Nov 112022
 

Yesterday, we got some additional election results and we did not get others. Some of the results were good. Others not so much. And some of the undecided races are IMO nervewracking (Boebert’s district is still too close to call.) One thing that we do know is that the Georgia Senate race is headed to a runoff, which is the second-best news we could have from Georgia. We do know that Georgia Democrats are very good at getting turnout for runoffs – that is how Rev. Warnock got into the Senate in the first place. I’m sorry that it means more work (and more anxiety) for Georgia Democrats, but it is better than a simple loss, and it gives me hope. I did find a good news story (at least I think and hope so – one never knows what a fascist is going to spring on one), along with one which makes me want to scream. I do have a couple of new nicknames to share (for people I SO wish would just go away so the nicknames would not be needed) – “Pumpkin Spice Lardass” and “DeSanctimonious.” The latter is being credited to the former, but I seriously doubt whether he knows any five-syllable words.  Oh, and I got the Name Drop right again – but only because I’m not only so old, but because I was raised by my Mom who was born in 1906 and her Mom who was obviously even older (I called a refrigerator an “icebox” until I was in my 20’s.  I had some other paleologisms too.)

Cartoon (Pat B is in her local parade today) –

Short Takes –

Axios – Russia announces retreat from key Ukrainian city of Kherson
Quote – Kherson was the only provincial capital captured by Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February. Its liberation would represent a remarkable victory for Ukrainian forces. It marks another major setback for Moscow in the nine-month war, coming after Ukraine recaptured a major portion of Kharkiv Oblast and made significant gains in Kherson Oblast in earlier this fall Russian forces will also cede all of the territory captured on the western bank of the River Dnipro and will organize defensive lines on the opposite bank of the river.
Click through for article. I cannot guarantee that this is good news, but it certainly seems promising..

Crooks and Liars – Man Allegedly Shoots Neighbor Dead Because He Thought He Was A Democrat
Quote – An Ohio man died of multiple gunshot wounds, and according to the 911 call, the victim’s wife said that the armed neighbor murdered her husband because he thought he was a Democrat. The chilling 911 call reveals that Austin Combs had confronted Anthony Lee King, 43, over his perceived party affiliation on multiple occasions.
Click through for the (literally) gory details. I have heard many times people in AA saying, when someone started a sentence with “I thought…” “Did your sponsor tell you you could think?” Seems appropriate to me for MAGAts – except, who is going to tell them? Who would they listen to?

Food For Thought

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Nov 102022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump teases “big announcement” on 11/15. But a presidential bid will NOT shield him from indictment

The Lincoln Project – Donald Trump v. Marco Rubio

Meidas Touch on Twitter (I searched, but it’s not on YouTube)

Farron Balanced – Investigators Think Trump Also Stole Valuable Gifts From White House

Armageddon Update – Poll Suckers (It was 1948 and it was Truman, and in those days people with phones tended to be richer than those who didn’t)

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, NY, and the monitor….

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Nov 102022
 

Yesterday, of course, was the day after the election. But I started working on this post on election day, since there are many results we don’t have yet. Some of us may know the results in our own state, even if the count isn’t finished – because as soon as the difference between the candidates becomes greater than the number of uncounted ballots, you know, even without the final totals (and in fact I do know the results for State officies – all good – and the Senate – also good. But I only know six out of eight House seats – and those missing two seats will make the difference between a red and a blue delegation.* But no one knos all the results, which means none of us knows how the balance of power comes out in the House or the Senate. And that’s what we are all so tense about – what we really want to know. So I’m running the stories I previously selected. Both, I hope, are soothing.

*By the way, at the end of the work day, we did get the official word via CPR that, in Colorado’s newly formed 8th District, the Democrat won! Dr. Yadira Caraveo, a pediatrician and also a member of the stae’s General Assembly, accepted her opponent’s concession. That makes 5 blue districts, 2 red districts, and then Boebert’s district, which is still looking good for Adam Frisch, but still too close to call.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The 19th – Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too
Quote – The one-off problems are playing out in the wake of two years of upheaval: Some longtime election administration officials left their positions amid harassment and threats of violence following the 2020 election. Others, though, committed to staying and making sure people cast their ballots. Their numbers are augmented now by poll workers, who join the ranks temporarily in the weeks leading up to Election Day — and their optimism about their role in restoring faith in elections in their own communities.
Click through for full article. If you have never been what Colorado calls a “judge of election,” a non-professional polling place worker whose duties include being at the polling place on Election Day, recording the people who vote (i.e., make sure they are registered, have not received an absentee ballot, get to vote once only, etc.) you likely don’t realize that even experienced help need to get training before every election, and not just on new stuff, but on the law in general and the ethics of the job. If poll workers have confidence in the accuracy of eections – believe them. People like Shaye Moss and Lady Ruby (who testified in the 1/6 hearings), as well as those featured in this article, are the best we have.

Robert Reich – Regardless of what happens today, we are the future of America
Quote – Ask yourself: Why are the election deniers, the monied interests, and the bigots and the haters fighting so hard to defeat us? Why are they telling such blatant lies? Why are they so desperate to suppress our votes? Why are they so willing to violate the Constitution, the rule of law, and common decency in order to claw their way to victory? For one simple reason: They are afraid of us. They know deep in their hearts that we are the future of America. We who call ourselves progressives. We who are people of color. We who are young. We who are women. We who are new immigrants to these shores. We who are LGBTQ people. We who are Muslim and Jewish and people of every faith, or no faith. We who are poor. We who are average working people who need and deserve better jobs and higher wages. We who believe in democracy and cherish the Constitution and the rule of law.
Click through for full article (and video). It’s an expansion on “If your vote doesn’t matter, then why are they trying so hard to suppress it?” and as such, it lays out some of the readons. And all of those reasons are a credit to us. Take pride in the vote that you cast.

Food For Thought

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Nov 092022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Oath Keeper Elmer Stewart Rhodes testifies in his own defense at trial and goes full Trump

The Lincoln Project – The Red Mirage

CNN – I don’t like to use videos this long, but this is information (including emotional information) you likely wan’t get elsewhere, and Anderson IMO did a remarkable job of drawing it out. You may need a hanky.

MSNBC – Sean Patrick Maloney flattens Chuck Todd for blaming Biden: ‘The president gets a bum rap’  (Sadly, e lost re-election.)

Watch This Stray Cat Do A ‘Crab Dance’

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, special counsels, advice, and delays….

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Nov 092022
 

Yesterday, when I got to the computer (yes, later than usual) I had 105 emails in my inbox.  I deleted, as quickly as I could,, all that were not subscriptions … and had 20 left. That’s actually not too bad – usually I have around 80, plus or minus, and end up with just about 20, plus or minus. So the volume was not all that alarming. The content, however, was another matter. Heather Cox Richardson’s Monday night letter (which as always I read this morning – even when it comes befroe mifnight, it generally comes after I leave the computer for the day), for instance, the statement of a Trump** stooge that if there was not s definite result tonight, “it’s going to look very suspicious.” Well, yes it is, to the ignorant – whether or not their ignorance is voluntary. Besides the delays in every election, which are unavoidable and not at all suspicous, a judge in Cobb County, GA recently ordered that a substantial number of voters who had applied for and not eeceived absentee ballots (now that actually does look suspicious) must be provided with replacement ballots and given unto November 14th to get them in (which is only fair.) And, even more disturbingly, the leader of the Wagner Group (the privately owned military company), who is a Russian oligarch, publicly took credit for interefering in US elections on a grand scale, both in 2016 and continuing, and with no intention to stop. Regardless of the truth (or lack of it) of that statement, it has a good chance of inspiring violence in people already radicalized. Well, at this point, we have done all we can (unless you are one of those Cobb County Georgia voters who got stiffed), and all we can do is brace ourselves.

Cartoon – 09 Bonaparte RTL

Short Takes –

Democratic Underground – Biden Stops Mid-Speech
Quote – Amid a crowd of hundreds watching President Joe Biden speak at a North County campaign event for Rep. Mike Levin on Thursday, Jared Smith and his handwritten sign stood out. It read: “Thank you for having a stutter.” About 20 minutes into the speech, President Biden noticed it, but couldn’t read it.
Click through for full (short) story. The poster provides a source, but I thought this was so sweet – and so telling – just as it was that I went with the DU post.

The New Yorker – Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds
Quote – Even after the evidence “for their beliefs has been totally refuted, people fail to make appropriate revisions in those beliefs,” the researchers noted. In this case, the failure was “particularly impressive,” since two data points would never have been enough information to generalize from. The Stanford studies became famous. Coming from a group of academics in the nineteen-seventies, the contention that people can’t think straight was shocking.
Click through for article. Not exactly news, and kind of discouraging, but something we all need to come to terms with. Except – have you ever changed your mind on a political issue, or an issue of faith? Not necessarily religious faith, but just something you strongly believed was true? I have – I wouldn’t say many times, but definitely not just once, on a variety of issues. It has tended for me to be gradual, and to require thought and analysis, and in the end generally it comes down to the fact that the belief I am discarding as erroneous has come into conflict with something else I believe more strongly. Sometimes newly learned facts have been involved – but not always.

Food For Thought

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Nov 082022
 

Yesterday, I managed to get in a grocery order. I authorized one substitution, and was glad I had, because my preferred article was out of stock.  Two items were missing – both things I just wanted to try, not anything staple.  I also looked over all the news and opinion articles on the internet I found interesting, and decided both to try to ignore the election as it’s being run and counted (I have found that a recipe for anxiety) and also to do my best to make one of the short takes a feel-good story I don’t know whether I can keep that up past Wednesday, but I am going to try. If anyone would like a more broad overlook of the week, I recommend Joyce Vance, who has done a stunning job of putting it all together. (Heather Cox Richardson decided to post a soothing photo. I certainly respect both decisions.)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Reuters – ‘Kill them’: Arizona election workers face midterm threats
Quote – The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on specific ongoing investigations but said it has opened dozens of cases nationwide involving threats to election workers. Eight people face federal charges for threats, including two who targeted Maricopa County officials. DOJ spokesperson Joshua Stueve said that while the “overwhelming majority” of complaints the agency receives “do not include a threat of unlawful violence,” he said the messages are “often hostile, harassing, and abusive” towards election officials and their staff. “They deserve better,” Stueve said.
Click through for details. Reuters appears to have no problem with people who read it very occasionally. If you was to read it a bit more grequently, you can register for free access, I hav done so, but sldom need to use it, and did not need it for this.

PolitiZoom – Ha-Ha – The People Behind “2000 Mules” Are In Jail
Quote – Now here’s a story sure to warm the hearts of any Democratic voters (who turned out in 2020 in record numbers to ensure the Orangeutan would be denied a second term and another chance to wreck our Democracy, only to be falsely accused of stuffing ballot return boxes and other electoral malfeasance) and who want to see the record set straight and malefactors like Dinesh D’Souza and anyone else responsible for the slanders propagated against them by his BS schlockumentary 2000 Mules held to account:[.]
Click through for article. This is only for contempt of court, but it is very real, and there appears to be a Catch-22 of their own making. The evidence they have failed to torn over may not in fact exist. If so, in order to clear it up they would have to trade contempt for perjury. Not what I would call an attractive option.

Food For Thought

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Nov 072022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Oath Keeper Elmer Stewart Rhodes testifies that the election was “unconstitutional” and “invalid”

The Lincoln Project – Never

Meidas Touch – Furious White House Reporter tells us TRUMP IS to BLAME for MAGA GOP VIOLENCE

MSNBC – Mallory McMorrow: GOP Is Invoking Violence As A Political Strategy

Robert Reich – 3 Lies Republicans Are Using This Election

Beau – Let’s talk about a voting PSA….

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Nov 072022
 

Yesterday, I got to see Virgil, which is always positive. I had spent so much time getting a bit ahead here that I hadn’t read all the comments to see who said to say hello, so I assumed you all would have (I knew, for instance, Pat was with family, and I’m sure she would have [since she always does], along with everyone else who does), and just told him hello from y’all. We weren’t able to get the lone deck of cards this time, but for some reason the TV was on – to football – nnd we caught the end of the Bills vs Jets and the beginning of the Buccaneers vs Rams. We got a few laughs. At one point he noticed the clock on the Bills/Jets said 2 minutes to go, and I said, “That should be about a half hour,” which turned out to be not too far off. I do think I will start going an hour earlier and leaving an hour early. I was fine today – mostly – but my drivers license turns into a pumpkin at sunset, which is now getting earlier every day.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Warning – The hypocrisy of business and media elites
Quote – On Thursday, Axios reported a stunning act of political corruption. The corruption was a direct threat against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce made by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. His threat is blatant thuggery. It constitutes a grotesque abuse of power. Leader McCarthy demanded that Chamber president and CEO Suzanne Clark be fired. He promised retaliation if the Chamber of Commerce did not submit to his threat. The Washington, DC, access media ignored the threat, while the business leaders who comprise the Chamber executive board have assumed a posture of flaccid opposition and tepid defiance.
Click through for article. I guess you can indeed say the silence is deafening – I had no idea about this. I’m no fan of the Chamber – but this is ridiculous.

Gizmodo – Homeland Security Admits It Tried to Manufacture Fake Terrorists for Trump
Quote – The report describes attempts by top officials to link protesters to an imaginary terrorist plot in an apparent effort to boost Trump’s reelection odds, raising concerns now about the ability of a sitting president to co-opt billions of dollars’ worth of domestic intelligence assets for their own political gain. DHS analysts recounted orders to generate evidence of financial ties between protesters in custody; an effort that, had they not failed, would have seemingly served to legitimize President Trump’s false claims about “Antifa,” an “organization” that even his most loyal intelligence officers failed to drum up proof ever existed.
Click through for details. Ron Wyden, Oregon’s other Senator, released the report to the public.  I’m inclined to say I’m shocked but not suroprised – which has gotten to be a more or less chronic emotional state around here.

Food For Thought

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