Open Thread September 27, 2023

 Posted by at 6:02 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 272023
 

Yesterday was the day when my neighborhood actually had a day that was twelve hours zero minutes long. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about trolls, what they did in 2016, what they are doing now (and I’m not at all sure we have learned anything.) I’d like to point out that in 2020, we didn’t see them in the same way they did in 2016 and are doing now – there wasn’t so much emphasis on dividing Democrats on our candidate – I don’t recall eeing any, actually. They may have realized it was futile, bcause it was clear that Democrats were united. They may have realized the only thing trying for division then would have accomplished  would have been to show their hand. But now they have already been working for three years, and I deduce that they think they have a good shot at dividing us over Joe Biden’s age, as they did in 2016 over Hillary’s emails (but really over her gender.) But the fact that they are, and have been, doing this so early suggests that they want to see any andidate other than Biden – that he is the one they don’t think they can beat. We simply cannot allow it. In today’s short takes, you will learn something about their methods (in other words, what to look for) and something about what can be done. Both are old, but both are still valid – a refresher course in something this important can’t hurt. I do realize much of this is happening on social media, and most of us don’t use that. But people on Democratic Underground are starting to see some of it pop up there, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Daily Kos is having the same experience. And there are probably other sites where Democrats tend to congregate, and it’s easy to think you are reading a Democratic opinion when you aren’t.

Back then, there were a few memes bearing the message “There are only two choices on the ballot this year – democracy and fascism.” I was struck (and inspired) by what Colleen said in a comment the other day, and am going to work on possibly as many as four that say “There are only two choices on the ballot – democracy, and a living hell.” At least that avoids the use of “fascism” – a word which seems pretty clear to me, but about which enough people argue that is clearly isn’t as plain as I think it is. I’ll use some here as I make them, on days in October when I don’t have one already, and I strongly invite opinions as they unfold on which are better or worse and why.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Russia’s ‘troll factory’ impersonates Americans to sow political chaos. How can the U.S. fight it?
This has both an audio file and a full transcript prepared by a human being.

How You Can Fight Russia’s Plans to Troll Americans During Campaign 2020
This is a straight print article. It highlights the multiple ways to sow division, not just among Democrats, but among all Americans. We cannot afford to be distracted.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 9/14/2023

 Posted by at 12:01 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 142023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump and his criminal associates are flooding the courts with motions seeking to avoid prosecution

Future Forward USA Action – Trevor

Ring of Fire – Appeals Court Steps In To Save MAGA Congressman From Prosecutors

Brent Terhune – Trump’s Mug Shot

Disabled cat asks for one specific thing every day

Beau – Let’s talk about Biden starting early for 2024….

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Open Thread September 9, 2023

 Posted by at 6:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 092023
 

Yesterday, the sealed Special Grand Jury report from Georgia was released, and woo-hee! It’s not surprising that clickbait-headlining Meidas Touch calls it a bombshell, but when Glenn Kirschner also uses the word bombshell, that’s noteworthy. By the time you read this, it’s probably all ove the place, with names like “Lindsay Graham” and “Michael Flynn” being screamed. But I had to look around to find the fullest version with the least patwall and the most respect. I chose PBS, and here you are. I assume this news has completely overshadowed Nancy Pelosi’s announcemnt that she will run for another two-year term. However,t the Federal Judge denied Mark Meadows’s motion to remove his Georgia indictment to Federal Court was denied, and that mayhave seeped through.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – This Gloria Johnson Ad Should Make Sen. Blackburn Very Nervous
Quote – But Johnson is running on more than just gun reform. The ad continues with her saying that she had to sleep in the hallway as a child to avoid being shot because her father “brought the KKK to justice.” She goes on to note that politicians don’t like her much “because I speak my mind. And when it’s bullsh*t, I call it bullsh*t.”… Tennessee is so ruby red that it hasn’t elected a Democrat for statewide office in nearly 20 years. But I think this is the kind of message that just might do the job.
Click through for article. It’s mostly a video, much of which is quoted in the text, and in which keywords are shown in large type, so it’s not tough to follow. We surely could use her in the Senate – and, given what we’ve seen in the Tennessee State House this year, I’m not worried that she might not be replaced there by another Democrat.

Robert Reich: Election season has come. Here’s what you need to do to stop Trump from winning

Robert Reich: The Terrifying Road Ahead (same article, different link)
Quote – This particular week after Labor Day also marks the start of a terrifyingly high-stakes ride for America — five months until the beginning of the primaries, eight until Trump’s trial for seeking to overturn the 2020 election, 10 until the Republican convention in which Trump is almost certain to be nominated, 14 until the presidential election of 2024. All the while, Trump and House Republicans will be throwing up every conceivable distraction and roadblock — threatening to or actually closing the government, impeaching Joe Biden, and holding more hearings on “woke” capitalism, Hunter Biden, the alleged “weaponization” of the Justice Department and the FBI.
Click either one for full opinion. The second link is to Substack so you’ll need to click. The first is at The Guardian, kindly sent me by Evelyn B. IIRC the Guardian has a paywall but not on the first visit within whatever their timeframe is. So – your choice. (The Wall Street Journal poll he alludes to is the one I mentioned yesterday which Trump** helped pay for).

Food For Thought

 

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Open Thread September 8, 2023

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 082023
 

Yesterday, Peter Navarro was found guilty of contempt of Congress. Yay! Now we just need a decent sentence. Numerous other stuff happened in various court filings in multiple cases also. I won’t even try to list them all. If I find a comprehesive list, i’ll definitely pass it on.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Robert Hubbell – One more time with feeling: Ignore the polls!
Quote – [M]ajor media outlets and respected commentators treat the polls as if they are meaningful and predictive. They are neither. Instead, they are clickbait wrapped in statistics that misleads by confusing precision and truth. If someone tells you that the universe will end in 3,198,642,971.25 years, that is a “precise” prediction. Whether the prediction is “true” is a different question entirely. So, too, with the polling…. For those of you tired of reading my response to such polls, I apologize for the repetition. You may want to set aside this newsletter and start afresh with tomorrow’s newsletter. To those of you who need reassurance, read on! Because we will see many similar polls over the next fourteen months, I will use the WSJ poll as an example of how pollsters can distort the truth and why we should generally ignore the polls.
Click through for article. It appears that the stakes just keep getting higher and higher, which makes it very tempting to follow polls closely. But he makes good points. Also, it’s not really possible to think productively or do the things that need to be done, and that’s even if the polls are in good faith. I recently saw a story about a poll published by the Wall Street Journal hich came up with a low approval rate for Biden. What the publication did not include, and that the author of the article critiquing it did, was that the participants included two Republicans for every Democrat polled (and a sample size of only about 1,000.)   Remember this poll for tomorrow’s OT.  This is Substack so you’ll need to do a little clicking to read it all.

HuffPost – A 2024 Trump-Biden Rematch Isn’t Boring. It’s Something Entirely New.
Quote – The likely 2024 Biden-Trump contest should be viewed less as a rerun and more as the rare reboot that actually ups the stakes: Compared with each man’s first successful run for the presidency, both are taking positions that repudiate past governing commitments of the American state in ways that we probably haven’t seen before. In pursuit of a national hand in economic policymaking, Biden is rhetorically attacking the neoliberal paradigm that has dominated American domestic and foreign policy for the past 40 years. His Democratic predecessors Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did so too at times, but Biden is also enacting actual policies that turn the page on this era. Trump, on the other hand, is running to turn the presidency into something akin to a monarchy. He has deemphasized the old conservative “tax and spend” discourse in favor of an all-out attack on government depth. Yes, he still embraces cutting taxes for the rich and slashing government spending. But the policy that he and his allies are emphasizing most in pursuit of conservative aims is placing the administrative state and its 2 million-plus workers, including law enforcement and investigatory bodies, under his direct control by gutting civil service protections and the independence of agencies. If you can’t cut the size of government, you can at least make it bend to your wishes, or so the thinking goes.
Click through for (IMO well-founded) opinion. The thought that an election, or any other event, upon which one’s life depends, could possibly considered boring, simply boggles my mind. But here we are.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 9/3/2023

 Posted by at 12:07 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Sep 032023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Judge orders that Donald Trump’s Georgia state RICO trial will be televised

The Lincoln Project – Electile Dysfunction

The Ring of Fire – Trump’s Legal Team Gets Scolded Before Judge Rules Against Them

Parody Project – Not You, Ron-Ron – A Parody

Woman Finds Stray Mama Cat And Kittens Outside Her Office

Beau – Let’s talk about impeachment in Wisconsin….

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Open Thread August 30, 2023

 Posted by at 6:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 302023
 

Yesterday, John Eastman became the third conspirator demanding a speedy trial. There are two more days (today and tomorrow) in the window for October 23rd (they get 30 days but on account of Georgia’s definition of a speedy trial anyone demanding on September 1 or after might have to settle for December.) There was news that DA Willis wants a speedy trial for all, bit there is the little problem that there are 19 of them, and courtrooms are only so big. I recall reading womewhere that the most defendants who can be tried in one room is six. But I suppose that could all happen at the same time – Fulton County must have more than 3 judges and the DA’s staff must have more than 3 prosecutors. Also, there was a delightful story about Joe and Jill —

Cartoon – 30 0830Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Daily Beast – Here Are 11 Wild Things That Could Happen in the 2024 Election
Quote – These 11 examples are, of course, merely illustrative. We also know the Supreme Court is capable of making decisions that inflame electorates (see Dobbs) and that pollsters regularly misgauge the national mood resulting in seeming surprises (that really are just evidence that the pollsters got it wrong). And then there are the real unknown unknowns, the wild developments that even speculative columns like this one are unwilling to address. Take for example the recent revelations about aliens. After all, if they are true and they have seen the mess we are making of things here on this Earth, surely they must have considered and could be planning to act on the notion that we are long overdue for a planetary makeover.
Click through for complete list. Obviously sone are more likely than others, and some are imaginable only with extreme mental effort. But it’s a good reminder of how much less we know than we think we do.

Wonkette – Mark Meadows Had The Right To Remain Silent. But Now He Doesn’t.
Quote – [U]nder Georgia law, Meadows seems to have waived the right to plead the Fifth about anything discussed on the witness stand. Here’s a quote from the relevant case: :A defendant in a criminal case who voluntarily testifies in his own behalf, waives completely his privilege under the Fifth Amendment. [Cit.] Furthermore, when a defendant voluntarily takes the stand in his own behalf and testifies as to his guilt or innocence as to a particular offense, `his waiver is not partial; having once cast aside the cloak of immunity, he may not resume it at will, whenever cross-examination may be inconvenient or embarrassing”
Click through for more detail, such as even if the case is moved to a Federal Court, it will be tried under Georgia law and with Georgia prosecutors. The only differences will be the judge and the jury pool. And whatever small advantage he might have gotten from the jury pool, he may have just incinerated.

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 8/22/2023

 Posted by at 12:09 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Aug 222023
 

Glenn Kirschner – Donald Trump posts that he’s fighting “7” cases? Are more state indictments on the way?

Thom Hartmann – Trump’s Most Dangerous Crimes You Don’t Know About…!

Joe Biden – Fought Back

Farron Balanced – Trump Lawyer Yells At Fox Host For Not Loving Trump Enough

Tiny Dogs Who Were Chained Up Insist On Getting Adopted Together

Beau – Let’s talk about government shutdowns, continuing resolutions, and more….

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Open Thread July 20, 2023

 Posted by at 5:50 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jul 202023
 

Yesterday, it was a bit cooler, and we had a bit of rain (and thunder). I started looking at cartoons for August. I won’t need to make many. In the month of August 2015, TC had a fine time mocking Republicans, and all of those are still on target (and of course there’s a lot of history too.) I only need to make two, although I will be using a couple I have already made for more recent events.

Cartoon – 20 0720Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Kennedy Clan Comes Out Against RFK Jr.’s Latest Outrage
Quote – In 2022, Kennedy Jr. implied that public health responses to the pandemic were more extreme than life in Nazi Germany, saying, “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.” His celebrity wife, actress Cheryl Hines, subsequently wrote on Twitter that “My husband’s opinions are not a reflection of my own. While we love each other, we differ on many current issues.” Three members of the Kennedy family also published an open letter in 2019 critiquing his views on vaccines.
Click through for details. I had mentioned that his sister (Kerry) had spoken against him publicly. But this puts him in the club (and not for the first time) with Paul Gosar and Stephen Miller (and if one more sibling speaks, Tommy Tuberville.)

The 19th – Nikki Haley’s attacks on Kamala Harris keep coming
Quote – “Anyone is better than President Kamala Harris. Anyone,” Haley said during an appearance on Fox News earlier this month. When asked if she meant to say President Biden, Haley responded: “Well, I think it’s President Harris.” Haley isn’t the only presidential candidate who launched attacks on Harris, the first woman and first Black and Asian-American person to be vice president. But she’s the most consistent, delivering a message that Biden could leave the country in the hands of Harris, who is seen as more progressive and has low favorability ratings, particularly among White and older voters. The attacks also play to voter biases against women candidates, who remain susceptible to gender stereotypes that deem them as less qualified for leadership roles.
Click through for full article. Frankly, Misogyny terrifies me. And the misogyny on the left terrifies me more than the misogyny on the right, which is out there for all to see. That on the left is covert. And what one can’t see, one can’t fight – or at least, one can’t win against. I honestly believe the first womanPresident will be a Republican (though I doubt it will be Haley.) Any woman who could win theRepublican primaries could very likely win the general. And I have to hope that I don’t live to see it.

Food For Thought

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