Open Thread July 27, 2023

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 272023
 

Yesterday, I won’t say I overslept, becuse that implies I was planning to get up at a certain time, and I wasn’t. But I did sleep for a long time. I’m sure I needed it. But I did wake up in time to get ready for, and take in, a grocery order (which was rather a disappointment. But I did get everything I was actually out of, so at least I have time on my side.) Incidentally, I was also very late getting the Video Thread up – I had scheduled it for a day late and had to correct that, and I was late in discovering it. Sorry about that.

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Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – Inside the DeSantis Doc That Showtime Didn’t Want You to See
Quote – The Daily Beast has obtained a transcript of that unaired documentary, “The Guantanamo Candidate,” which was anchored by Seb Walker, a longtime correspondent for the Emmy-winning newsmagazine. Among a number of insights into DeSantis’ past, the transcript features interviews with former prisoners and a former Naval staff sergeant-turned-Gitmo whistleblower who overlapped with DeSantis. All three allege inhumane treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, with the detainees directly implicating DeSantis—at the time, a junior-level military legal adviser—in approving and overseeing brutal measures…. Showtime’s decision to muzzle a report critical of a high-profile conservative politician also epitomizes the complaints that conservative politicians—including DeSantis—have habitually brayed in their crusade against so-called liberal “cancel culture.”
Click through for story. I can’t say I’m surprised that DeSaster didn’t want this to come out. Showtime – well, their defense woulf likely be the truth of the shade, but I can just see wanting to avoid an expensive lawsuit (especially since Republican candidates at all levels seem to be mostly deadbeats.) Of course VICE is not happy … but VICE is also apparently bankrupt.

Democratic Underground (quoted in full from Facebook, with permission) – Dear Jason Aldean – Father Nathan Monk
Quote – When I moved back to Tennessee a couple of years ago, I decided to stop by the corner store near my house to introduce myself to the neighbors. The lady working there was very friendly, and a guy was sitting in a rocking chair, going back and forth. It was country as hell, and I loved it. She starts to whisper in the way that Southern folks do when they are about to spill the sweet tea. She looks back and forth and then says, “Now, there is someone who lives on your street I wanna talk to you about. Now, sometimes, they dress as a man, but other times they dress as a woman…” I start to get nervous about what she will say next, but I bite my tongue and wait. “…well, you just better be okay with that. Because they are a nice fella and a sweet lady.”
Click through for full article, which is heartwarming. I’m not sure it’s even necessary to know what Nathan is responding to, but Jason Aldean (I don’t know for sure, but that’s probably him in the green T-shirt in the FFT) released a country song “Don’t Try That in a Small Town” (his “small town” is purely a majority white small town in the 1930’s or so) and it’s getting a lot of blowback. This is just one – but I think an outstanding one.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread July 26, 2023

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 262023
 

Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letter from an American” for the previous night turned out to be a bit unsettling. Netanyahu has managed to push a measure through the Knesset limiting the power of the courts (to check excesses by the executive. It look like “Fascist Jewish State” is no longer an oxymoron. The letter also highlights, I’m sure without intending to, the superiority of the Political Compass, with its four directions, over the left-right distinction to describe political positions. Heather has to say “hard right” when what she really means is “authoritation right,” which I realize is longer, but has an exact definition, which “hard right” does not, and is therefore more clear. Also, as if that wasn’t enough, she touches on Abbott’s war crimes, Gym Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee, and Russia both bombing Odessa and raising the upper limit draft age. Here’s the link in case anyone wants a deeper dive (and hopefully isn’t too depressed already.)

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Common Dreams – Heatwave Chevron? As US Bakes, Former Meteorologist Names Heatwaves After Oil Companies
Quote – “I’m naming heatwaves to highlight this worsening climate problem and perhaps save lives by getting the public to focus on this weather threat,” [Guy Walton] wrote in an April blog post. “This year I’m naming major heatwaves after oil companies to shame them in the process and to identify culprits that are exacerbating these deadly systems.” Heatwaves are the deadliest type of extreme weather event in the U.S., according to The Weather Channel, killing more people on average each year than tornadoes or hurricanes put together. Yet they do not receive names like hurricanes or wildfires, and some experts have argued that changing this might help people take them more seriously and save lives.
Click through for story and evidence. The concept is not original to him – Seville in Spain has been doing it – but IMO it’s a good idea whose time has come.

The Inquirer – Why are Texas and Florida building their own large, sadistic armies?
Quote – This crucible of blood and bone is playing out against the cold slashing metal of barbed wire strung out along the Rio Grande River that divides the United States from Mexico in west Texas. The actors are a new breed of troops, accountable not to Washington but to an ambitious Republican governor in Austin, enforcing his Fox News bromides with brutal force.,,, In a story first broken by the Houston Chronicle’s Benjamin Wermund, based on a whistleblowing email from a state trooper complaining of inhumane conditions at Eagle Pass, and then amplified by the Times’ reporting, we’ve learned the past week that troops under the massive Texas state border operation dubbed Operation Lone Star are committing shocking acts that arguably add up to domestic war crimes.
Click through for details. The obvious answer to the question in the headline would appear to be that two governors (two for now, anyway) want to be absolute monarchs in their states and are forming armies to enforce that. But we can’t rule out the possibility that, unchecked, we could be looking at potential insurrection. And a possible shooting Civil War – again.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread July 25, 2023

 Posted by at 5:54 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 252023
 

Today, had she lived , would have been my mother’s 117th birthday (though that would have been extremely unlikely. ) She was a survivor of childhood abuse, widowhood with a newborn child,  and a melanoma on her nose.  She was not a woman who talked a lot, but one could generally take anything she said to the bank.  When I was in high school and college it was never hard for me to get friends to come over, but sometimes it was hard to tell whether it was her or me for whom they were coming.  At her funeral my last surviving sunt (who had always been known to be the most easily offended person in the family) said, that my Mom had been “the most loving person she had ever known.”  And, both prior to that and to this day, Virgil has raised many eyebrows by saying that he never really knew what love was until he met his wife’s mother.  Of course I miss her.  But I would probably miss her more had she not put so much time and effort into preparing me to be strong and independent.  Happy Birthday, Mom.

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Democratic Underground (Zorro) – They Checked Out Pride Books in Protest. It Backfired.
Quote – Adrianne Peterson, the manager of the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, was actually a little embarrassed by the modest size of her Pride Month display in June. Between staff vacations and organizing workshops for graduating high school students, it had fallen through the cracks and fell short of what she had hoped to offer. Yet the kiosk across from the checkout counter, marked by a Progress Pride rainbow flag, was enough to thrust the suburban library onto the front lines of the nation’s culture wars. Ms. Peterson, who has run the library branch since 2012 and highlighted books for Pride Month for the better part of a decade, was taken aback when she read an email last month from two neighborhood residents. They informed her that they had gotten nearly all of the books in the Pride display checked out and would not return them unless the library permanently removed what they considered “inappropriate content.”
Click through for what happened next.This take is so that Colleen can get bragging rights for her city. The original article was in the NY Times, but I don’t have a gift link, and besides, the comments are pretty good.

Good News Network – Stunned Researchers Discover that Metals Can Heal Themselves ‘Without Human Intervention’
Quote – Scientists for the first time have witnessed pieces of metal crack, then fuse back together without any human intervention, overturning fundamental scientific theories in the process. If the newly discovered phenomenon can be harnessed, it could usher in an engineering revolution—one in which self-healing engines, bridges, and airplanes could reverse damage caused by wear and tear, making them safer and longer-lasting. The research team from Sandia National Laboratories and Texas A&M University described their findings today in the journal Nature.
Click through. I found this through CPR. I don’t often do an all good news day, and I didn’t plan this one, but I figured, since it is Mom’s birthday, I’d let it go.

Food For Thought

I made this.  Marthe48 says “Please feel free to share.”

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Open Thread July 23, 2023

 Posted by at 5:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 232023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Wozzeck,” by Alban Berg. Its plot is so bleak that it makes the operas in the verismo school look like RomComs. Wozzeck is in the army, and a Captain and an army doctor are conducting psychological experiments on him without informed consent (for small sums of money), and laughing at him behind his back. He gets no respect from any other men either, and his partner, Marie (with whom he has a son almost old enough to start talking), is flirting (and eventually cheating) with a drum major who offers Marie earrings that Wozzeck could never afford. By the end of the opera the Captain and doctor have him so messed up that he brutally kills Marie, and then himself, and the opera ends with their son rocking back and forth on a rocking horse while the other children taunt him for being an orphan. No, it isn’t pretty – but if art were restricted to pretty, no one would ever learn anything from it. (In fact, it’s quite a stroke of Karma that this is being aired now, at a time when multiple strikes are going on. It definitely calls attention to the strikers’ plights.) The music is also not pretty – Berg, with Schönberg and Webern, comprised the second Viennese school, which developed and worked in the twelve-tone method of composition (in which there’s no such thing as a key – no major, no minor, no nothing – just notes and chords made up artificially.  There is a system to it, nd it’s actually not hard to learn how to compose in it,but for the listener, it’s not that easy to make sense of it.). But it certainly makes a statement, and though the Captain and he doctor aren’t entrepreneurs, I’d still say that statement could well be about capitalism as well as the obvious class structure. The performance was recorded live at the Royal Opera House in London by the Royal Opera Company. I didn’t recognize any of the performers’ names, but I’ve gone through periods before when there were a lot of names around I didn’t recognize and few that I did. I think it means there’s a generation of singers heading for retirement and another just coming up and not yet widely known. Between that and the openness to new operas and the Met audience getting younger (average age ten years ago was in the sixties but is now in the fifties), I think the future of opera will turn out to be exciting.  Also, today is Virgil’s birthday.  He is 80.  I’ll celebrate wih him next week which is between his birthday and mine.

Cartoon – 23 0723Cartoon.jpg

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Wonkette – Feds ‘Assess’ Alleged Texas Orders To Push Children, Nursing Babies Back Into Rio Grande. Assess Faster, Guys.
Quote – Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said in a press call with other Texas Democrats that Gov. Greg Abbott “placed death traps in the Rio Grande and has now issued barbaric orders to state troopers that endanger people’s lives.” The Dallas Morning News notes that podcaster and occasional Republican Senator Ted Cruz has not returned calls for comment, while fellow Republican Sen. John Cornyn explained last week, before the allegations surfaced, that Abbott had no choice but to treat the border like a war zone because Joe Biden Open Borders Irresponsible. The story broke after a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) trooper who was working as a medic reported his concerns to supervisors about a number of things he witnessed, including a June 25 incident in which he and other troopers came across a group of 120 migrants, including children and women with nursing babies.
Click through for story (and it looks like the popup with “Continue reading” is in place.) Speaking of bleak – I don’t know which scares me most – that a governor would issue these orders, that the state troopers have leadership that would enforce them, or that the state troopers have minions who would follow and obey them. Naziism much?

The 19th – In some states, gender dysphoria is a protected disability — and momentum could be growing
Quote – The Supreme Court’s denial to take up Williams’ case could mean that it agrees with the 4th Circuit, or simply that it is not interested in taking up the issue of whether trans people are covered under disability law right now, according to legal experts. Notably, there has not been a split in opinion on this issue among two or more circuit courts, which is a typical incentive for the Supreme Court to get involved. In the last few years, the high court has declined to take up challenges to several cases that reinforced protections for transgender people facing discrimination. This trend followed the 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the Supreme Court found gender identity to be a protected class of sex. This is possibly because they are abiding by Bostock’s findings that trans people are protected by existing federal laws, said Ezra Ishmael Young, a civil rights lawyer and scholar.
Click through for details. There is always a gap between legislated law and case law, though it’s not always this obvious – nor does it always affect people so deeply as it does here. And this is why the Supreme Court’s makeup is so critical to a free society.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread July 22, 2023

 Posted by at 5:56 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 222023
 

Yesterday, I found a video (and partial transcript) of Jamie Raskin explaining exactly how Hunter Biden received no special treatment from the DOJ. I know everyone here knws this, but in case tou ever need to explain it to anyone else, I’m sharing the link. (Besides, Jamie Raskin is easy to listen to.) Speaking of easy listening, I probably don’t even need to say that Tony Bennett died at 96. Virtually no one missed that story. He was much and very widely loved.

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National Public Radio – ‘Active club’ hate groups are growing in the U.S. — and making themselves seen
Quote – These men, dressed in tactical gear and masks, were members of so-called “active clubs” — a term that may be relatively new to American audiences. They are a strand of the white nationalist movement that has grown quickly during the last three years and that has recently taken their message of hate into more public view. These decentralized cells emphasize mixed martial arts training to ready their members for violence against their perceived enemies…. “These clubs are decentralized and they’re forming on their own,” said Morgan Moon, an investigative researcher at the Anti-Defamation League, which estimates that there are active clubs now in at least 30 states. “We’re starting to see [the active club model] pop up in Europe as well as Canada now.”
Click through (and note they have filed this under “national security.”) To everyone who is counting on “the next generation” or “the younger generain” or “future generations” to end bigotry and misogyny, fuggedaboudit. Bigotry – or the lack thereof – can be taught, but it can’t be programmed. We are all born with a tendency toward, or against, bigotry – and that tendency may or may not match outr parents’ tendencies. If it doesn’t, sooner or later, each of us will find either his or her inner bigot or his or her inner lover of diversity.There are plenty of people like Stephen Miller, and Paul Gosar, and RFK Junior. And these renamed hate clubs are finding them young.

Letters from an American – July 19, 2023
Quote – In the 1980s, government officials threw out that understanding and replaced it with a new line of thinking advanced by former solicitor general of the United States Robert Bork. He claimed that the traditional understanding of antitrust legislation was economically inefficient because it restricted the ways businesses could operate. Instead, he said, consolidation of industries was fine so long as it promoted economic efficiencies that, at least in the short term, cut costs for consumers. While antitrust legislation remained on the books, the understanding of what it meant changed dramatically.
Click through (as always, click continue on the popup). Look at that Bork quote again. You might as well say thzt legislation against murder, rape, theft, and the like is inefficient because it restricts the way individuals can operate.

Food For Thought

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Open Thread July 21, 2023

 Posted by at 6:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 212023
 

Yesterday, it was still cooler, cooler than the day before, and is expected to be even cooler today. But then it goes back up. The highest high predicted in the next nine days, however, is only 94°F. I’m actually good with that. My fans can handle that just fine.

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HuffPost – Why A Victim Of Police Brutality Chose Restorative Justice For The Cop
Quote – Teri Jacobs, a photojournalist, was working at a protest that went awry in Portland on Aug. 18, 2020. When police ordered that the crowd disperse, Jacobs, who identified herself as a member of the press, said she was trying to help a friend when an officer named Corey Budworth began to hit her repeatedly with a baton on the head, neck and back. Jacobs said she went to the hospital the next day with bruises on her face and bumps on her head…. Two years later, Jacobs and Budworth came to a new agreement: They would each participate in a restorative justice program managed by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
Click through for story. Not only is it about restorative justice, but it’s from Portland, OR. How could I not share it here?  TomCat would have been sso proud.

Wonkette – Donald Trump Hoarding Jewish Artifacts At Mar-a-Lago, And We Don’t Mean The Club’s Members
Quote – It’s time for a new episode of our favorite show, “Hoarders: Mar-a-Lago.” What items might our former president Donald “Sticky Fingers” Trump be keeping somewhere deep in the towers of classified documents and old Steak ‘Um packages that line the musty halls in which he will one day die alone, in his bathrobe, muttering “Rosebud” and clenching satellite photos of an Iranian nuclear weapons plant to his chest just before a nurse rushes in for an unenthusiastic round of CPR capped off with a celebratory martini? If you guessed “ancient Israeli antiquities,” well, congrats. According to news reports, Trump has been keeping these antiquities at his home like some sort of 19th Century British lord, and Israel has not been able to get them back.
Click through for details. This is the first Wonkette story I have used since they migrated to Substack, so you may need to click something to continue reading – or you may not. Substack allowed Wonkette to keep its domain address so all bets are off. Becca had the same reaction I did – that this is a really Nazi thing for him to do (see FFT).

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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.

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Open Thread July 19, 2023

 Posted by at 5:44 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 192023
 

Yesterday, TFG announced that he has received a target letter from Jack Smith regarding the January 6 insurrection. Let’s see, how long was it in the documents case between the target letter and the indictment dropping? Does anyone recall? Also yesterday, Michigan dropped indictments on 16 fake Trump** electors. Lots of people entering the “find out” phase.

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The Daily Beast – Closing Guantanamo Bay Prison Won’t Erase the Crimes Committed Against Muslims
Quote – Guantanamo was not created as a place for justice—especially not for the Muslim men detained behind its bars. Just as soon as these men were captured, they were labeled as suspected terrorists—thus precluding any ability for them to be seen as innocent until proven guilty. From the long years spent behind bars awaiting charges and convictions that never came, to torture, and even murder, the U.S. government has, at every conceivable step of the way, sought to entrench the perception of their inherent guilt. This perception has been shaped by the deployment of strategic narratives that have been carefully constructed and maintained to paint the men as irredeemable terrorists.
Click through for article. The headlne is true. But it still needs to be closed. Just not forgotten. And, yes, there needs to be justice.

Letters from an American – July 17, 2023
Quote – “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell T. Vought, who ran Trump’s Office of Management and Budget and who now advises the right-wing House Freedom Caucus. They envision a “president” who cannot be checked by the Congress or the courts. Trump’s desire to grab the mechanics of our government and become a dictator is not new; both scholars and journalists have called it out since the early years of his administration. What is new here is the willingness of so-called establishment Republicans to support this authoritarian power grab. Behind this initiative is “Project 2025,” a coalition of more than 65 right-wing organizations putting in place personnel and policies to recommend not just to Trump, but to any Republican who may win in 2024. Project 2025 is led by the Heritage Foundation, once considered a conservative think tank, that helped to lead the Reagan revolution.
Click through for details. I have read about all of this – stuff – piecemeal. This is the first time I have seen it all in one place, discussed by a person who is both competent and unafraid to put it all together and call it out – as well as the people behind it.

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