(Black History) The New Yorker – The Rediscovery of Florence Price
Quote – In 2009, Vicki and Darrell Gatwood, of St. Anne, Illinois, were preparing to renovate an abandoned house on the outskirts of town. The structure was in poor condition…. In a part of the house that had remained dry, the Gatwoods made a curious discovery: piles of musical manuscripts, books, personal papers, and other documents. The name that kept appearing in the materials was that of Florence Price…. The couple got in touch with librarians at the University of Arkansas, which already had some of Price’s papers. Archivists realized, with excitement, that the collection contained dozens of Price scores that had been thought lost.
Click through for the full story (if paywalled, let me know – I can send a PDF). This breaks my heart. At least she has success in her lifetime, and at least we have the music now (and it is being widely recorded.) But to think of all those manuscripts just sitting in a house which was falling apart for 56 years….

Food For Thought:

Open Thread for February 6, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 062022

Yesterday, the opera house was dark. Not because anything newsworthy happend, but as part of a scheduled five week winter break The radio broadcast was a program of arias and duets recorded from Mat broadcasts during the period 1931-1941. No, the sound quality wasn’t what it is today, but compared to old 78 records, it was superb. The greatest stars of that decade were all retired (or dead) by the time I came to opera – and the greatest stars when I came to opera are all retired or dead now. Of course the same is true of theater and movies. Think “Little Caesar” (1931), “King Kong” (1933), “Camille” (1936), and 1939 with “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” “Gone with the Wind,” and “Thw Wizard of Oz” all in the same year. Remembering history may not be quite as important in the arts as it is in politics, but it doesn’t hurt either.

Also yesterday, I finished cleaning out TomCat’s Inbox … and also the “Sent” folder, the only other one which had anything in it except for the “Archive”, which is where I ave been putting any emails with information on accounts on other sites, or subscriptions, or any friends we may not have been aware of. That will be slower.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Letters from an American – February 4, 2022
Quote: For a long time, the idea that that economy thrives when the government supports ordinary Americans was not controversial. Democrats began to make it the centerpiece of our system in the 1930s when, after a decade in which the government worked only for the wealthy, they offered a “New Deal” for the American people. Over time, lawmakers from both major parties embraced it, believing they had finally figured out a truly American system that would serve everyone…. But in the 1980s, Republicans argued that this system stifled economic development by hampering the ability of producers to put their money where they thought it would do the most good. Instead of supporting workers, they argued, government should cut taxes to enable those at the top of the economic ladder to accumulate capital and invest in the economy. Tax cuts became their go-to solution for any sort of economic crisis. The government should support the “supply side” of the economy. Any attempt to use the government to help the “demand side” was, they said, “socialism.”
Click through for the full article. The problem is that seeing is NOT believing. Messaging is believing, and the false econimic message has been so powerful that even overwhelming evidence has not been able to dislodge it.

HuffPost – Unexpectedly Strong Jobs Report Caps A Better Week For Joe Biden
Quote – This week’s good breaks: the strong jobs report (which came with corrections making the past two jobs reports look far better than they did at the time), bipartisan backing for his strategy to counter Russia, a small step toward passage of a bipartisan economic package designed to counter China and a successful operation to assassinate a terrorist leader.
Click through for further discussion. This is very much tied in to the previous short take. Messaging is still the biggest problem.

Axios – HBCU presidents: Black history lessons are being “stifled”
Quote – What they’re saying: Some educators also want to reduce the focus on the usual high-profile figures. [Howard University president Wayne] Frederick told Axios that Black history lessons should include education about everyday Black heroes throughout the years — not just a handful of iconic Black figures. The lessons should include “men and women who’ve had the African American experience and who’ve done amazing things,” he said, pointing to the late Dr. LaSalle Leffall Jr. — the first Black president of the American Cancer Society.
Click through for a helping of truth. What president Frederick says has also occurred to me – and I may just feature some invisible Black people in fields I happen to know about. Anyone who is aware of invisible black people in fields I don’tknow much about is welcome to send me suggestions.

Food For Thought: